contributors

Articles by Roland Kostić

1. Just Like in Europe But Not Really. Constitutional Referendum in Azerbaijan

   Azerbaijan, politically, culturally and sportively, argues it wants to be considered a “European”, modern and admirable country. This becomes problematic, as nation branding can never replace state building. On September 26 the population of Azerbaijan went to the polls to give their opinion on no less than 29 proposed amendments to different chapters of the 1995 Constitution. It is no overstatement that the Referendum went by largely disregarded by the international community – and on average the Azerbaijani population did not care much.

2. Landslide victory for the Georgian Dream in Georgia’s parliamentary elections

   The low turnout is one of the most worrying signals in these elections. Only 51.6 percent of the electorate went out to vote. The incumbent party the Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia (GD) did win a striking mandate with 115 of the total 150 seats in the Georgian Parliament. The party will now be able to govern without support from other parties, and it also passed the 113 seats required to make constitutional changes.

3. Baltic Russians under pressures. A minority with split identities

   Kalle Kniivilä, Sovjets barnbarn: Ryssarna i Baltikum. [The grandchildren of the Soviet Union: The Russians in the Baltic states] Atlas 2016. 320 pages

4. Fashion in the Soviet Union. A glimpse of everyday reality

   Jukka Gronow and Sergey Zhuravlev, Fashion Meets Socialism, Fashion Industry in the Soviet Union after the Second World War Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2015 303 pages

5. A decolonial view of Baltic Drama. Countering postcolonial narratives

   Benedikts Kalnačs, 20th Century Baltic Drama: Postcolonial Narratives, Decolonial Options, Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2016. 235 pages

6. Russia’s postcolonial identity. Beyond the modernization/cultural determinism debate

   Viacheslav Morozov, Russia’s Postcolonial Identity: A Subaltern Empire in a Eurocentric World. New York, and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, viii + 209 pages

7. On policymaking and policy change in Russia

   Policy-making is an applied process. We can ask: towards what end or goal are policy-makers striving? At present, as far as domestic and increasingly foreign policy-making in Russia are concerned, an important policy direction can be described with reference to development.

8. The case of the Baltic Sea area Spatial Politics & Fuzzy Regionalism

   This article engages with political region building by examining the diverging conceptions of the Baltic Sea region since the 1970s. It maps the fuzzy geography arising from the enmeshment of territory with a multitude of frameworks for regional action. After 1989, the region became the object of interregional and neighborhood policies established by the European Union, with shifting territorial delimitations according to various internal and geopolitical needs of the day.

9. The forest brothers – heroes & villains of the partisan war in Lithuania

   A new geopolitical situation in Lithuania has led to a growing need to focus on the purely heroic nature of the partisan war. The ideal picture of the heroic partisan is now in the forefront, while the more problematic aspects of their actions are downplayed. Among the darker side is that at least 9,000 civilians were designated as collaborators and executed by the Forest Brothers.

10. Understanding the Clashes Between historians & Roma Activists

    This paper deals with the dilemmas scholars can run into when they encounter the conflict between political activists and what can be proven by evidence. The dispute with historians revolves around what the anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot terms “Silencing the past”. This is certainly true in the case of the Roma and genocide. What complicates the case is that a long-standing memory is part of a still ongoing political activist campaign to build a recognized memory for all of Europe’s Roma.

11. « Older posts

    Newer posts »