Category: Countries

RUCARR Seminar with Prof. Vladimir Gel’man, November 28

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Prof. Vladimir Gel’man: Why Russia Fails: Origins of the Ukrainian Catastrophe

You are welcome to attend a lecture by Vladimir Gelman, professor at Aleksanteriinstitutet, University of Helsiniki, and new member of RUCARR’s Advisory Board. He will talk about ‘Why Russia Fails: Origins of the Ukrainian Catastrophe’, which also is the subjet of his coming book. The event is a collaboration with Global Europe & International Cooperation (GEIC).

Vladimir Gelman’s areas of expertise include Russian and post-Soviet politics and governance. This knowledge is applied in a theoretical and comparative perspective with a special emphasis on political regime dynamics, political institutions, policy-making, electoral and party politics, regional, and local government.

His most recent book isThe Politics of Bad Governance in Contemporary Russia (University of Michigan Press, 2022). Previous works include Authoritarian Russia: Analyzing Post-Soviet Regime Changes (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015) and Authoritarian Modernization in Russia: Ideas, Institutions, and Policies (Routledge, 2017). He also authored scholarly articles in Post-Soviet Affairs, International Political Science Review, East European Politics, and other journals.

When: November 28, 15-17

Where: Niagara, K3 Studio 5th floor, C0541

Please, sign up here by Nov 27

Visit from the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul

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Roundtable at Malmö University on the topic of “The Caucasus between Turkey and Russia” at the annual meeting of the Research Collegium of the Swedish Research Institute , Istanbul (https://srii.org/), hosted by RUCARR.

Presenters: PhD Candidate Michel Anderlini, Dr George Mchedlishvili, Dr Natia Gamkrelidze, Dr Kamal Makili-Aliyev, Prof. Karina Vamling. Moderator: Prof. Bo Petersson.

Sign-up for Symposium on November 6-7

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Language in Conflict and War – Ukraine, Caucasus, Russia

November 6  (online zoom panels) and November 7  (campus & webinar)

Sign-up link for November 6 and 7

Registration required for zoom and webinar links. [check for program updates]

NOVEMBER 6

10.00 Opening of the Symposium

10.15-11.45 Language in conflict and war – focus: Ukraine Abstracts

— Dr. Liudmyla Pidkuimukha (Justus Liebig University Giessen) Weaponizing Language: How Russia Commits Linguicide on the Occupied Territories of Ukraine
—Svetlana L’nyavsky (Lund University): I am a Russian Ukrainian, but I will not learn Ukrainian just for you! Language ideological debates, linguistic vigilantism, and Internally Displaced People at the time of war
— Solomija Buk, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Department of General Linguistics: Ukrainian for Foreigners in Russian-Ukrainian War: Changes and Challenges

13.00-14.40 Central Asia’s Complex Tapestry: Language, Education, Colonial Legacies, and Decolonial Perspectives   Abstracts

— Juldyz Smagulova and Kara Fleming (College of Humanities and Education, at KIMEP University, Almaty, Kazakhstan): Shame and struggles for power: New speakers of Kazakh in Kazakhstan— 
— Edward Lemon (Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University) and Oleg Antonov (visiting researcher at GPS and RUCARR, Malmö University; visiting researcher at Södertörn University): Academic Diplomacy: The Educational Aspects of Russian Soft Power in Tajikistan
— Victoria Clement Central Asian Insights): Avoiding a Reckoning: Memory Days and History in Turkmenistan
— PhD candidate Dina Kucherbayeva and Prof. Juldyz Smagulova: Language Revitalization: Challenges for Kazakh in Higher Education

14.50-16.30. Language in conflict and war – focus: North Caucasus and Turkey  Abstracts

— Emre Pshigusa (U.S. State Department, English Language Fellow): The Circassian language and identity created a feeling of illegality in us” Language Ideologies, Policies, and Circassian Language Rights in Turkey
— Lars Funch Hansen (Circassian Studies) The marginalisation of Circassian language through local history teaching, with cases from Krasnodar Krai including the Black Sea coast
— Valeriya Minakova (Penn State): “It all starts in the family”: Placing discourses on the role of families in Circassian language preservation into a historical-political context

Merab Chukhua (Tbilisi State University and the Circassian Culture Center, Tbilisi): One case of reflecting a historical fact in language

16.40-17.40. Historical perspectives   Abstracts

— Otari Gulbani (Central European University MA): Russian Imperial Orientalism in Svaneti: A Discursive Analysis
— Sam Tarpley (Tulane University, Grad stud): Contemporary Deconstruction: Post-Soviet Monuments and the American South


NOVEMBER 7   (campus and webinar)  Abstracts 

Sign-up link for November 6 and 7

10.15 Welcome  (Niagara, 5th floor, C section (Nordenskiöldsgatan 1)

10.30-11.45. Morning session 

Giorgi Alibegashvili (State Language Department of Georgia) & Maka Tetradze. (State Language Department of Georgia & Tbilisi State University):: Street Georgian – as a Reflection of functioning of the State language in Georgia

Tinatin Bolkvadze (Tbilisi State University & State Language Department): How to assess the functioning of the Russian language in Georgia (online)

13.00-14.15 Afternoon session 1 

Nadiya Kiss (JLU Giessen): Languages at war: Language shift, contested language diversity and ambivalent enmity in Ukraine

Andrey Makarychev (University of Tartu): “Estonian Russophones: A Biopolitical Story”

14.30-15.45. Afternoon session 2

Mariam Manjgaladze (Caucasus University): Issues of the Official Language Ecology in Contemporary Georgia  

Lidia Zhigunova (Tulane University, USA): Russia’s War on Indigenous Languages: The Case of Circassian in the North Caucasus

15.50-16.20. Concluding Roundtable

Moderator: Professor Barbara Thörnquist-Plewa, Central and Eastern European Studies, Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University

Seminar with Dr Maia Barkaia: Georgia’s North-Eastern Borderland Entanglements

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Dr Maia Barkaia, Georgian Institute of Public Affairs, Visiting RUCARR  researcher: A Valley of Misconstrued: Georgia’s North-Eastern Borderland Entanglements

The post-Soviet wars and socio-economic crisis of the 1990s in Georgia and the North Caucasus shaped the lives of Pankisi residents, transforming the borderland region into the epicenter of tension. While Pankisi residents have kept a distinct Kist identity in Georgia, they have also maintained their ties with their Northern neighbours, and political developments in Chechnya and Ingushetia have often had a significant impact on their lives. The transition of North-Eastern Georgian borders from open to closed  after the collapse of the Soviet Union unfolded in a specific way in Pankisi Gorge. This shift in border regimes coincided with the Russo-Chechen war. These events played a pivotal role in shaping their ethnic and religious identities and became an integral part of the collective memory of Pankisi Kists. It is against the backdrop of the Russo-Chechen wars and Georgia’s western-oriented geopolitical aspirations that I seek to understand the „valley of misconstrued“ by examining the formation of  borderland identity at this politically and socially pivotal juncture.

When: October 24, 15.16-17.00
Where: Seminar room, 9th floor (campus seminar)

How do parties compete in hybrid regimes – seminar with Levan Kakhishvili

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How do parties compete in hybrid regimes: Programmes, clientelism or the marriage of the two? Case study of Georgia

Seminar given by Levan Kakhishvili, Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences (BAGSS), Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg

When? Tuesday 17th of October, 15:15-17:00 (CET)

Where? https://mau-se.zoom.us/j/64850283542

Description: Party competition in hybrid regimes, especially in post-Soviet context, is often treated as a popularity contest of the party leaders seeking public office. At best, it is assumed that competition is over votes through informal networks and vote-buying practices, while policy ideas are almost entirely absent from the equation. This, however, is a rather simplistic account of party politics in hybrid regimes. Party competition in non-democratic contexts is a complex phenomenon and exhibits both programmatic and clientelistic characteristics. Therefore, studying hybrid regimes can lead to answers to questions such as: How do parties win elections in hybrid regimes? How does clientelistic competition work? How does it co-exist with programmatic competition? How does programmatic competition emerge? Why do parties produce electoral programmes in contexts where they matter little in terms of electoral outcome? Based on the primary data of 48 hand-coded party manifestos, 16 in-depth interviews with party representatives, 20 informal interviews with electoral brokers, and publicly available surveys, this research explores the questions of party competition in post-Soviet Georgia.

Levan Kakhishvili

RUCARR reseachers & colleagues on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

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Watch roundtable webinar: Nagorno-Karabakh: from status quo towards final resolution? (archive)

Webinar December 8, 2020. https://rucarr.mau.se/live-video/

Prof. Gerard Jirair Libaridian, professor (emeritus) of history at the University of Michigan, former advisor to the first President of the Republic of Armenia on foreign and security policies. (photo)

Dr. Philip Gamaghelyan, assistant professor at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, University of San Diego.

Dr. Kamal Makili-Aliyev, senior lecturer at the Department of Global Political Studies, Malmö University, affiliated researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.

Mr. Zaur Shiriyev, International Crisis Group’s Analyst for South Caucasus, former Academy Associate with the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House.

Modertor:  Dr. Julie A. George, associate professor at the Graduate Center / Queen’s College, City University of New York.

Selected publications

Magnusson, Märta-Lisa and Karina Vamling. (2023). Ryssland mot Turkiet i Nagorno-Karabach. Forskning & Framsteg. https://fof.se/artikel/ryssland-mot-turkiet-i-nagorno-karabach/

Magnusson, Märta-Lisa and Karina Vamling. (2023). Ryssland förlorar inflytande till förmån för Turkiet. Sydsvenskan (2022-02-24) (link)

Magnusson, Märta-Lisa (2010).  “Why No Settlement in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict? – Which are the obstacles to a negotiated solution?”  In: Vamling, K. (ed): Language, History and Cultural Identities in the Caucasus : papers from the conference, June 17-19 2005, Malmö University, 2010, pp. 114-143  (link)

Magnusson, Märta-Lisa:. (2008). “Nagorno-Karabakh – de facto stat på spring?” Fra nation til stat: Er Kosovo undtagelsen? Udenrigs, nr. 1, 2008 (link)

Magnusson, Märta-Lisa (2003). Karabakh- den besvärlige brik i de stores spil. I: Ib Faurby og Märta-Lisa Magnusson (Red): Korsvej og minefelt.  Kultur og konflikt i Kaukasus. Århus: Systime Academic, sid. 166-213.

Makili-Aliyev, Kamal (2020). Contested Territories and International Law. A comparative study of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the Aland Islands precedent. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge

Makili-Aliyev, Kamal (2021). The Role of Azerbaijan in the Non-Aligned Movement Through the Lens of International Law and Security. In: The 60th Anniversary of the Non-Aligned Movement. :359-370; Institute of International Politics and Economics (link)

Theisen, Søren (2021). A little trip down memory lane. REjser i Armenien kring tiden omkring Sovjetunionens opløsning I: Magnusson, ML & K. Vamling (eds.) Vi såg sammanbrottet. Svenska och danska forskares berättelser från Kaukasus under Sovjetväldets sista år. Caucasus Studies 8. 95-108. https://ojs.mau.se/index.php/caucasus/issue/view/117/27

 

 

SEMINAR JUNE 13th, Striving towards democracy? Political participation in post-Soviet countries by Viktor Tuzov

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When? Tuesday 13th of June, 15:15-17:00

Where: Zoom-link: https://mau-se.zoom.us/j/69779449463

Striving towards democracy? Political participation in post-Soviet countries by Viktor Tuzov,  Ph.D Candidate in Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR

The formation of political systems in the post-Soviet region remains a relevant topic even thirty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Due to the social, economic and cultural factors, the political regimes continue to move from the general communist in the past towards different political futures dominated by authoritarian or democratic frames. Our study aims to analyze the patterns of political participation and political culture, focusing on the binary categorization of political regimes across post-Soviet countries and the impact of media trust. It focuses on eight post-soviet countries equally divided into authoritarian and hybrid political regimes using WVS/EVS 2017-2020 survey. The results highlight the importance of media in the formation of political participation habits across countries with unconsolidated democracy. The people with higher media trust tend to participate in non-institutional political actions less frequently but have a higher willingness to vote during the national elections. The freedom index has also been integrated into the research as a moderator due to the importance of freedom for the media to mobilize society. The moderation analysis has revealed the distinctive patterns of political participation in countries with lower and higher levels of freedom.

 

Cause without Rebels? Rise and Fall of the Talish-Mughan Republic in South-Eastern Azerbaijan – Seminar May 23

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Christofer Berglund, Associate Professor, Dept. of Global Political Studies, Malmö University and Karli Storm, Karelian Institute & Centre for Russian and Border Studies, University of Eastern Finland: Cause without Rebels? Rise and Fall of the Talish-Mughan Republic in South-Eastern Azerbaijan.

When: May 23, 15.15-17.00 CET

Where: Zoom link https://mau-se.zoom.us/j/62439537993

Abstract

The summer of 1993 was a particularly turbulent time for newly independent post-Soviet Azerbaijan. It was during this brief period that the Talysh-Mughan (Autonomous) Republic was briefly established before being swiftly and brutally crushed beneath the heel of Heydar Aliyev. This paper examines the key reasons for the Republic’s failure as well as the circumstances surrounding the undermining of its key figures. The authors make use of the case of the Talysh-Mughan Republic to illustrate both the merits and shortcomings of several prominent theories in the realm of state secession that seek to explain the successes and failures of break-away states in the contemporary international arena.