Seminar May 12: From role change to policy change: EU member states and change in EU foreign policy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

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Seminar May 12: From role change to policy change: EU member states and change in EU foreign policy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

🎤Tyyne Karjalainen, Research Fellow in the European Union research programme at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs – FIIA (FIIA)
📅May 12, 15:15-17:00
🏢Zoom: https://lnkd.in/ejcufBbr

Abstract: Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine has led to a fundamental rethinking of EU foreign policy, including enlargement, security and defence and energy policy. This lecture builds on a recent article published in the Journal of European Integration and analyses the EU policy shift as an outcome of the member states’ co‑constitutive role changes: abandoning opposition to enlargement, renouncing the energy partnership with Russia, and the military turn. It shows that these changes remain contested and highly context-specific, limiting outcomes of the EU policy shift. While the EU is increasingly expected to implement its new defence agenda, the member states’ objectives remain fragmented. In enlargement policy, the member states’ role changes are not sufficient for enlargement to materialise.

Tyyne Karjalainen is a Research Fellow in the European Union research programme at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) since 2020, and a doctoral researcher in political science at the University of Turku since 2021. Her research focuses on European security, Ukraine, the EU’s foreign and security policies, and EU enlargement. She has also published on peacebuilding, crisis management, and peace mediation. Her work has appeared in several peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of European Integration, European Journal of International Security, The International Spectator, and Contemporary Social Science.

RUCARR Distinguished Speaker Series, May 5: Madina Tlostanova: “Caucasian deep coalitions? A case for the future relational critical political imaginary”

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Caucasian deep coalitions? A case for the future relational critical political imaginary

Bio Madina Tlostanova

Madina Tlostanova professor of gender studies at Linköping University, is a decolonial feminist thinker and fiction writer. Her research interests include epistemic and aesthetic aspects of decoloniality; the postsocialist human condition, fiction, and art; critical future inquiries and critical interventions into complexity, crisis, and change. Tlostanova`s most recent books include A new Political Imagination, Making the Case (co-authored with Tony Fry, Routledge, 2020), Decoloniality of Knowledge, Being and Sensing (Centre of Contemporary Culture Tselinny, Kazakhstan, 2020, Kazakhian translation – 2023), and Narratives of Unsettlement. Being Out-of-joint as a Generative Human Condition (Routledge, 2023). Currently she is working on a monograph Not by Leviathan Alone. An exercise in Post-nation-state Worlding. 

Time: 5 May, 17:30-19:00
Place: Niagara (Nordenskiöldsgatan 1, 211 19 Malmö), NI:C0E11 or Zoom: https://mau-se.zoom.us/j/69619037103

Abstract:

An integral perception of the Caucasus as a single community/space has gradually disappeared throughout the 20th and particularly in the 21st century while the Caucasus has become divided into often hostile to each other nation-states with divergent allegiances while its Northern part has remained a Russian colony. Despite these current geopolitical divisions, a long-going transversal intra-Caucasian community, determined not only culturally or historically but also geographically and even climatically, is no news to Caucasians and may become important in the future. Caucasian community grounded in Lugonesian deep coalitions that allow to keep our differences yet also find intersections for refuturing – is not a myth, but a viable onto-epistemic and ethical-political stance, which may help to survive. Yet, the Caucasus continues to be represented in media, arts and in area studies through typically modern/colonial Orientalist or alarmist security lenses, leaving no legitimate space for any bottom-up alternative frameworks of relational political and social life and images of the shared future coming from Caucasian thinkers, artists and activists themselves.  Bringing these voices forward internationally, as well as facilitating democratic discussions with each other, is necessary for the Caucasians to be able to reimagine themselves regionally in the upcoming decades of the intensified enviro-climatic and geopolitical crises when the main challenge will be that of physical survival.
Moderator: Karina Vamling, Professor Emerita of Caucasus Studies, Malmö University 

RUCARR seminar with Alexandra Brankova: Russian Digital Nationalism; April 21

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Alexandra Brankova: “Russian Digital Nationalism: Digital Practices and Discursive Constructions of the Russian Nation in a Nationalist Media Ecology”

Time: 21 April, 15:15-17:00

Place: NI:C1029, Niagara or Zoom: https://mau-se.zoom.us/j/64162465427?from=addon
Mötes-ID: 641 6246 5427

Alexandra Brankova is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Political Science at the Swedish Defence University working on a project about Geopolitical Narratives and mediatisation of emotions in international relations. Alexandra is also an affiliated researcher at the Institute for Russian and Eurasian studies, Uppsala University. She holds a PhD degree in Media and Communications from Uppsala University. Her research interests include geopolitical narratives, identity construction, international relations, digital media, & nationalism studies.

 

Abstract:

The seminar explores the discursive construction and digital enactment of Russian nationalism in a hybrid media system, before and after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The discourses and practices are situated through a close mapping of the Russian nationalist media ecology, and intertextuality with other actors is examined (such as state institutions, state-aligned media groups, the Russian Orthodox Church portals, military bloggers, and influencers). Theoretically, the study is grounded in the discursive turn of nationalism theories, critical discourse studies, digital practices, and media ecology. Media outlets owned by entrepreneurs of influence (such as Konstantin Malofeev or Yevgeny Prigozhin) or the state act as intermediaries between the regime and audiences. A mixed-methods and longitudinal approach (June 2018–June 2023) was adopted, combining digital methods (such as data scraping and netnography) with discourse-historical analysis, incorporated into the framework of a digital discourse-ethnographic approach. The primary data for this study consists of websites and media publications (news, opinion pieces, manifestos, videos), social media posts (from VKontakte and Telegram), and other audio-visual formats.
The findings reveal that the Russian nationalist media ecology penetrates mainstream media spaces, youth initiatives, and memory politics. Discourses about the nation are not only found in texts of various formats and genres. They are also enacted through digital practices of representation and aesthetics, gamified through virtual or augmented reality applications, and manifested in social media engagement campaigns, reels, or participatory denunciation. The discourses about the Russian nation and its enemies construct a supranational identity and narratives about Russia’s return to great power politics, striving towards the establishment of multipolarity. Russian digital media and technological infrastructures are subjects of securitisation and ongoing enclosure framed as a push for Internet sovereignty from Western platforms. Neo-authoritarian hybrid media systems involve media intermediaries in nation-building, political influencing, discourse dissemination, and user engagement in times of war, going beyond standard mechanisms of restrictions and surveillance.
Link to the book: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A2006494&dswid=4174
Welcome!

RUCARR Distinguished Speaker April 14: Prof. Henry E. Hale

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RUCARR Distinguished Speaker Series

The Role of Traditional Moral Appeals in Putinite Autocracy

Speaker? Henry E. Hale, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University (GW),

When? April 14th, 17:30-19:00

Where? Niagara, NI:C0E11 or on Zoom (click here for the Zoom link)

Abstract: Over the last decade and a half, Russia’s Kremlin has increasingly emphasized traditional moral values in its appeals for public support. This marked a major shift in regime strategy from its earlier “catch-all” approach to a socially divisive form of “wedge politics.” Has this worked? What have been the consequences of this strategy for the regime? In this event, the speaker will examine data from Russia to show that the results have been mixed. Traditional moral appeals’ most powerful effects have been to help the regime win support even from Putin opponents for major initiatives ranging from term-limit contravention to war. But at the same time, they have alienated some potential Putin supporters and inadvertently catalyzed a (relatively) moral liberal opposition coalition that is potentially larger than commonly believed.

Moderator: Stefan Hedlund, Professor Emeritus of Soviet and East European Studies, Uppsala University

Seminar March 16: Silent Dissent: Transforming Russia from within: Illiberal legislation and silovik coalition-building in the Russian State Duma, 2011-202

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🎓Welcome to our online seminar!

Seminar March 16: Silent Dissent: Transforming Russia from within: Illiberal legislation and silovik coalition-building in the Russian State Duma, 2011-2021

🎤Daniella Slabinski, PhD Candidate, Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages, University of Oslo
📅March 16, 10:15-12:00
🏢Zoom: https://lnkd.in/e86W-CKi

Abstract: For the last decade, the Russian State Duma has arguably become a site where production of illiberal ideology and rent seeking intersect which has resulted in severe consequences for domestic and global politics. Nevertheless, knowledge of the lawmakers and the various power coalitions that they form to achieve their goals is limited. In this paper I address this lacuna by focusing on the role of the siloviki – individuals with career experience in the military, intelligence and law enforcement apparatus – in the State Duma and ask: what coalitions do silovik representatives form when passing illiberal legislation? Drawing on a unique set of illiberal bills sponsored by silovik-MPs during the 6th (2011 – 2016) and 7th (2016 – 2021) convocations, I use social network analysis to test for Brian D. Taylor’s typology of silovik formations (clan, corporate and cohort) on a unique dataset of illiberal legislation passed by silovik-MPs during the 6th (2011 – 2016) and 7th (2016 – 2021) Duma convocations. The data illustrates that neither ideology nor institutional belonging (corporate and party affiliation) among silovik-MPs are decisive factors during coalition-building when passing illiberal bills. Instead, there is a distinctively growing trend in favor of grouping into informal networks in which silovik-MPs act as legislative patrons.

Seminar March 3: Russian informational co-aggression? Ukraine-related disinformation in Belarusian pro-government Telegram channels

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Seminar March 3: Silent Dissent: Russian informational co-aggression? Ukraine-related disinformation in Belarusian pro-government Telegram

🎤Alesia Rudnik, PhD, Postdoctoral researcher at Södetrörn University and Maastricht University
📅March 3, 15.15-17.00
🏢Zoom: https://lnkd.in/exWc55gs

Abstract: Based on a qualitative content analysis of 2024 posts from leading pro-government Telegram channels in Belarus, this article examines how these sources spread disinformation about Ukraine. The authors show that such posts were relatively infrequent in 2024, and that their themes shifted in response to developments on the battlefield and changes in the broader international context of the conflict. However, certain false claims and allegations consistently received substantial attention. These include public dissatisfaction with conscription into Ukraine’s armed forces, deceptive and coercive methods of recruitment, declining morale among Ukrainian soldiers, corruption related to the war effort, and allegations of ‘neo-Nazism’ within Ukraine and its military. Although the Belarusian regime is often regarded as a co-aggressor in the Russo–Ukrainian war, little is known about whether and how it actively promotes pro-Kremlin narratives online. This article represents a first attempt to address this gap.

Speaker:

Alesia Rudnik, PhD in political science, defended her thesis “Machinery of Dissent: People and Technology in Protests in Autocracies” in 2025. Now she is a postdoctoral researcher at Södetrörn University and Maastricht University. 
Rudnik’s current research project “Negotiating Digital Power: Big Tech, States & Citizens in Democratic versus Autocratic Contexts” is supported by the Swedish Research Council. 
Rudnik is also a former director and an acting board member of an independent Belarusian think tank in exile Center for new ideas. Previously, Rudnik led the organization of the Belarusian diaspora in Sweden. She is also a recipient of the Swedish award “European of the Year 2022”. 
Currently, she is also a member of the editorial board of Belarus Voices (Ibidem.) and Belarus Analytical Digest.

RUCARR Distinguished Speaker Febr 24: Prof. Andrea Petö

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RUCARR Distinguished Speaker Series

Illiberal Turns and Gender Backlash: Rethinking Democratic Erosion

Andrea Petö, Professor at the Department of Gender Studies, Central European University, Vienna, Austria (Bio)

Tuesday 24 February, 17:30 – 19:00
Niagara, NI:B0E15, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1

The talk, based on the co-authored book Viktor Orbán’s Affairs with Women, offers a comprehensive analysis of Viktor Orbán’s illiberal policies on human and gender rights. It provides an accessible introduction to how the illiberal gender playbook impacts women, presenting how the government has co-opted and eroded national and international anti-discrimination and equality provisions, thereby creating an alternative to liberal values. Moreover, the talk analyses the reasons behind the decision of women to cast their votes in favor of an illiberal government that discriminates against and impoverishes them. As the Orbán government’s gender and “family-friendly policies” are the most successful illiberal soft-diplomacy product globally, this talk serves as a cautionary tale for those concerned about human rights worldwide. The talk also tells the story of how soft censorship works in Hungary in the case of this book.