- Tartu, Tartumaa, Estonia
Andrey Makarychev
University of Tartu, Institute of Government and Politics, Faculty Member
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International Relations, Discourse Analysis, Peace and Conflict Studies, Russian Foreign Policy, European Studies, Cultural Geography, and 11 moreRussian Studies, Russia, Europe, Olympics and Olympism, Cultural Studies, Critical Theory, Political Philosophy, Comparative Politics, Political Sociology, Social Theory, and Social Change edit
The authors analyse Lotman's semiotics in a series of temporal contexts, starting with the rigidity of Soviet-era ideologies, through to the post-Soviet de-politicization that - paradoxically enough - ended with the reproduction of... more
The authors analyse Lotman's semiotics in a series of temporal contexts, starting with the rigidity of Soviet-era ideologies, through to the post-Soviet de-politicization that - paradoxically enough - ended with the reproduction of Soviet-style hegemonic discourse in the Kremlin and ultimately reignited politically divisive conflicts between Russia and Europe. The book demonstrates how Lotman's ideas cross disciplinary boundaries and their relevance to many European theorists of cultural studies, discourse analysis and political philosophy. Lotman lived and worked in Estonia, which, even under Soviet rule, maintained its own borderland identity located at the intersection of Russian and European cultural flows. The authors argue that in this context Lotman’s theories are particularly revealing in relation to Russian-European interactions and communications, both historically and in a more contemporary sense
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This book focuses on the recent political trajectories within the Baltic Sea Region from one of the success stories of regionalism in Europe to a potential area of military confrontation between Russia and NATO. The authors closely... more
This book focuses on the recent political trajectories within the Baltic Sea Region from one of the success stories of regionalism in Europe to a potential area of military confrontation between Russia and NATO. The authors closely examine the following issues: new security challenges for the region stemming from Russia’s staunch anti-EU and anti-NATO polices, institutions and practices of multi-level governance in the region, and different cultural strategies that regional actors employ. The common threads of this innovative volume are issues of changing borders and boundaries in the region, and logics of inclusion and exclusion that shape its political contours. From diverse disciplinary and methodological positions the authors explain policies of specific Baltic Sea states, as well as structural matters that make them a region.
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The conflict in Ukraine and Russia's annexation of Crimea has undoubtedly been a pivotal moment for policy makers and military planners in Europe and beyond. Many analysts see an unexpected character in the conflict and expect negative... more
The conflict in Ukraine and Russia's annexation of Crimea has undoubtedly been a pivotal moment for policy makers and military planners in Europe and beyond. Many analysts see an unexpected character in the conflict and expect negative reverberations and a long-lasting period of turbulence and uncertainty, the de-legitimation of international institutions and a declining role for global norms and rules. Did these events bring substantial correctives and modifications to the extant conceptualization of International Relations? Does the conflict significantly alter previous assumptions and foster a new academic vocabulary, or, does it confirm the validity of well-established schools of thought in international relations? Has the crisis in Ukraine confirmed the vitality and academic vigour of conventional concepts?
These questions are the starting points for this book covering conceptualisations from rationalist to reflectivist, and from quantitative to qualitative. Most contributors agree that many of the old concepts, such as multi-polarity, spheres of influence, sovereignty, or even containment, are still cognitively valid, yet believe the eruption of the crisis means that they are now used in different contexts and thus infused with different meanings. It is these multiple, conceptual languages that the volume puts at the centre of its analysis.
This text will be of great interest to students and scholars studying international relations, politics, and Russian and Ukrainian studies.
These questions are the starting points for this book covering conceptualisations from rationalist to reflectivist, and from quantitative to qualitative. Most contributors agree that many of the old concepts, such as multi-polarity, spheres of influence, sovereignty, or even containment, are still cognitively valid, yet believe the eruption of the crisis means that they are now used in different contexts and thus infused with different meanings. It is these multiple, conceptual languages that the volume puts at the centre of its analysis.
This text will be of great interest to students and scholars studying international relations, politics, and Russian and Ukrainian studies.
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This introductory note discusses how the concept of securitisation might be used as a tool for understanding the different logics driving and standing behind foreign policies of major international stakeholders in situations of crises,... more
This introductory note discusses how the concept of securitisation might be used as a tool for understanding the different logics driving and standing behind foreign policies of major international stakeholders in situations of crises, emergencies and exceptions. The editors look at how securitisation functions as a discursive instrument for reshaping actors’ subjectivities, and how it might be adjusted to the rapid changes in global politics triggered by Russia’s war against Ukraine. They argue that the discursive construction of insecurities is not politically neutral and is driven by certain logics, presumptions and imaginaries. Russia’s war against Ukraine is a particularly important focal point in this regard since it elucidates another crucial question: how do the parties involved in the war securitise and de-securitise – as well as exceptionalise and normalise – specific risks, dangers and threats, and what are the implications of these discursive strategies for international...
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In this article we analytically relate to each other the concepts of integration, responsibilization and representation. The first one is relatively well established in the extant academic literature, though some social and cultural... more
In this article we analytically relate to each other the concepts of integration, responsibilization and representation. The first one is relatively well established in the extant academic literature, though some social and cultural realms—such as sports—still remain understudied as playgrounds for integrative endeavors. The second concept refers to one of the pillars of liberal governance—the idea of individual responsibility for life-shaping strategies in people’s everyday routine, including health, leisure and physical activities. The third concept in this triad plays a particularly important role when it comes to international sport competitions and tournaments, since all the involved groups—athletes, coaches, volunteers and fans—in one way or another not only assemble and aggregate their particular identities in a teamwork, but also represent their country to a global audience by publicly exposing their support and emotional affection, loyalty and belonging. Key questions to be explored in this article are: how does social integration function in Estonian sports, and how instrumental are practices of responsibilization and representation for promoting the domestic integration process involving the two communities—the Estonian national majority and the Russophone minority? Our analysis led us to conclude that the process of integration in sports can be viewed from two perspectives—through the lens of representation (when it comes to collective identities-in-the-making) and responsibilization (when it comes to anatomo-political practices of adjusting individual ethnic and linguistic identities to the participation in sportive performances).
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Based on a comparative analysis of the cases of Ukraine, Georgia and Estonia, the article argues that cultural semantics of the performative events are constitutive for borderland identities-in-the-making
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In this chapter, we propose to look at cross-/trans-border regionalism through the prism of biopolitics as a particular analytical lens appropriate for discussing a “regime of belonging” grounded in policies of protecting and taking care... more
In this chapter, we propose to look at cross-/trans-border regionalism through the prism of biopolitics as a particular analytical lens appropriate for discussing a “regime of belonging” grounded in policies of protecting and taking care of people’s lives and physical bodies. Corporeality, central to biopower, goes beyond spatial (as in geopolitics) and blood-based (as in ethnopolitics) regimes of belonging, yet in the meantime constructs its own limitations and restraints, and produces its own relations of power projected beyond the established territorial units or ethno-cultural entities. These theoretical premises will be projected onto the countries of the Baltic–Black Sea region, with examples of Poland and Estonia as major illustrative cases.
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This article offers a new approach to Russian foreign policy under Putin’s presidency as shifting from its ‘soft power’ model to what might be characterized through the prism of biopower. The author discusses the various meanings attached... more
This article offers a new approach to Russian foreign policy under Putin’s presidency as shifting from its ‘soft power’ model to what might be characterized through the prism of biopower. The author discusses the various meanings attached to the concept of attraction, and scrutinises the biopolitical turn in Russia as a domestic phenomenon and as a key element of Russia’s power projection abroad. It is argued that biopolitics as a power instrument can play different roles – it can be a tool to construct Russian national (and simultaneously imperial) identity and to distinguish Russia from the West, and channel for communication with conservative forces across the globe.
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This introductory article explains how the concept of biopolitics can be used as an analytical tool in the sphere of Russian studies. The author elucidates different approaches to the idea of biopolitics in contemporary political... more
This introductory article explains how the concept of biopolitics can be used as an analytical tool in the sphere of Russian studies. The author elucidates different approaches to the idea of biopolitics in contemporary political philosophy, and relates the extant theoretical debate to the ongoing political and academic discussions on power and identity in Russia, both from domestic and international perspectives. He claims that biopolitical vocabulary is a nuanced cognitive instrument for unpacking a plethora of social and cultural dimensions inherent to relations of power, and further conceptualizing the specificity of post-Soviet illiberal regimes.
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This book is a result of a networked project designed and implemented by the Centre for East European Studies at the Free University in Berlin and the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Science at the University of Tartu. The research... more
This book is a result of a networked project designed and implemented by the Centre for East European Studies at the Free University in Berlin and the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Science at the University of Tartu. The research agenda that gave a start to this book in 2014 focused on a variety of bordering and de-bordering practices unfolding in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR), an area that is usually considered to be the most successful example of region-building in a wider Europe. In the literature, the BSR is often referred to as a model for other regions-in-the-making, located at the intersection of the EU and Russia, and a possible source of spill-over effects and sharing of best practices with other regions constituting the EU–Russia common neighbourhood.
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Geography and Baltic Sea
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... Alexey Uliukaev, another leading figure among liberal intellectuals, stated that integration should be seen as a result of the gradual erecting of the civil society and common socio-economic, judicial and cultural environment. ...
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The purpose of this paper is to analyse Poland’s Eastern Dimension (ED) proposal as seen from the marginality theoretical background. The basic argument is that the ED stands out as a discursive battlefield for different representations... more
The purpose of this paper is to analyse Poland’s Eastern Dimension (ED) proposal as seen from the marginality theoretical background. The basic argument is that the ED stands out as a discursive battlefield for different representations of Poland and of Europe’s margins. In devising its marginality strategy, Poland has learned from Finland about the ability of a state at the edge of the European Union to have an impact on the whole. However, Poland is torn between sovereign and post-sovereign discourses of space and identity; the tensions between them explain why the ED remains vague.
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Page 1. Dr. Andrey S. Makarychev Head of Academic Office Civil Service Academy, Nizhny Novgorod ... pointed to what they dub Madrid's inconsistency: Spanish troops in Kosovo, according to the Russian point of view, were installed... more
Page 1. Dr. Andrey S. Makarychev Head of Academic Office Civil Service Academy, Nizhny Novgorod ... pointed to what they dub Madrid's inconsistency: Spanish troops in Kosovo, according to the Russian point of view, were installed to repress the Serbian minority, and ...
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This contribution to the Forum analyzes narratives unfolding among Estonian Russian speakers who expose different attitudes towards the war in Ukraine. For this analysis the author selected several media platforms and public figures whose... more
This contribution to the Forum analyzes narratives unfolding among Estonian Russian speakers who expose different attitudes towards the war in Ukraine. For this analysis the author selected several media platforms and public figures whose speaking positions are representative and typical for - and duly reflect - the entire spectrum of the current Russophone discourses in Estonia. The analysis singles out three distinct yet interconnected discursive positions that prominently feature in the Russophone milieu - pragmatic, popularly geopolitical and counter-normative.
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This Forum focuses on a variety of discourses that in one way or another "understand" and normalize the logic of Putin's war against Ukraine. These discourses have different epistemologies - some of them might simply... more
This Forum focuses on a variety of discourses that in one way or another "understand" and normalize the logic of Putin's war against Ukraine. These discourses have different epistemologies - some of them might simply reproduce Russian propagandistic cliches, while others are embedded in - and adjusted to - specific national contexts; some of them emanate from political milieus, while others have academic pedigrees. Of particular interest for the reader is a comparative frame of the Forum that gives floor to European and non-European perspectives on the topic that at some point resonate, engage, and communicate with each other. The authors discuss social and cultural conditions that produce professional and vernacular narratives sympathetic to or compatible with the Russian officialdom, and deploy them in different theoretical contexts - from neorealist to post-colonial.
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Sovereignty and Biopower
In the 1990s, many studies of regions at Europe’s margins were grounded in a “New Regionalism” approach. This approach focused on a type of intra-regional relations, in which security ranked much lower than economics, environment,... more
In the 1990s, many studies of regions at Europe’s margins were grounded in a “New Regionalism” approach. This approach focused on a type of intra-regional relations, in which security ranked much lower than economics, environment, communication, or technology. In the Baltic, Nordic, and Barents regions, cooperation was strengthened through policies of conditionality, norms diffusion, and social learning. There were expectations that the most fruitful region-building experiences could be duplicated in other areas, including the Black Sea region (BSR). However, many factors have pushed the BSR in an opposite, much less peaceful, direction.
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This paper argues that soft power becomes an indispensable component of Russia’s policies toward its southern neighbors. The author addresses the conceptual and practical dimensions of soft power instrumentalization by the Russian... more
This paper argues that soft power becomes an indispensable component of Russia’s policies toward its southern neighbors. The author addresses the conceptual and practical dimensions of soft power instrumentalization by the Russian diplomacy. He claims that soft power can be applied not only within bilateral relations between Russia and its individual partners, but also as a tool of more regionally-oriented policies. In this context such regional frameworks with different degrees of institutionalization as the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea regions, Central Asia and the Caucasus are discussed. The paper concludes by stating that Russia’s soft power projection inevitably develops in competition with soft power projects launched by other major actors in Eurasia, including Turkey and the European Union.
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Bu makale Rusya’nin guney komsularina yonelik politikalarinda yumusak gucunun vazgecilmez bir unsur haline geldigini ileri surmektedir. Makale yumusak guc aracsallastirilmasinin Rus diplomasisi tarafindan kavramsal ve uygulanabilir... more
Bu makale Rusya’nin guney komsularina yonelik politikalarinda yumusak gucunun vazgecilmez bir unsur haline geldigini ileri surmektedir. Makale yumusak guc aracsallastirilmasinin Rus diplomasisi tarafindan kavramsal ve uygulanabilir boyutlarini ele almaya calismakta ve yumusak guc olgusunun sadece Rusya’nin ortaklari ile ikili iliskilerinde degil, ayni zamanda bolgesel amacli politikalarinda da bir arac olarak kullanilabilecegini ileri surmektedir. Bu baglamda makalede Karadeniz ve Hazar Denizi bolgesi ile Orta Asya ve Kafkaslar gibi farkli kurumsallasma derecelerine sahip bolgeler de tartisilmaktadir. Son olarak makale Rusya’nin Avrasya’ya yonelik yumusak guc planlarinin, AB ve Turkiye gibi diger bolge aktorlerinin yumusak guc planlariyla kacinilmaz bir rekabete girerek gelistigini belirtmektedir.
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Recent developments within the European Union affect not only its internal construction but also its relations with its Eastern European neighbors, including Russia. This memo discusses the ramifications of the Eurozone crisis for the... more
Recent developments within the European Union affect not only its internal construction but also its relations with its Eastern European neighbors, including Russia. This memo discusses the ramifications of the Eurozone crisis for the EU’s future and for its neighborhood policy, new trends in German Ostpolitik, and the repercussions of both these developments on post-Soviet states. The memo argues that the EU is becoming a more fragmented and less normative (value-ridden) political entity and might weaken its trans-Atlantic commitments. Under these conditions, Russia can be expected to try and consolidate its sphere of influence, in particular to tighten its grip on Ukraine. However, such an approach threatens to foster Russia’s alienation from Europe and, in the end, may prove fruitless. Instead, Russia should more actively engage in trilateral relations with Germany and Poland, the two EU states perhaps most interested in developing new formats of communication with Moscow. A new ...
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This essay attempts to juxtapose mass-scale protest movements that almost simultaneously erupted in summer 2020 in Belarus and Russia’s Far East. In spite of dissimilar root causes of both events, they however share a number of common... more
This essay attempts to juxtapose mass-scale protest movements that almost simultaneously erupted in summer 2020 in Belarus and Russia’s Far East. In spite of dissimilar root causes of both events, they however share a number of common characteristics, such as spontaneity, lack of wellestablished leadership, networking/horizontal structure (Paneyakh, 2020) and explicitly nonideological character. What made the symbolic connection between the two post-Soviet ‘‘hot spots’’ even more politically pronounced were explicit and unprecedented signs of solidarity expressed by protesters in Khabarovsk with the anti-Lukashenka movement. Since we can see some emerging similarities in these two cases, let us try to understand what they are, why did they emerge, and how they can be conceptualized theoretically. The protests that have been unfolding in parallel to each other in Minsk (as well as other major cities of Belarus) and Khabarovsk were driven by obviously different reasons and could have remained detached from each other. The outburst of street activity in Belarus was triggered by the fraudulent presidential election, while in Khabarovsk people went to streets as a reaction to the sudden arrest of the region’s governor by the order of the federal center. For Belarus the protests constituted a basis for national anti-authoritarian consolidation, while the anti-Moscow actions in the Far East are regarded as potentially conducive to Russia’s decentralization (Luchikhin, 2020). However, the appearance of slogans of solidarity with Belarus among protesters in Khabarovsk has created a symbolic connection between the two events (Sibir’ Realii, 2020), which looked quite unique since never before had the Russian opposition expressed any well-articulated sympathy with democratic movements in other post-Soviet countries. For example, Alexei Navalny’s attitude towards Ukrainian national discourse on retrieving the annexed Crimea was always quite
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ABSTRACT This article aims to explore a paradoxical co-existence of various forms and models of trans-border interactions in areas of direct adjacency of Norway and Russia. Our main hypothesis is that the structural conditions of... more
ABSTRACT This article aims to explore a paradoxical co-existence of various forms and models of trans-border interactions in areas of direct adjacency of Norway and Russia. Our main hypothesis is that the structural conditions of securitization that became dominant in NATO-Russia relations after the annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas produce different effects all across the borderline, directly affecting borderland communities, including mobility, connectivity and public security. As our key point, we posit that the geopolitical conflictuality and the ensuing gaps and ruptures in military security are not automatically projected onto the level of “low” / grass-roots / local politics where there exists a public demand for expanding the existing spaces of interaction in such fields as cultural exchanges, environmental protection and people-to-people contacts. Apparently, the geopolitical divides are more visible and easily identifiable through the mainstream media, while other layers need a different optics allowing to spot various regimes of border functioning and peer into the complex construction of borders, where geopolitical divisions and partitions are counter-balanced by sub-national activities and initiatives discarding the logic of geopolitical conflict and alternating it with the grass-roots public / cultural diplomacy.
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Despite the current conflicts between Russia and the EU, the latter remains a key reference point in a plethora of Russian discourses that are Europe-centric in the sense of playing with different arguments aimed at vindicating Russia’s... more
Despite the current conflicts between Russia and the EU, the latter remains a key reference point in a plethora of Russian discourses that are Europe-centric in the sense of playing with different arguments aimed at vindicating Russia’s belonging to Europe through loosely defined history, geography and culture, but also through accentuating Russia’s military presence and ability to interfere in European domestic processes. The goal of this chapter is to trace the trajectory of Russia’s EU policies since the beginning of the 1990s until the present, compare Russian and European approaches to international relations and discuss Russia’s rhetorical manoeuvring under the conditions of drastic deterioration of relations with the West after 2014. The chapter additionally discusses Russia’s policies towards the EU from the viewpoint of broader debates on post-liberal international order and shares some critical insights on the state of communication between Russia and Europe.
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... question of how far Russia would go in its balancing policies started to sound alarming when, in 20072008, Iran's full membership ... The initial euphoria after the victorious operation againstGeorgia in Au-gust 2008... more
... question of how far Russia would go in its balancing policies started to sound alarming when, in 20072008, Iran's full membership ... The initial euphoria after the victorious operation againstGeorgia in Au-gust 2008 strengthened the appeal of the balance-of-power approach. ...
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The edited volume discusses the applicability of an ample variety of academic conceptualizations – from rationalist to reflectivist, and from quantitative to qualitative - to teh pos-2014 international relations. The authors claim that... more
The edited volume discusses the applicability of an ample variety of academic conceptualizations – from rationalist to reflectivist, and from quantitative to qualitative - to teh pos-2014 international relations. The authors claim that many of the old concepts – such as multipolarity, spheres of influence, sovereignty, or even containment – are still cognitively valid, yet with the eruption of the crisis in Russia – Ukraine relations they are used in different contexts and thus infused with different meanings. It is exactly these multiple conceptual languages that this volume puts at the centre of analysis
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The paper explores the identitarian context of Russia’s cinematic narratives on the war in Chechnya. It draws on various strategies of war representation through films and uncovers their ideological and political underpinnings. The author... more
The paper explores the identitarian context of Russia’s cinematic narratives on the war in Chechnya. It draws on various strategies of war representation through films and uncovers their ideological and political underpinnings. The author explicates how the cinematographic imagery grounded in the Chechen war experience boosts the hegemonic discourse of the Kremlin, and then discusses whether fictional films deliver critical or counter-hegemonic arguments.
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By the end of 1990, it had become clear that due to the emergence of new political, economic, and public actors Russian political space had become much more complex than ever before. New patterns of institutional and noninstitutional... more
By the end of 1990, it had become clear that due to the emergence of new political, economic, and public actors Russian political space had become much more complex than ever before. New patterns of institutional and noninstitutional interaction were evolving, with new corporate actors emerging. These trends were very much consonant with the worldwide crisis of hierarchical models of organization and the mushrooming of managerial networking models. A large number of Russia's regions have proven their lack of interest in horizontal networking with relatively independent actors. As a result, financial flows and intellectual capital are examples of spheres of networking that are beyond their reach.! Instead of formulating strategic goals and investing in long-term projects, the regional elites by and large have been obsessed by offering misleading slogans of "stabilization," "security," and so forth to the population.2 In practice, the governors were trying to use every pretext to protect their economic and social domains' from any competition from outside. As a result, most of regional regimes have evolved into autocracies, which has discredited the very idea of regionalism. They have generally failed to perform the function of "spatial transfers of innovation."3 Taking into account the growing debilitation of regional elites and their vanishing innovative potential, the question has to be asked: Does the development into autocracies portend the eventual death of the regions? And who are the new, smarter subjects of modernization among Russia's new actors? It is yet too early to give precise and detailed
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EU-Russia Disconnections after Ukraine
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PONARS Memo
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The rising generation of Russian foreign policy experts and commentators, especially outside Moscow, is increasingly sceptical about the key premises of Russian diplomacy and see more failures than achievements in Russia's relations with... more
The rising generation of Russian foreign policy experts and commentators, especially outside Moscow, is increasingly sceptical about the key premises of Russian diplomacy and see more failures than achievements in Russia's relations with its closest partners, including the EU and neighbouring states. This is the conclusion that stems from a series of interviews and focus groups carried out with young Russian professionals about Russia's current foreign policies. The study reveals a strong cognitive dissonance between the official diplomatic discourse of the Kremlin and the perceptions of young experts who work in a variety of fields dealing with international cooperation either at a lower level of the state hierarchy or in different professional domains.
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... http://www.echo.msk.ru/interview/1.html View all notes. or the “old good Europe”,7 7 A. Okara, “Kakaya Evropa nuzhna Rossii”. ... http://nationalism.org/library/publicism/okara/okara-what-europe. htm View all notes. preserving its... more
... http://www.echo.msk.ru/interview/1.html View all notes. or the “old good Europe”,7 7 A. Okara, “Kakaya Evropa nuzhna Rossii”. ... http://nationalism.org/library/publicism/okara/okara-what-europe. htm View all notes. preserving its sovereignty and resisting America-led globalisation. ...
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... http://www.echo.msk.ru/interview/1.html View all notes. or the “old good Europe”,7 7 A. Okara, “Kakaya Evropa nuzhna Rossii”. ... http://nationalism.org/library/publicism/okara/okara-what-europe. htm View all notes. preserving its... more
... http://www.echo.msk.ru/interview/1.html View all notes. or the “old good Europe”,7 7 A. Okara, “Kakaya Evropa nuzhna Rossii”. ... http://nationalism.org/library/publicism/okara/okara-what-europe. htm View all notes. preserving its sovereignty and resisting America-led globalisation. ...
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Published 10-22-2013 (Co-authored by Andrey Makarychev and Olga Gulina) The Russian model of multiculturalism is in crisis having recently proven itself to be a mixture of intolerance, xenophobia, and racism. These sentiments have all... more
Published 10-22-2013 (Co-authored by Andrey Makarychev and Olga Gulina) The Russian model of multiculturalism is in crisis having recently proven itself to be a mixture of intolerance, xenophobia, and racism. These sentiments have all been publicly legitimized by a false rhetoric of "national patriotism," with "Russia for Russians" having become the most popular slogan among growing nationalist segments within Russian society. Kondopoga, Manezh Square, Pugachev, and now Biryulyovo, are but a few examples of the nationalist riots and pogroms which have spread throughout the country. Russia is of course not alone in this. European countries have their own records of ethnic-based discontent (France in 2005, Great Britain in 2011, Sweden in 2013, etc.) Yet in Paris, Lyon, London, or Stockholm, protestors were mostly young immigrants. In Biryulyovo, it was the locals who went to the streets in search of a "people's justice," demanding the immediate inves...
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The outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly reshaped debates on the global order, democratic politics and the liberal mode of governing societies. Some have compared the virus to the “ultimate empty signifier”, which allowed difficult... more
The outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly reshaped debates on the global order, democratic politics and the liberal mode of governing societies. Some have compared the virus to the “ultimate empty signifier”, which allowed difficult ideological groups to fill it with their own securitizations, creating in an instant a plethora of political otherings. For IR realists, the sudden collapse of cross-border movement and other privileges of the globalized liberal elite came as a vindication of their long-cherished argument: the nation state remains the key actor in international politics, and the post-national world had largely been a utopian liberal illusion. Right-wing nationalist populists have been saying the same thing but in a different language and were apt to make COVID-19 instrumental to their purposes. Thus, Viktor Orbán quickly linked it to the agenda of migration and used the state of exception as a pretext to further limit the democratic process in Hungary. However, as students of populism have also stressed, the populist response to the pandemic has been far from uniform. In a yet broader perspective, while some democratic governments enacted draconian measures in response to the pandemic, suspending basic individual freedoms, some dictatorships like Belarus experienced a sudden “flow of liberalism“, refusing to cut down on both economic activity and cross-border movement. This special issue focuses on comparing the liberal and illiberal reactions (both domestic and international) to the pandemic, looking into how it has affected the democratic and non-democratic forms of governance; examining where the responses have been similar or overlapping, i.e. where COVID-19 has practically blurred or erased the border between liberal and illiberal politics; looking into how different types of regimes and political groupings have borrowed new elements and styles of politics, e.g. in which circumstances populist or autocratic politicians suddenly seemed more liberal than their liberal and democratic counterparts; and investigating the ramifications of these changes for the liberal components of the globalized international order.
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The paper relies on empirical evidence from Estonia and Slovakia to develop an understanding of populism as a performative and transgressive political style. We argue that populism cannot be defined in ideological terms nor can it be... more
The paper relies on empirical evidence from Estonia and Slovakia to develop an understanding of populism as a performative and transgressive political style. We argue that populism cannot be defined in ideological terms nor can it be attached to particular political subjects. Instead, it is a political style that can be adopted and mimicked by various subjects from extreme right to social liberal. The performativity of populism presupposes forms of transgression that disrupt the normalcy of political routine. Populist performances thus seek and construct an authenticity by taking politics outside of its conventional institutional frameworks. We examine the cases of EKRE in Estonia and ĽSNS and OĽaNO in Slovakia.
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Публикуются реплики интеллектуалов из Восточной и Западной Европы, России и Северной Америки, любезно согласившихся познакомиться со статьей Мартина Мюллера «Разыскивая Глобальный Восток» и выразить к ней отношение, исходя из состояния... more
Публикуются реплики интеллектуалов из Восточной и Западной Европы, России и Северной Америки, любезно согласившихся познакомиться со статьей Мартина Мюллера «Разыскивая Глобальный Восток» и выразить к ней отношение, исходя из состояния представляемой ими дисциплины, опыта работы, перипетий научного поиска и творческих вызовов. Исследователи, преподаватели, кураторы, писатель и архитектор размышляют о власти и влиянии географических названий в академической жизни, политике и культуре. Отталкиваясь и от статьи Мюллера о Глобальном Востоке и от другого его текста (в котором он скептически оценивает понятие постсоциализма), авторы комментариев, критически оценивая аргументы Мюллера, ставят ряд фундаментальных вопросов. Среди них — вопросы о необходимости историзации научных понятий, о воспроизводящемся непонимании (или даже исключении) Востока Западом, о том, решению каких задач будет способствовать включение Глобального Востока в общую географическую картину, о том, не узко ли академической является озабоченность тем, что Глобальный Восток в мире недостаточно слышен. Этот заочный диалог между комментаторами и автором центрального текста данного тематического выпуска значим как эпизод совместного поиска более демократического, творческого и вдохновляющего будущего для региона, объединяющего Восточную Европу, Россию и Центральную Азию.
Research Interests:
This article seeks to analyse the process of conflictual rebordering in the EU's relations with Russia. The authors single out three major crises that triggered and shaped the process of toughening the border regime and the related... more
This article seeks to analyse the process of conflictual rebordering in the EU's relations with Russia. The authors single out three major crises that triggered and shaped the process of toughening the border regime and the related transformations of political meaning of the EU-Russia border: the COVID-19 pandemic, the drastic deterioration of Moscow-Brussels relations in the beginning of 2021 and the war in Ukraine that started on 24 February 2022. Correspondingly, the EU’s reactions to each of these critical junctures might be described through the academic concepts of governmentality, normativity and geopolitics. Our aim is to look at the three ensuing models – governmental, normative and geopolitical rebordering – from the vantage point of Estonia and Finland, two EU member states sharing borders with Russia, yet in the meantime remaining distinct from each other in developing particular border policies and approaches vis-a-vis their eastern neighbour.
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The paper addresses a puzzle resulting from the current global state of alert: the coronavirus pandemic brought us back to the world of the allegedly sovereign nation states with borders and national governments in charge, yet in fact,... more
The paper addresses a puzzle resulting from the current global state of alert: the coronavirus pandemic brought us back to the world of the allegedly sovereign nation states with borders and national governments in charge, yet in fact, this retrieved sovereignty looks very vulnerable and precarious. We explain this controversy through a triad of concepts-sovereignty, governmentality, and post-liberalism-that we apply to an analysis of a corona-imposed state of emergency in Estonia and Finland. Based on comparative case study research, we posit that sovereignty is precarious in post-liberalism due to its large dependence on the technologies of respon-sibilization and agency. From a biopolitical perspective, a major point in the anti-crisis management is to convince people to sacrifice personal liberties for the sake of public safety. These issues of governmentality will be dealt with based on critical discourse analysis and media analysis in Estonia and Finland.