UPTAKE 2017. aasta publikatsioonid

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10062/58448

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Biopolitical conservatism and “pastoral power”: a Russia – Georgia meeting point.
(Tbilisi: Georgian Institute of Politics., 2017) Makarychev, Andrey
The paper applies the concept of biopolitics to the analysis of Russia's relations with Georgia. It highlights the centrality of Orthodoxy for Russia's "soft power" and religious diplomacy.
Biopolitics and national identities: between liberalism and totalization
(Routledge, 2017) Makarychev, Andrey
This is an introductory article to the special cluster on the biopolitical reading of nation-building in post-Soviet countries. The authors explain the advatnages of using the biopolitical approach to countries with hybrid identities, and discuss the totalizing potential of biopolitical narratives
Biopower and Geopolitics as Russia's neighbourhood strategies: reconnecting people or reaggregating lands?
(Routledge, 2017) Makarychev, Andrey
In this article, we address geopolitics and biopower as two different yet mutually correlative discursive strategies of sovereign power in Russia. We challenge the dominant realist approaches to Russia’s neighborhood policy by introducing the concept of biopolitics as its key element, which makes analysis of political relations in the post-Soviet area more nuanced and variegated. More specifically, we address an important distinction between geopolitical control over territories and management of population as two of Russia’s strategies in its “near abroad.”
Eastern Borderlands as Europe-Makers: (How) Can neighbours redefine the EU?
(2017) Makarychev, Andrey
A general and strategic effect of EU’s Association Agreements and DCFTAs with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine has been the extension of the concept of Europe and its wider opening to neighborhoods and margins. It is on this basis that a European normative order can be differentiated from both the ‘Russian world’ and Eurasian geopolitical space. However this paper argues that the process of association is not a unilateral move, but a multilateral and reciprocal development; it is a way for Europe to know more about itself, and to politically redefine itself. The neighbourhood policy causes controversial effects on the EU. On the one hand, it consolidates the liberal minded groups within European societies eager to see the EU as a promoter of values of freedom and civic liberties to be projected eastwards and defended in EU’s neighborhood. On the other hand, the problems of practical implementation tend to solidify sceptical groups in both the EU and its associated neighbours that contest not only the deepening of EU’s engagement with Ukraine, but EU ’s normative project as a whole. The implementation of the joint strategy of the EU and its close neighbours faces a challenge of finding a proper balance between two dominant – yet to a large extent contradictory – approaches. One consists of capitalizing on these countries’ status as victims of Russia’s policies, countries whose very existence is under threat, which implies support and help from the EU. Another, requiring much more consistent efforts, is for the associated neighbouring states to emerge as positive showcases of transition, and useful partners contributing not only to the transformation process in post-Soviet area, but also to EU’s and NATO’s security. The recent three years made clear that the former alone does not guarantee to Ukraine, Georgia or Moldova a fully-fledged European voice.
Estonia and the refugees: political discourses and artistic representations
(2017) Makarychev, Andrey
The article addresses two dimensions of the refugee debate in Estonia – political discourses and cultural representations. The authors specifically focus on distinctions between the mainstream Estonian narrative and that of the Russophone community, as well as on the role of Russia and Europe as two major shapers of the refugee debate
From Sochi - 2014 to FIFA - 2018: a Fading Sovereignty?
(2017) Makarychev, Andrey; Yatsyk, Alexandra
In this article, we uncover the dynamics and the evolution of Russian discourses of sovereignty before and after the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games using some elements of Foucauldian methodology and constructivist reading of sovereignty as an institution. We argue that there is a discrepancy between the rhetoric of sovereign power and the institutional practices in which it is embedded. It leads us to theorize that sovereignty discourses are contextual, unstable and constitutively shaped by commitments taken as key elements of international socialization. In the case of Russia, these discourses can be divided into three groups: pre-Sochi, post-Sochi and pre-World 2018 Cup discursive formations. As we venture to demonstrate, Putin's model of sovereignty is in crisis, yet it has support, both domestic and international. In the near future, sport is likely to remain one of those spheres of high visibility where the ideology of surviving under sanctions and counter-attacking the West will be reified.
Lotman's Cultural Semiotics and the Political
(London, New York: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2017) Makarychev, Andrey; Yatsyk, Alexandra
The authors analyse Lotman's semiotics in a series of temporal contexts, starting with the rigidity of Soviet-era ideologies, through to the post-Soviet de-politicization that - paradoxically enough - ended with the reproduction of Soviet-style hegemonic discourse in the Kremlin and ultimately reignited politically divisive conflicts between Russia and Europe. The book demonstrates how Lotman's ideas cross disciplinary boundaries and their relevance to many European theorists of cultural studies, discourse analysis and political philosophy. Lotman lived and worked in Estonia, which, even under Soviet rule, maintained its own borderland identity located at the intersection of Russian and European cultural flows. The authors argue that in this context Lotman’s theories are particularly revealing in relation to Russian-European interactions and communications, both historically and in a more contemporary sense.
Redefining Europe: Russia and the 2015 Refugee Crisis
(Geopolitics, 2017) Makarychev, Andrey; Braghiroli, Stefano
This article uses approaches embedded in practical and popular geopolitics for analysing how Russia capitalizes on the refugee crisis to redefine Europe. Two of Russia’s European policies are at the centre of this analysis: 1) Moscow’s direct appeal to Russian-speaking communities, and 2) the Kremlin’s liaisons with Eurosceptic parties of national conservative background. The main questions these two policies raise are: 1) how Russia benefits from anti-refugee attitudes among European national conservative groups, and 2) how illustrative Russia’s policies are of Moscow’s strategy toward Europe in the context of the refugee crisis. The article argues that, for Russia, these two policies constitute a strategy of re-entry into Europe from which Moscow was increasingly isolated in the aftermath of the annexation of Crimea in 2014. In this context, the authors claim that the refugee crisis has widened room for Russia’s return to the European (geo)political scene through a strategy of redefining Europe in more conservative and traditionalist terms, as opposed to the liberal cosmopolitanism of EU’s project. Using the concepts of trans-ideology and biopolitics, the article claims that Russia’s strategy of re-entry includes narratives of othering today’s Orientalized Europe and salvaging it from liberal tolerance, political correctness and cultural fragmentation.
Russia’s role in regional cooperation and the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR)
(2017) Makarychev, Andrey; Sergunin, Alexander
This article examines EU–Russian relations in the Baltic Sea region (BSR) utilizing the concepts of counter-hegemonic socialization and soft power. The implications of the Ukrainian crisis for regional cooperation in the BSR are also taken into account. The compatibility of EU and Russian regional strategies are considered, as well as how these can often be mutually unaware of one another, or even confrontational. It argues that BSR regional institutions on the one hand face multiple challenges but, on the other, assume a vital role in the promotion of EU–Russian dialogue, offering some potential of bridging the differences in regional strategy.
The biopolitical turn in post-ideological times: a trajectory of Russian transformation
(Tartu: University of Tartu Press, 2017) Makarychev, Andrey
The authors study the applicability of the concept of biopolitics to contemporary Russian society and the ruling regime. The article singles our several domains of biopower that play major roles in defining the nature of Russian political regime
The Sword and the Violin: Aesthetics of Russia’s Security Policy
(2017) Makarychev, Andrey
The article addresses the sphere of performing arts as part of Russia’s security policy and, in particular, its propaganda dimensions. The authors approach cultural representations as appeals to universal norms rather than to national interests and in this respect focus on two specific cases of aestheticization of military force applied beyond the national borders of the Russian Federation — in Georgia in August 2008 and in Syria since September 2015. These cases are comparable with each other, since the external projections of Russia’s hard power were accompanied by similar cultural gestures — namely, public concerts of classical music performed by the world-famous Valery Gergiev’s Mariinsky Theater in two sites controlled by Russian troops, Tskhinvali and Palmyra. The article argues that the Russian government uses two strategies of aestheticizing its military missions — mimetic (implying the closest possible correspondence to reality) and aesthetic (based on imageries), though the distinction between the two is not always well fixed.
Vocabularies of International relations after the Crisis in Ukraine
(London and New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Ltd., 2017) Makarychev, Andrey
The edited volume discusses the applicability of an ample variety of academic conceptualizations – from rationalist to reflectivist, and from quantitative to qualitative - to teh pos-2014 international relations. The authors claim that many of the old concepts – such as multipolarity, spheres of influence, sovereignty, or even containment – are still cognitively valid, yet with the eruption of the crisis in Russia – Ukraine relations they are used in different contexts and thus infused with different meanings. It is exactly these multiple conceptual languages that this volume puts at the centre of analysis.

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