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The collapse of communism in the Soviet Union has opened up a Pandora's box of communal conflicts. In most Western analyses the majority of these conflicts are subsumed under the heading "ethnic." This is often the case also with the conflict in Moldova between the national regime in Chišinàu and the insurgent regime in Tiraspol that controls the left bank of the Dnestr river. To be sure, there is an ethnic component to this conflict, but ethnicity clearly is not the main driving force behind it. While ethnic Moldovans make up approximately 70% of the inhabitants on the right bank, there is no ethnic majority on the left bank: 40% of the population are Moldovans, 25% Ukrainians, and 23% Russians. In fact, the Chišinàu leadership downplays the ethnic component in its standoff with Tiraspol. The values at stake, they insist, are basically political in nature.

Intro -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgments -- On Transliteration, Translations, References and Sources -- Author's preface -- Foreword -- 1. Introduction -- Research Aims -- Myths and the Invention of Nations -- Research on the Third Rome -- Theorizing the Modern Uses of a Medieval Idea -- Case Studies: Selection, Sources and Method -- Structure of the Book -- 2. Russian Nationalism -- Russian National Identity - Crisis and Reinvention -- Defining 'Nation' -- Defining 'Nationalism' -- Clarifying 'Invention' -- Russia - Different Nation, Different Nationalism -- (Political) Orthodoxy and Russian Nationalism -- A Tentative Typology of Russian Nationalism -- 3. Myths of a Myth? -- What is Political Myth? Definitions -- The Narrative of the Third Rome as Political Myth -- Scholarship versus Myth-Making -- Mythopoeic or 'Demythologizing': Generalist Scholarship -- Back to the Sources? -- Escaping the 'Purist' Paradigm -- 4. Vadim Tsymburskii - Island Third Rome -- The Rise of a Civilization -- Island Russia - Island Third Rome -- Prime Symbol -- Third Rome - Third International - Kitezh -- Hermeneutics of the Apocalypse: the Fourth Rome -- After the Apocalypse: the Russian Counter-Reformation -- Conclusions -- 5. Aleksandr Dugin - To Kill for the Third Rome -- Rome and Carthage -- The Russian Eurasian Empire -- Sacral Geography: Dugin the 'Jungian' Analyst -- The Wheel of the Third Rome: the Sole Modus Vivendi -- Dugin's Symphony of Geopolitics and 'Theology' -- Moscow as Katechon -- Messianism -- The Catastrophic Schism -- Peter I Seals the Fate of the Third Rome - Temporarily -- The Transcendental Third Rome -- The Bolshevik Restoration of the Third Rome -- The Ethics of the Third Rome - Thou Shalt Kill -- The Future of the Third Rome -- Conclusions -- 6. Nataliia Narochnitskaia - Inverting the Myth -- Narochnitskaia's Weltanschauung.

Gegenstand der Untersuchung sind die Auseinandersetzungen zwischen der Moldauischen Regierung in Chisinau und der 1990 ausgerufenen Dniester Moldau Republik (PMR). Die Verfasser zeichnen zunächst die Entwicklung der bewaffneten Auseinandersetzungen im Sommer 1992 nach und geben einen Überblick über die Bevölkerungsstruktur in der Region. Sie skizzieren im folgenden den historischen Hintergrund des gegenwärtigen Konflikts in der Dniester-Region seit dem 10. Jahrhundert. Es schließt sich eine Chronik der politischen Entwicklung seit 1989 an, die durch die widerstreitenden Konzepte der Gründung eines unabhängigen Staates einerseits und der Vereinigung mit Rumänien andererseits bestimmt ist. Die Positionen Rumäniens, der Ukraine und Rußlands im Dniester-Konflikt werden dargestellt. Abschließend wird nach politischen Perspektiven zur Beilegung des Konflikts gefragt. (BIOst-Wpt)

"Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 brought East-West relations to a low. But, by selling the annexation in starkly nationalist terms to grassroots nationalists, Putin's popularity reached record heights. This volume examines the interactions and tensions between state and societal nationalisms before and after the annexation"--

What opportunities and trade-offs do de facto states encounter in developing economic ties with the outside world? This article explores the complex relationship between trade and trust in the context of contested statehood. Most de facto states are heavily dependent on an external patron for economic aid and investment. However, we challenge the widespread assumption that de facto states are merely hapless pawns in the power-play of their patrons. Such an approach fails to capture the conflict dynamics involved. Drawing on a case study of Abkhazia, we explore how this de facto state navigates between its "patron" Russia, its "parent state" Georgia, and the EU. The conflict transformation literature has highlighted the interrelationship between trust and trade – but how does this unfold in the context of continued nonrecognition and contested statehood? Does trade serve to facilitate trust and hence prospects for conflict transformation? With Abkhazia, we find scant correlation between trust and trade: in the absence of formal recognition, trade does not necessarily facilitate trust. However, the interrelationship between trade, trust, and recognition proves more complex than expected: we find less trust in the patron and more trade with the parent than might have been anticipated. ; publishedVersion

(...) Bohr, Annette: Independent Turkmenistan: from post-Communism to sultanism Cummings, Sally N.: Kazakhstan: managing heterogeneity Luckins, Meg: Kyrgyzstan: Liberalisation and economic reform Horsman, Stuart: Uzbekistan: ten years of gradualism or stagnation? Abazov, Rafis: Tajikistan: independent Tajikistan: ten lost years Anderson, John: Constitutional change in Central Asia Gretsky, Sergei: In search of civil society in Central Asia Zelkina, Anna: Continuity and change in the societies of Central Asia and the Caucasus: a theoretical approach Kadyrov, Shokhrat: Turkmenistan: the political elite in an ethnic society Kolsto, Pal: Nation-building and language standardisation in Kazakhstan Childress, Malcolm D.: Agricultural restructuring in Kyrgyzstan: the next phase Roberts, John: Caspian oil and gas: how far have we come and where are we going? Riches, Peter: Perspectives on the political risk system for Western multinational oil company investment in Central Asia Heslop, Helen Boss: The Caspian states of the former Soviet Union: economic performances since 1998 Horsman, Stuart: The Caspian Sea: the management and politicisation of the maritime ecosystem in a period of transition Boyle, Alan: Central Asian water problems: the role of international law Allison, Roy: Central Asian military reform: national, regional and international influences Shirazi, Habibollah Abolhassan: Russian national interests and its policies in the Caspian geopolitical region Ismagambetov, Talga T.: Some geopolitical peculiarities of Central Asia, past and present Erickson, John: Eurasian manoeuvres

From the standpoint of world history, the collapse of the Soviet Union is unremarkable. That this event took the world by surprise suggests that political analysts, their attention focused on current affairs, can overlook underlying trends and countertrends that eventually make even dramatic events seem secondary. When trends and countertrends are in equilibrium, they generate an illusion of stability. But in the long run, the possibility of disequilibrium approaches certainty and the result is discontinuity.