Suchergebnisse

Nadir Devlet, Islamic revival in the Volga-Ural region.
In 922, Islam had acquired the status of the official creed of the region that at the time was known as the Turkic Bulgar State. In 1552, after the decline of the Kazan khanate, the Russians, who were now ruling this land, persecuted the Islamic religion. The oppression lasted till the advent of Catherine II (1762-1796) who inaugurated a more liberal policy towards her Muslim subject. In particular, it is under her reign that in 1789, the Pan-Russian Muslim Religious Administration was organized. The Soviet government, after its institution, embarked on an anti-religious campaign in defiance of all its former promises. This policy was somewhat revised with regard to all the creeds of the USSR, after the outbreak of the Second World War as the authorities deemed it necessary to thus boost the morale of the population. However, after the war, attacks on religion started again. This lasted until the perestroïka and glasnosť when some freedom was again awarded to Muslims, enabling them to create new mosques, to reopen old ones and to practise and propagate freely their religious beliefs. Thus, we can speak of a measure of Islamic revival in this region.

La politisation des clivages régionaux et la mobilisation politique des intérêts régionaux dans la Fédération russe sont limitées par les pouvoirs excessifs de l'exécutif, la centralisation des compétences et l'absence de partis régionaux. La décentralisation et les réformes de libéralisation économique ont approfondi les disparités socio-économiques entre régions « russes » et ethniques de la fédération de Russie. Il existe en Russie quatre zones socio-économiques, qui correspondent plus ou moins aux préférences politiques dominantes : (1) les grandes villes avec agglomérations industrielles, aptes au changement ; (2) les villes de taille moyenne, qui sont mono-industrielles et plus sensibles aux crises ; (3) les petites villes et les zones rurales dans le Sud de la Russie, le Nord-Caucase, et les zones périphériques du Nord, qui pratiquent essentiellement une économie de subsistance ; (4) et les républiques ethniques du Sud dans lesquels on trouve de hauts niveaux de violence. Les formes de conflit dans le Nord-Caucase ont changé au fil du temps – du sécessionnisme ethno-nationaliste au djihad régional. Depuis 2011, on peut également voir un déplacement de la contestation sociale depuis le centre vers les régions. Ces manifestations concernent principalement les coûts croissants des services publics et des biens fondamentaux. L'accroissement des disparités socio-économiques pourrait réveiller les mouvements régionaux, en particulier dans un contexte de baisse des taux de croissance et de l'épuisement prévisible du modèle économique d'exploitation de gaz et du pétrole fondé sur une forte rentabilité.

Vladislav Ržeucku, The French in the Volga region: the Russian policy on migration during the 1760s and the establishment of French-speaking communities in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. The question of recruiting French settlers for Russia has not ever received the same attention as the influxes of French immigrants who populated the foreign communities of Saint Petersburg and Moscow. However, these French immigrants are often the same as those who came with the stream of German-speaking settlers destined for agricultural labor in the Volga region and who decided to establish themselves in the two capital cities, either upon their arrival, or by slipping away before reaching the Volga region, or after having known the difficulties of life in the settlements. They are largely responsible for the rapid growth of the French colony in Moscow during the years 1760-1770. A comparison of several lists of settlers, most of which have not been studied until recently, shows that this end result of the colonization campaign was in keeping with what usually happened in the case of French settlers. Given their cultural level, they frequently had already lost the habit of agricultural work at the time of their departure for Russia and most of them had been migrants for a great part of their lives. All these factors predetermined the most important collective migration of French settlers from the Volga region to the capitals, around the year 177S.

Dust storms are widespread in the Middle East and their gen eral distribution is known from climatic data from ground mete orological stations. However, the Total Ozone Mapping Spec trometer (TOMS) enables a more perfect picture to be gained for those many areas where meteorological data are sparse. TOMS analysis permits the seasonal pattern of dust storm activ ity, the spatial pattern of dust storm activity and the passage of major dust events to be plotted. The summer months are the time of greatest dust storm activity, and the borderland between Oman and Saudi Arabia seems to have the greatest level of dust activity in the area. From time to time major dust-producing sys tems cross from the northern Sahara and from the Red Sea region into Arabia. For reasons that are not clear, the Kuwait-southern Iraq area does not appear to be such a significant dust source region as the meteorological data would suggest.

« El papel cambiante de la inmigración laboral asiática en el Medio Oriente »
Michael HUMPHREY
Este articulo explora la economía política de la inmigración laboral y el desarrollo del estado en las sociedades del Medio Oriente. Sostiene que la mano de obra extranjera ha emergido como una característica permanente de la fuerza laboral de muchas sociedades del Medio Oriente. El artículo explora el papel cambiante y el origen de la mano de obra extranjera en dos países que importan mano de obra, Kuwait y Jordannia. Examina el significado político de la mano de obra extranjera en relación con el desempeño de las funciones políticas de estos estados autoritarios regidos por familias. En este contexto, examina el reemplazo de la mano de obra árabe por mano de obra asiática. Dado que la última es más barata, más dócil politícamente y más propicia a ser reexportada que la mano de obra de los immigrantes árabes, se ha convertido en un elemento cada vez más importante dentro de esas fuerzas laborales. Aún durante el periodo de descenso de las ganancias petrolíferas, entre mediados de 1980 y 1990, la mano de obra asiática continuo siendo recrutada.
Este artículo argumenta que la estrategia de desarrollo dependiente basado en la importación de grandes sumas de capital, mano de obra y tecnología, ha enfatizado las identidades nacionales específicas sobre las pan-árabes regionales. Políticamente esto ha sido alcanzado a través de una dependencia política y económica mayor en la mano de obra internacional y poderosas alianzas políticas fuera de la región. El éxodo de los refugiados asiáticos de Irak y Kuwait durante la crisis del Golfo revela agudamente como la fuerza laboral árabe ha sido reemplazada por asiática en la última decada.

Résumé.La régionalisation de l'action publique est l'une des évolutions les plus marquantes des États européens depuis les années 1970. Cette évolution présente une opportunité pour examiner, dans le contexte européen, les théories de la compétition interrégionale. C'est ce que cet article se propose de faire à partir de la comparaison de deux cas les plus différents : les politiques d'éducation en France, un État anciennement centralisé où les régions disposent de compétences relativement étroites, et en Allemagne, un État fédéral où les régions possèdent des compétences étendues. L'article montre que ni une course vers le bas, ni une course vers le haut ne s'enclenchent. C'est au contraire une course vers le milieu qui caractérise les relations compétitives entre les régions françaises et allemandes, respectivement, où les gouvernements régionaux tentent de montrer qu'ils font comme les autres afin d'éviter le blâme des électeurs et de l'État central.Abstract.The regionalization of public policy is one of the most remarkable transformations European states have undergone since the 1970s. Through an examination of this particular development, the article explores theories of interregional competition in two very different cases: education policy in France, a decentralized unitary state where regional governments are entrusted with limited policy competences in this field, and Germany, a federal state where regions have exclusive responsibility over secondary education. The paper shows that, in both cases, interregional competition lends itself neither to a race to the bottom nor a race to the top, but rather to a race to the middle. Regional governments aim, in fact, to demonstrate that they adopt similar policies to other regions so as to avoid being blamed by both the electorate and the central state.

Looking beyond the basic interests of power, Russia's present position in the Middle East can be explained by a rejection of Islamism and Westernism. As radicalism directly threatens the Federation, Moscow has been persuaded to reach out to regimes that fight against it. As a manifestation of the ethnocentrism of democracies which attempt to ensure their domination, Occidentalism pushes Russia to oppose interventionism in the region of Western powers, all the while affirming a civilizational mission. Adapted from the source document.

Looking beyond the basic interests of power, Russia's present position in the Middle East can be explained by a rejection of Islamism and Westernism. As radicalism directly threatens the Federation, Moscow has been persuaded to reach out to regimes that fight against it. As a manifestation of the ethnocentrism of democracies which attempt to ensure their domination, Occidentalism pushes Russia to oppose interventionism in the region of Western powers, all the while affirming a civilizational mission. (Politique étrangère (Paris) / SWP)

Its relationship with the Middle East is a central element of Russia's energy calculations. The power held by OPEC in determining oil pricing has pushed Moscow to strengthen its ties with countries dominant within the cartel - Saudi Arabia, for example. The uncertainty of the regional situation (development of the Arab Spring, crisis in Syria, problems in Iran, etc.) could still disrupt Russia's strategy and its position in the Middle East. (Politique étrangère (Paris) / SWP)

Maria Ferretti,
Stalinism between history and memory : the malaise of Russian memory.
The article studies the memory of Stalinism in Russia, from the age of perestroika to our own time. It distinguishes between dif ferent stages of Russia's conflict with her past, the obstacles that have hampered it, the temptation to repress it and the refusal to assume traumatic past. The article shows how, during the Yeltsin years, there was an attempt purely and simply to efface the Soviet past - as if it were a bad parenthesis - and to construct an idealized image of Tsarist Russia. But the disillusionment provoked by the brutal introduction of capitalism and the failed promises of neo-liberalism have caused a massively impoverished population to take refuge in nationalism

This article examines the nexus between Russian territorial interests and energy policy in the Arctic, as well as Western interpretations of Russian behaviour in these areas. The first part of the article deals with Russia's general Arctic policy and attempts to debunk some geopolitical myths, while the second part zooms in on the energy resources in the Russian Arctic and the prospects for the participation of international oil companies in the extraction of those resources. The article argues that Western accounts of Russian interest in the Arctic are often distorted. In fact, the approach taken by Russia is not unlike that of the Western Arctic littoral states. Adapted from the source document.