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The 14th of August 2022 is the 30th anniversary of the start of the war between the Georgians and the Abkhazians in the decades-long dispute over ownership of the small territory known to the autochthonous Abkhazians as Apsny, to the Georgians as apxazeti, and to most of the world as Abkhazia. For much of the world, the territory remains either a thoroughly unknown or, at best, poorly known country and, for many, a disputed region… This project is the continuation of the earlier “Reflections on Abkhazia: [14 August] 1992-2012”, which was completed 10 years ago. It aims to bring together different points of view on Abkhazia and the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. The authors were given com...
An examination of why Russia chose to jeopardize its embryonic partnership with the West in favour of alignment with states like China, Iran and Iraq and what this means for the stability of the emerging international system.
DIVSince the end of the Cold War, the assumption among most political theorists has been that as nations develop economically, they will also become more democratic—especially if a vibrant middle class takes root. This assumption underlies the expansion of the European Union and much of American foreign policy, bolstered by such examples as South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and even to some extent Russia. Where democratization has failed or retreated, aberrant conditions take the blame: Islamism, authoritarian Chinese influence, or perhaps the rise of local autocrats./divDIV /divDIVBut what if the failures of democracy are not exceptions? In this thought-provoking study of democratization, Joshua Kurlantzick proposes that the spate of retreating democracies, one after another over the past two decades, is not just a series of exceptions. Instead, it reflects a new and disturbing trend: democracy in worldwide decline. The author investigates the state of democracy in a variety of countries, why the middle class has turned against democracy in some cases, and whether the decline in global democratization is reversible./div
Explores what happened when Germans from three different empires were forced to live together in Poland after the First World War.
Autocracies not only resist the global spread of democracy but are sources of autocratic influence and pressure. This book presents a conceptual model to understand, assess, and explain the promotion and diffusion of authoritarian elements. Employing a cross-regional approach, leading experts empirically test the concept of authoritarian gravity centers (AGCs), defined as "regimes that constitute a force of attraction and contagion for countries in geopolitical proximity." With an analysis extending across Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Asia, these AGCs are shown to be effective as active promoters (push) or as neutral sources of attraction (pull). The auth...
Autocratization in Contemporary Uganda analyses two interrelated outcomes: autocratisation, manifest in the deepening of personalist rule or Musevenism, and the regime resilience that has made Museveni one of Africa's current-longest surviving rulers. How has this feat been possible, and what has been the trajectory of Museveni's increasingly autocratic rule? Surveying that trajectory since 1986, the book takes as its primary focus the years since 2005; bringing to the fore the 'autocratic turn', placing it within a broader comparative lens, and enriching it with comparative references to cases outside of Uganda. While positing the notion of 'autocratic adaptability' as a defining hallmark of Museveni's rule, the book examines the factors and forces that have made that adaptability possible, analysing the dynamics around three keys themes: institutions, resources, and coalitions. Through empirical research, each chapter seeks to demonstrate how either one or two of these three variables have functioned in propelling autocratization and assuring regime resilience - producing theoretical and and comparative implications that reach beyond Uganda.
Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject Cultural Studies - East European Studies, grade: 1,3, Free University of Berlin, language: English, abstract: This article seeks to uncover whether and in what way democratic countries engage into autocracy promotion based on the example of US-Yugoslav relations during the famous Tito-Stalin split of 1948 and in association the "Informbiro period". In particular, it will try to prove that even democracies will support authoritarian regimes and consequently promote autocracy, if it is in their national interest as it was in the case of the U.S. during the Eastern Bloc crisis. After Yugoslavia was excluded from the Cominform, a supranational alli...