UPTAKE 2016. aasta publikatsioonid

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    Historia de los Estados bálticos
    (Barcelona : Bellaterra, 2016) Kasekamp, Andres
    Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been the battleground for neighbouring powers and the site of intense rivalry, but also interaction, between East and West. A History of the Baltic States masterfully traces the development of these three Baltic countries, from the northern crusades against Europe's last pagans, and Lithuania's rise to become one of medieval Europe's largest states, to their incorporation into the Russian Empire and the creation of their modern national identities. Drawing upon the most recent scholarship, Andres Kasekamp pays particular attention to the tumultuous twentieth century, during which the Baltic States achieved independence, but also endured occupation by both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Finally, he explores how the Baltic States recovered their statehood and transformed themselves into members of the European Union. Clearly and accessibly written, this is one of the first English-language books to provide a comparative survey of Baltic history.
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    The Russian Federation and European Union against Corruption: A Slight Misunderstanding?
    (Routledge Taylor & Francis Ltd., 2016) Pavlova, Elena
    It was hoped that the Partnership for Modernisation would improve the troubled relationship between the Russian Federation and the European Union (EU), but it has fallen far short of expectations. Moreover, the disagreement between the two parties has been evident not only on such predictably conflictual topics as human rights but also in the areas where mutual understanding would have seemed likely to have been achieved. This article analyses one of these topics, the fight against corruption, as it is defined in the Russian discourse. It is argued that the Russian discourse on corruption exists at three levels, which do not overlap at all. The first level is the official definition of corruption; the second is ‘home corruption’, which is interpreted only as an economic problem and frequently understood as a part of the socio-economic system and the third level – that of political opposition, where the fight against corruption, although being the axial line for the articulation of the protest agenda, has nothing to do with the anti-corruption fight as such. As a result, the Russian and the EU discourses have little in common, which presents some problems for future cooperation.
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    The Baltic Sea Region: practising security at the overlap of the European and the post-Soviet society of states
    (2016) Linsenmaier, Thomas
    The chapter ‘The Baltic Sea Region: Practicing Security at the Overlap of the European and the Post-Soviet Society of States’ puts forward an interpretative framework for understanding the political dynamics currently on display in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). It does so from the perspective of the English School of International Relations, approaching the BSR as a particular sub-set of relations, a borderland, in the wider interplay between the European and the post-Soviet regional international society. Given Russia’s presence as the ‘Other within’, events occurring in the wider constellation, such as the conflict in Ukraine, affect also Baltic Sea regionalism and the security constellation in the area. With ambiguity over Russia’s normative outlook resolved, the patterns of regional differentiation cutting across the BSR become manifest. Cooperative frameworks in the area have come under strain and patterns of securitisation increasingly diverge along the regional divide. Drawing on the conceptual apparatus of the English School, the chapter suggests understanding security practice in the BSR before the background of the interplay of two regional international societies, the European and the post-Soviet regional international society.
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    Borders in the Baltic Sea Region: Suturing the Ruptures
    (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) Makarychev, Andrey
    Based on different case studies, the chapters collected in this volume contribute to the conceptualization of the BSR as a particular borderland case, for example, a complex regional formation located at the intersection of different cultural, ethnic, religious and civilizational flows and poles
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    How do you tailor diplomatic training? Sizing up peer institutions and their training practices for the Diplomatic School of Armenia
    (2016) Berg, Eiki
    The Diplomatic School of Armenia (est. in 2009) explored how its peer institutions were organized, how they tailored their training programmes and how any existing structures and practices could be suited for Armenia. This paper reviews part of a comparative study which was carried out in 2013–2014. We include a sample of 14 institutes and training centres, ranging from countries which had diplomatic training fully integrated into the ministerial structures to those where the institute had become an entirely separate entity; including states where training focused strictly on skills development, as well as those cases where the focus had turned to offering post-graduate studies. It appears that all peer institutions have followed unprecedented development paths, becoming today’s diplomatic training centres, schools and academies. This made the tailoring exercise for Armenia even more challenging.
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    Charting informal engagement between de facto states: a quantitative analysis
    (2016) Toomla, Raul
    Although being considered illegal entities and largely ignored, de facto states have received some extent of acceptance such as foreign representations short of embassies located in their capitals. This paper examines the conditions which lead to this informal engagement measured by the number of foreign representations to the contested states. We study the position of non-recognised states in the international system and the factors that condition this position. Using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis, this paper establishes sufficient and/or necessary conditions that lead to more informal diplomacy between established states and their non-recognised counterparts using data from eight cases
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    Russia-EU Borderlands after the Ukraine Crisis: the Case of Narva
    (London and New York: Routledge, 2016) Makarychev, Andrey; Yatsyk, Alexandra
    The authors contribute to the ongoing problematization of the Russian – Estonian border issues by specifically addressing the case of Narva from different research perspectives grounded in critical border studies that is premised on unpacking different meanings of borders and their ability to play constitutive roles for political relation and subjectivities
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    Celebrating Borderlands in a Wider Europe. Nations and Identities in Ukraine, Georgia and Estonia
    (2016) Makarychev, Andrey; Yatsyk, Alexandra
    The book deploys borderland identities of a group of post-Soviet countries into the reviving binary logic of EU – Russia conflictual interaction
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    The War in Chechnya in Russian Cinematographic Representations: Biopolitical Patriotism in 'Unsovereign' Times
    (2016) Makarychev, Andrey
    This paper addresses the intricacies of patriotism during the two wars in Chechnya (1994-1996 and 1999-2000) as represented in Russian cinematographic narratives
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    When Goliath Meets Goliath: How Russia and the EU Created the Vicious Circle of Instability in Moldova
    (Global Affairs, 2016) Nizhnikau, Ryhor
    Moldova (like most of the post-Soviet countries) suffers from state capture, endemic corruption and a lack of prosperity. This article examines the policies of the EU and Russia in Moldova and in particular how they have contributed to the dysfunctional institutions, political instability and social unrest that have become a permanent feature in the country’s development. Comparing Russia’s and the EU’s policies on the eve of and after the Parliamentary elections in Moldova of 2014, it argues that Russian and EU policies in Moldova are similar in their strategies. They both focus on creating a support base for their vision of Moldova’s future among local elites and both thereby become involved in domestic politics. The winners are the domestic elites that use external assistance to maintain existing structures and institutions that support an inefficient state which continues to extract rents and through which they manage to stay in power. A consequence of the preservation of inefficient state structures and mechanisms is the uneven distribution of power and resources, flourishing corruption and the impoverishment of the population. The elite-oriented policies of both Russia and the EU reinforce, rather than improve, the status quo in Moldova and contribute thereby to greater domestic instability, prevent substantial economic growth and increase existing social problems in the country.
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    Stabilizing Dispersed Identities, or Why Politics Defines EU-Russia Disconnections?
    (London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Ltd., 2016) Makarychev, Andrey
    This chapter looks at the crisis in EU–Russia relations, with the conflict over Ukraine at its zenith, from the viewpoint of the twin concepts of boundaries and borders deployed at the intersection of competing research perspectives.
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    Russian Speakers in Estonia: Legal, (Bio)Political and Security Insights
    (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan., 2016) Makarychev, Andrey; Hoffmann, Thomas
    The key question this chapter tackles is how two governments, the Russian and the Estonian, tackle a whole range of issues pertaining to the Russian-speaking community of Estonia. The authors single out the legal, political and security aspects of the existence and functioning of this community and put them into different contexts, in particular those embedded in Estonia’s relations with the EU, EU-Russia conflicts and the refugee crisis in Europe.
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    Nation Building, Political Boundaries and Cultural Authenticity: Post-Soviet Borderlands in Transformation
    (Cambridge Scholars Publshing, 2016) Makarychev, Andrey; Yatsyk, Alexandra
    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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    Both in-between and out: national sovereignty and cross-border governmentality in the Euro 2012 in Lviv
    (London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. (New Georgaphies of Europe)., 2016) Makarychev, Andrey; Yatsyk, Alexandra
    The chapter focuses on the case of Lviv as a host city of UEFA Cup in 2012, and approaches this case study from the perspective of governmentality
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    Rocking the Sochi Olympics Narrative: Boris Nemtsov and Putin’s Sovereignty
    (2016) Makarychev, Andrey
    The authors analyze Nemtsov’s contribution to the Olympic debate from the viewpoint of his public activism, as well as in terms of some concepts embedded in different political theories
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    Restraining Rivalries? US Alliance Policy and the Challenges of Regional Security in the Middle East and East Asia
    (Royal Irish Academy, 2016) McNamara, Eoin Micheál
    Barack Obama’s US presidency clearly signalled that America aims to re-order its foreign policy preferences to emphasise Asia. This article examines the challenges for US alliance management in the Middle East and East Asia, the two regions that have encountered the sharpest turnaround in terms of the US strategic attention received, as measured by the past decade. The threat of regional rivalries, linked to wider nuclear proliferation, lingers over both these regions. In addressing the Middle East, this article will focus on the problematic US-Saudi alliance; this arrangement represents a fragile regional linchpin, preventing further nuclear proliferation and regional destabilisation. By comparison, East Asia is a far more stable security order. However, it is argued that the US will continue to face a difficult balancing act between its accommodation of China’s ‘peaceful rise’ and the credible assurance of its nervous allies: Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
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    Ice Hockey World Championship in Belarus: Political Context
    (2016) Nizhnikau, Ryhor
    The chapter claims that promotion of mass and elite sport has a special place in Lukashenka’s domestic policies, which made the 2014 Ice Hockey World Championship in Minsk a politically important event for the regime. The authors show how the Belorussian government uses sports to promote its domestic and international agenda and those aims which the state attains through hosting the World Championship. The chapter discusses different facets of politicization of this event.
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    Глас народа: украинский конфликт глазами латиноамериканцев
    (2016) Pavlova, Elena
    Анализируя средства массовой информации Латинской Америки и результаты опросов, проведенных в Боливии в декабре 2014 г., автор пытается выявить ключевые моменты дискуссии о событиях в Украине и определить, насколько Россия может рассчитывать на поддержку государств региона в своем противостоянии с Западом, что именно влияет на наличие или отсутствие данной поддержки.
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    The Limits to Russian Soft Power in Georgia
    (2016) Makarychev, Andrey
    This paper looks at conditions that stipulated the emergence of soft power as a peculiar type of discourse and policy practice in Russia, with a particular focus on Russian-Georgian relations
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    Russia “Understanders” in Europe: Discourses, Communication, Consequences / Россия и ее «понимающие» союзники: Дискурсы, коммуникация, последствия
    (2016) Makarychev, Andrey; Braghiroli, Stefano
    The article discusses how and to what extent non-mainstream political parties in EU member states can be sensitive and responsive to the Kremlin-imposed political agenda