Space, nature and hierarchy: the ecosystemic politics of the Caspian Sea
The Anthropocene has given rise to growing efforts to govern the world’s ecosystems. There is a hitch, however, ecosystems do not respect sovereign borders; hundreds traverse more three states and thus require complex international cooperation. This article critically examines the political and social consequences of the growing but understudied trend towards transboundary ecosystem cooperation. Matchmaking the new hierarchy scholarship in International Relations (IR) and political geography, the article theorises how ecosystem discourse embodies a latent spatially exclusive logic that can bind together and bound from outside unusual bedfellows in otherwise politically awkward spaces. The authors contend that such ‘ecosystemic politics’ can generate spatialised ‘broad hierarchies’ that cut across both Westphalian renderings of space and the latent post-colonial and/or material inequalities that have hitherto been the focus of most of the new hierarchies scholarship. Rowe and Beaumont illustrate their argument by conducting a multilevel longitudinal analysis of how Caspian Sea environmental cooperation has produced a broad hierarchy demarking and sharpening the boundaries of the region, become symbolic of Caspian in-group competence and neighbourliness, and used as a rationale for future Caspian-shaped cooperation. They reason that if ecosystemic politics can generate new renderings of space amid an otherwise heavily contested space as the Caspian, further research is warranted to explore systemic hierarchical consequences elsewhere.
PODCAST: Putin’s potential headache: The anti-mobilization protests in North Caucasus
The Mighty West, Two Empires, and the Lost Glory of Caucasus: Foreign Policy Visions in President Zviad Gamsakhurdia’s Rhetoric
This article systematically analyses the foreign policy visions of the first President of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia. Specifically, it looks at the perceptions and representations of the external space - the world, Russia/Soviet Union, West/Europe, and Caucasus - and Georgia’s role vis-à-vis these focus areas in Gamsakhurdia’s rhetoric. Using the interpretive-explanatory method of inquiry, the article scrutinises 267 statements, letters, interviews, programs, and political speeches of Gamsakhurdia, covering the period from November 1990 to December 1993. Textual analysis takes place at two levels; the article identifies recurring themes and meanings pertaining to the four focus areas and traces how and why these themes and meanings change over time. The findings show two gaps in the scholarly literature; the article challenges the predominant position that Gamsakhurdia’s stance on Moscow was overly antagonistic, and that his rhetoric was heavily informed by religious readings of international politics. The article also shows that Gamsakhurdia’s portrayal of Georgia is of a besieged country – of a country that is trapped in the Soviet Union and that is trying to end its isolation by seeking alliances abroad – first in the West and then in Caucasus.
Post Post-Sovjet, stil og opprør: Symbolikk og subversiv nasjonalisme i Gosja Rubtsjinskijs «nye Russland»
This article explores the resonance enjoyed by streetwear designer Gosha Rubchinskiy among young Russians, and the extensive network that has emerged under his wings and refers to itself as ‘the new Russia’. Analysis of Rubchinskiy’s work, with Dick Hebdige’s semiotic approach as the epistemological context, supplemented by insights from Simon Reynolds, Michel Foucault and Michel Maffesoli, reveals a continuous deconstruction of the Russian regime’s hegemonic narrative of Russianness – so-called ‘Putinism’. At the same time, Rubchinskiy constructs a countercultural form of Russian national belonging, one with room to accommodate those who feel alienated by mainstream Russian national- ism. From a social science perspective, a countercultural inclusive nation-building project is in itself a paradox – so how are we to understand Gosha Rubchinskiy’s ‘new Russia’?
COVspiracy? COVID-19 conspiracy theories in Putin’s Russia
For years the Kremlin has been promoting conspiracy theories to legitimize its actions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the regime itself became the target of such theories.
How Russian press describes Ukrainian refugees
PODCAST: Abkhazia between Russia and the outside world
Russia’s New ‘War Nationalism’: How Nationalist Rhetoric Prepared the Ground for the Invasion of Ukraine
Ahead of Russia’s war on Ukraine, various nationalist tropes have gradually been incorporated into Russian official rhetoric. What can studying the regime’s emergent ‘war nationalism’ tell us about the identity dimension of the current conflict?
Siri Strand
Siri Strand is a visiting research fellow at NUPI’s Centre for digitalisation and cyber security studies and a member of the Research Group on Sec...
How do contested states seek international recognition? The case of Abkhazia
Abkhazia’s contested status is a source of geopolitical conflict between states and alliances. But how has the campaign to expand this unrecognised state’s network of diplomatic contacts been conducted?