Neighbourhood Perceptions of the Ukraine Crisis: From the Soviet Union into Eurasia? / Edition 1

by Gerhard Besier, Katarzyna Stoklosa

Overview

Recent events in Ukraine and Russia and the subsequent incorporation of Crimea into the Russian state, with the support of some circles of inhabitants of the peninsula, have shown that the desire of people to belong to the Western part of Europe should not automatically be assumed. Discussing different perceptions of the Ukrainian-Russian war in neighbouring countries, this book offers an analysis of the conflicts and issues connected with the shifting of the border regions of Russia and Ukraine to show how ’material’ and ’psychological’ borders are never completely stable ideas. The contributors – historians, sociologists, anthropologists and political scientists from across Europe – use an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to explore the different national and transnational perceptions of a possible future role for Russia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472484949
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/17/2016
Series:	Post-Soviet Politics
Pages:	282
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Gerhard Besier is currently Director of the Sigmund Neumann Institute (Berlin, Dresden, Flensburg) and teaches at Stanford University, USA.

Katarzyna Stokłosa is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Management, Centre for Border Region Studies at the University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.

Table of Contents

Contents

List of illustrations

Notes on contributors

List of abbreviations

1 Introduction

Gerhard Besier and Katarzyna Stokłosa

2 European Union conflict transformation as cross-border co-operation: potential and limits

Cathal McCall

3 Reconceptualizing European neighbourhood beyond geopolitics: observations on eastern partnership

James Wesley Scott

Part I Russia and Ukraine: an ambivalent neighbourhood

4 Russian perceptions of the Ukrainian crisis: from confrontation to damage limitation?

Alexander Sergunin

5 A squeezed country: Ukraine between Europe and Eurasia

Mikhail A. Molchanov

Part II Russian borders in the light of the crisis

6 Shifting borders: unpredictability and strategic distrust at the Finnish–Russian border

Jussi Laine

7 Russia–EU borderlands after the Ukraine crisis: the case of Narva

Andrey Makarychev And Alexandra Yatsyk

8 Invested in Ukraine: the struggle of Lithuania against Russia over the future of Europe

Dovilė Jakniūnaitė

9 Fearing the worst: a Latvian view on Russia and the conflict in Ukraine

Ilvija BruĢe and Kārlis Bukovskis

10 T he return of geopolitics: Georgia in the shadow of Russian–Ukrainian conflict

Kornely Kakachia

11 Having deja vu: the perception of the Ukrainian crisis in the Republic of Moldova

Corneliu Pintilescu and Onoriu Colăcel

12 Ukraine and Russia in crisis: a Polish view

Katarzyna Stokłosa

13 T he Caspian States’ perception of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia

Justyna Misiągiewicz

Part III Ukrainian–Russian conflict: world views, belief systems and ideologies as sources and instruments

14 Sources of popular support and opposition to the Putin regime

Cameron Ross

15 Expanding religious borders? The new influence of some old state churches: the Russian Orthodoxy

Gerhard Besier

16 Ukraine: historical notes on reunification of the Russian lands

Jukka Korpela

Index of persons

Index of places