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Following a short-term burst of politically-motivated migration activity after the dissolution of the USSR, the current period is marked by the general contraction of the population territorial mobility in the region, the increasing importance of external emigration, and the growing role of the socio-economic factors in defining the character and intensity of the new migration flows. The expansion and substitution of temporary labor migration for the permanent politically motivated migration flows is particularly visible. Another important characteristic of the current situation is the disproportionate influence exercised by Russia on the formation of migration flows in the region. Russia remains the major recipient of migrants, increasingly plays a role of supplier of labor migrants to the West, and acts as a ?bridge? for those attempting to reach Western Europe. Relying on the data of the migrant households? surveys conducted in a number of post-Soviet states, the paper considers the reasons for the shift from the ethnic and political to the socio-economic factors of migration and discusses the major characteristics of the newly-forming labor migration flows. The major issues under consideration include the durability of the labor migration and the structural (professional and demographic) characteristics and the territorial orientation of the new migration flows. The authors conclude that labor migration serves as an effective mechanism of the market transition, providing for the economic survival of the population under the crisis conditions and formation of the middle class in the post-Soviet societies. Special attention in the paper is given to the policies of the countries of emigration and immigration towards the labor migrants and their impact on those countries? labor markets and welfare mechanisms. The authors see as one of the major problems the absence of an effective legislative base, institutional mechanisms, and political will for dealing with the new migration flows, preventing the effective incorporation of labor migrants by the societies of receiving states. This complicates the acquisition of legal status by many labor migrants, resulting in the criminalization of the spheres of economic activity in which they are employed and the growing corruption of state officials. Thus the solution of the problems associated with labor migration requires a comprehensive reform of the governmental policies and the labor and migrant legislation of the post-Soviet states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the collapse of the USSR, ‘Westerners’ and ‘Eurasianists’ have competed to exercise control over Russian foreign policy. In the mid-1990s, the ‘Eurasianists,’ exemplified by figures such as Alexander Dugin and Andranik Migranian, were ascendant, and many speculated the rise of Vladimir Putin would further their fortunes and signal a turn to a more aggressive, hard-nosed Russia. However, Putin’s foreign policy, like his predecessors’, is not under the sway of a single ideology or direction. This paper will examine the status of ‘Eurasianism’ in Russian foreign policy under Putin, and in particular will look at Russian foreign policy in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), where ‘Eurasianism’ took the form of a so-called ‘Monroeski Doctrine.’ Obviously, this unilateral claim of a sphere of influence has been challenged by other states, chief among them the United States, particularly after 9/11. As a consequence, Russians have had to re-think and in some cases re-assert their previous stances, trying to strike a balance between cooperation with the US and maintaining hegemony over the region. In addition to describing the broad contours of Putin’s approach to the CIS, this paper also hopes to assess what factors are driving and (re)shaping policy toward neighboring states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the CNS Visiting Fellows program targeting young and mid-career professionals from the former Soviet Union and East Asia, including governmental officials, technical experts, researchers, and faculty. This program designed to enhance participants’ knowledge of various aspects of nonproliferation and arms control field provides research, training, dialogue, and networking opportunities that the fellows carry back to their home institutions. The paper describes main components of the training, which includes lectures and selected graduate-level courses, seminars, and independent research, explaining benefits of each component. Reflecting upon successful outcomes of such program, the paper investigates benefits of joint training of professionals from different countries with different backgrounds, and examines dynamics of their interactions between each other and CNS experts. The paper concludes with the importance of such training for the international community, emphasizes the need to expand this program to other regions of the world, and gives recommendations to policy-makers. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How much additional insight into our understanding of economic transition in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union can we garner by taking seriously the notion that foreign direct investors are pushing for economic reform rather than just riding in to reward policy changes? In this paper, I argue quite a lot; demonstrating the independent influence of foreign direct investment (FDI) on reform with a cross-national test of investor influence in 25 transition states. Using the exogenous portion of a country's exchange rate movements (determined by monthly changes in a basket of OECD currencies) as an instrument in a two-stage procedure, I find evidence that changes in the cumulative stock of FDI have a strong influence on economic reform. Further analysis reveals the relationship is particularly strong in the manufacturing and service sectors, but does not hold for construction, utilities, or natural resource based projects. In addition to its theoretical contribution, the paper provides a useful instrument for other scholars hoping to explore the impact of FDI in other contexts. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper analyses the role of migration as a factor of socio-economic stabilization in the CIS region. Considering labor migration as an essential element of open societies, and labor market--as an integral part of the market system, the paper concentrates of the issue of migrants' remittances--their scale, forms, and territorial distribution. The major issues under consideration include the impact of migrants' remittances on their households' well-being and the socioeconomic stability of the source and host countries. Of special interest to the authors is the issue of the governmental response to the migration-affiliated financial flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic coercion of states by other states, especially in relationships of asymmetrical dependency, is an increasingly prominent and important phenomenon in international relations. The linkages between economic coercion and foreign policy conduct appear not only evident but inevitable. The region of the former Soviet Union provides fertile ground for the exploration and testing of these linkages between foreign policy and economic coercion. Particularly in the field of energy, where Russia continues to be one of primary suppliers of oil and natural gas to some of the former Soviet republics, the use of economic leverage in the context of inter-state relations is quickly becoming a prominent topic of theoretical and empirical research. Building upon the limited existing literature on the topic, the following paper explores the question of whether or not and how the Russian Federation uses energy dependency as leverage in its relations with selected former Soviet states a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Empire. More specifically, this paper highlights inconsistencies in existing theoretical explanations and detects patterns in current Russian foreign policy with respect to energy dependency. First, this paper argues that Russia's usage of energy leverage is consistent with an overall trend shifting emphasis from traditional military/political to an economic security framework of the Russian state. Second, the paper illustrates that Russia has consistently and adamantly attempted to depoliticize the issue of economic coercion. Finally, the paper suggests that despite some notable patterns, Russia's usage of energy leverage still suffers from inconsistency of purpose, style, and outcome. The paper contributes to the broader body of international relations literature on economic dependency and coercion in the context of inter-state relations, as well as to the growing research on the security politics of the former Soviet region in the post-communist era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Newly independent states issue currencies for both economic and political reasons. Politically, the national currency demonstrates their sovereignty and juridical independence to international audiences, and helps create common ties and unifying symbols within the country. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, all fifteen successor states faced the problem of creating, or at least reinforcing, new national identities to replace decades of Soviet identity-building. This paper shows how state leaders used images on their currencies to help develop national identity. I create a typology of symbols available to national leaders and track which symbols all fifteen countries used on every banknote issued since independence.Based on that data, I make three main claims. First, each state had several different kinds of images it could use, so state leaders effectively chose from a menu of historically viable options. Some states chose to emphasize their medieval heritage, others the development of 19th century nationalism, and others their 20th century modernization. This evidence suggests that national identity is malleable-or at least that national leaders believe it is. Second, contrary to some predictions, these countries' currencies are not converging on a European or a post-modern model. Post-Soviet states have chosen a diverse set of symbols for their currencies and there is no single pattern that dominates. Third, I argue that differences in imagery are partially predictable by differences in regime type. More democratic states are more likely to choose to put individuals-poets, linguists, scientists, musicians, and other cultural figures-on their currencies. They are also more likely to include representations of women (although images of women are still rare). Authoritarian regimes are harder to predict: perhaps precisely because they have more autonomy from society their currency choices vary dramatically. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international dimension of ethnic conflicts is the focus of a large part of the literature dealing with the causes and evolution of ethnic strife. However, there is an important stage in the evolution of an ethnic conflict, which I call conflict diffusion that is less studied, probably because of its low rate of occurrence. Nonetheless, when an ethnic conflict does diffuse, there is a strong probability that the whole region might be submerged by violence, thus threatening the regional and even the international peace and stability. Recent third party interventions in ethnic conflicts with an important potential of diffusion showed that the international community became aware of this danger and was attempting to develop appropriate prevention strategies. In order to build a good prevention strategy, we must understand why an ethnic conflict, initially confined to one state, would diffuse to neighboring countries. Discovering which "risk" conditions favour the diffusion of an ethnic conflict is the main purpose of this paper. My research model combines both elements of ethnic conflict theories and of the international diffusion literature. My aim is to construct a diffusion index capable of assessing, at the regional level, the risk of regional spill-over in the case of a given ethnic conflict. The inspiration for creating the diffusion index came from the severity index originally developed by Michael Brecher and Patrick James (1986) in order to asses the severity of international crises. The diffusion index model is conceived for the post-Cold War ethnic conflicts and will be tested on a specific set of conflicts originating in Eastern Europe, ex-Soviet republics and Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Newly independent states issue currencies for both economic and political reasons. Politically, the national currency demonstrates their sovereignty and juridical independence to international audiences, and helps create common ties and unifying symbols within the country. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, all fifteen successor states faced the problem of creating, or at least reinforcing, new national identities to replace decades of Soviet identity-building. This paper shows how these states used currency names and symbols to help develop national identity. A primary contribution of this paper is to create a typology of symbols available to national leaders in this region and to track which symbols all fifteen countries used.Based on the typology, I make two main claims. First, each state had several different kinds of images it could use, so state leaders effectively chose from a menu of historically viable options. For example, the Baltic states largely ignored symbols linking them to interwar authoritarian regimes and focused on an earlier, less controversial common heritageâ€"especially the use of symbols from nature. This evidence suggests that national identity is malleableâ€"or at least that national leaders believe it is. Second, I argue that differences in symbols are partially predictable by differences in regime type. More democratic states are more likely to choose to put individualsâ€"especially poets, linguists, and other cultural figuresâ€"on their currencies; they are also more likely to include representations of women. Authoritarian regimes are more likely to choose symbols evoking ancient conquests or more recent national triumphs. Totalitarian states also choose to memorialize individuals, but in this case images of the dictator proliferate. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposed paper considers the role and dynamics of migrants? remittances in the post-Soviet region?their scale, forms, and territorial distribution. The major issues under consideration include the impact of migrants? remittances on their households? well-being and the socio-economic stability of the countries of emigration and immigration. The authors discuss both the negative (such as the increasing financial outflow from the receiving countries, the non-transparent character of many such flows, and the security aspects of the remittances problem) and the positive aspects of the migrants? financial transfers phenomenon. In this regard, of special interest to the authors is the stabilizing effect of migrants? remittances on the poorest post-Soviet states, including Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, and Tajikistan. The paper analyses the governmental response to the migration-affiliated financial flows in the region. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to a number of post-Sovietologists, the international politics involving the post-Soviet states since 1991 have gradually turned into the new theater of a mini-Cold War between the United States and Russia. This paper investigates this argument by exploring the extent and reasons behind United States and Russian documented formal and informal involvement in the electoral processes in Georgia and the Ukraine. It also offers a model mechanism (via network analysis) to illustrate the effects and effectiveness of such involvement. Mixed motives have been offered for this US-Russian competition for influence in the post-Soviet landscape. Moscow appears eager to reassert its authority in the near abroad to ensure the cooperation of former Republics in a range of issues (commerce, anti-terrorism), but the potential domestic political calculations of an increasingly authoritarian Russian president must also be accounted for. Washington?s foreign policy rhetoric indicates a strong interest in the active promotion of democracy, but they may be superceded by strategic considerations in the global war on terror and in strengthening diplomatic and military ties with the new states. First, the paper presents the two cases, with field work research material from the two elections, and an analysis of the Foreign Policies of the US and Russia relating to the two states. Further, it explores the effects of informal, non-governmental involvement and these organizations? agendas. Next, a theoretical section briefly presents the major IR theories and then the paper applies them to the conduct of the United States and Russia in the region, as well as to the foreign policy formulations of the Saakashvili and Yushchenko governments. Further, it offers a model for mobilization networks applicable to the two elections to illustrate the mechanism behind the role and effects such external involvement played in these events. Finally, the study concludes with an assessment on the future interactions involving this quartet of players, and the lessons for other post-Soviet states. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the collapse of the former Soviet Bloc and realignment of the countries of Central-Eastern Europe (CEE), the question of the permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) within the European Union has become especially acute. This paper considers attempts of CEE states to address the challenge of permanent disposal of nuclear waste and argues that the success of a country in siting a permanent geologic repository on their own territory depends on three key variables: 1) An open strategy of consultation with the public (Process); 2) Widespread popular trust in government and industry (Social trust); and 3) Resilient democratic institutions to efficiently channel opinion (Institutions). Using a comparison between siting processes and outcomes in Sweden and the Czech Republic, this paper highlights the distinctive sociopolitical context of the new democracies of Central-Eastern Europe and argues that while the CEE states are swinging westward in their accession to the EU, their difficulties in siting permanent waste facilities demonstrates that the legacy of communist rule – particularly the continuing lack of trust between society and government & industry – still plays a significant role in shaping policy outcomes. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since November 2003 ?Revolution? in Georgia a new age of history of former USSR states started. The main characteristics of this period are:1)growing involvement of European Union and United States into CIS affairs?2)Attempts to isolate Russian Federation from its historical and natural allies by changing political elites in CIS countries by non-violent and violent ?revolutions?/3)Reactive Russian foreign policy, which is not able to protect effectively national political and economic interests in the region.The paper is looking into periodization of the Western involvement into CIS affairs, different Russian reactions on events in Tbilisi, Kiev and Bishkek. The main aim of the paper is an attempt to foresee future of Russian foreign policy towards CIS and possible new countries, where Western and Russian interests may explode into conflicts. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the disparate political regimes that emerged after the break-up of the Soviet Union that range from almost democratic to almost totalitarian. It seeks to answer the question of why despite similar starting conditions in several countri ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to discuss some points of further development of democratization process on the post Soviet area, predominantly in the two the most economically sufficient ex-Soviet republics â€" Russian Federation and the Republic of Ka ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent violence in Estonia revolving around the Soviet World War II monument as well as the long-standing stalemate in the Moldovan Transnistria point to the ability of the Russian diasporas in the former Soviet republics to mobilize in the pursuit of their perceived interests. On the other hand, a relatively peaceful coexistence of ethnic Russians and the local natives in the other ex-USSR states raises a question as to why certain ethnic Russian communities of the former Soviet republics are involved in violent mobilization while others live in a relative peace. In this paper, I apply theories of violence to explain the behavior of Russian diasporas in the “near abroad”. Building on the previous work I specifically focus on the factor of transnational support that such communities might be receiving from the ethnic kins abroad. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

15 years after the Soviet collapse the four secessionist regions (Karabakh, Abkhazia, S. Ossetia and Transdniester) remain internationally unrecognized and are a major obstacle to the political and economic development of thestates in the region. Why have these conflicts not been resolved, and why have these statelets managed to survive? This paper explores geopolitical and geoeconomic explanations for this situation, and asks what has tohappen before one can expect some substantial progress towards conflict resolution. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper maps river basin cooperative institutional arrangements by region. A new database of governance around shared waters was constructed and some 180 cooperative institutional arrangements in 41% of the world's transboundary basins were identified. Institutional arrangements vary in their level of cooperation, from shallow, loosely formed arrangements to deep cooperation illustrated by the formation of a formal IGO. Significant variation in cooperation was found when observing institutional arrangements across regions with Europe, Former Soviet States, and North America home to the highest percentage of cooperative institutional arrangements. Almost half of all cooperative institutional arrangements around shared waters have been created since the 1990s. This study also examined demands for regional cooperation around transboundary waters. By looking at both physical components of the river basin and riparian activities, we asked what factors best explain why cooperation exists in some river basins but not others. We found that water availability and aridity of the basin held the most explanatory power in terms of the basin's physical characteristics. Riparian activities, such as the presence of internationally-recognized Ramsar wetland sites and prior cooperation demonstrated through cooperative events and water-related treaties also significantly impacted cooperation. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the issue of trade interaction between Turkic ex-Soviet republics and more developed economic powers, with the assumption that trade relations often evoke cultural influence from the ?wealthier? source towards the ?humbler? target. It is based on previous research on the importance of ? Lingua Franca? for the strenghtening of the role of the Ottoman Empire as an intermediary of Western Culture in North Africa, Asia Minor and The Balkans. With the further evolution of this role Turkish itself became a significant means of ?trade-culture? interaction of the region with the ?Western World?. In more recent times the economic status of Turkey, along with her secularity faces a new set of challenges:1.The developing influence of the Turkish language on the Turkic states of Inner Asia has to ?compete? with Russian as the traditional ?means of international communication? having thus to deal with the relics of the rigid planned economy of the Soviet Era;vs. the cultural implications of Turkey?s traditional ?open-market?economy2.In both Turkey and the republics of Inner Asia, the mutually comprehensible means of language communication in the domain of ?trade-culture? functions as a homogeneous unit at the crossroad between Western and Russian socio-cultural influence 3.The increasing influential role of English contributes to the diversity of the picture that is by all means an example of a socio-cultural convergence with a rich past and promising future. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the important questions stemming from the collapse of the Soviet Union is how the post-Soviet decline in defense spending will impact the economic performance of the 15 states of the former Soviet Union. Using a nonlinear production function for direct effects, and models of investment and employment for indirect effects, the defense-growth paradigm is investigated using data from the states of the former Soviet Union for 1992 to 2006. The findings show that the continued reliance on the defense sector in post-Soviet states has hindered economic growth in 6 of the states, while the remainder show a positive relationship between defense spending and economic growth. A negative association is also apparent in the indirect influence on growth through investment and employment due to crowding out in the economy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several key topics are discussed in the report: the economic and social context of the skilled labor force circulation with the post-Soviet area; factors that determine migrants’ choice of a state of immigration; employment patterns of the highly skilled labor from CIS countries in Russia, their wages and scope of their remittances; the role of educational migration; social, cultural and institutional aspects of immigrants-intellectuals’ integration in Russia. Fragmentation of the post-Soviet area along the North-South line defines various patterns of the highly skilled labor’s movements that can be described as the brain drain and the brain circulation. Within limits of the North brain circulation predominates while the brain drain is specific for the North-South dimension. Decrease of differentiation among standards of living in a donor state and the recipient state is the decisive factor of transition from the brain drain to the brain circulation.The emphasis is made on steams of intellectual immigration from CIS countries to Russia. Coming to conclusion that social and economic development of Russia determines a stable internal demand on highly skilled labor of migrants, the author examines factors that contribute to the explosive growth in intellectuals’ influx into Russia from CIS countries. The author provides am estimate of scopes and spheres of employment, wages and remittances of various categories of intellectual migrants in Russia.Finally, the author analyzes consequences that changes in Russia’s immigration policy transformation in 2007 have for the highly skilled immigrants from CIS countries: implementation of the state program of compatriots’ repatriation, liberalization of access to the Russian labor markets granted to immigrants from CIS countries and of the legal regime of migrants’ staying/residing in Russia. The author concludes that the key link of Russia’s migration policy is to be politics of the highly skilled immigrants’ integration. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article assesses the effects of violent ethnopolitical conflict on civil society trends in post-Soviet communities. It cites the differences in the branching out of ethnic minority organizations into politics in Ukraine and Georgia. It implies that the diversity of civil society in Georgia depends on the introduction of conflict-related organizations. It concludes that the increased democratization of civil society through its stimulation of conflict transformation efforts can be attributed to the presence of such conflict.

With the demise of the Soviet Union and the dawn of the post-Cold War Era, economic stability and viability has increasingly become the main measure of might for states. With the emphasis on economic growth and a global economic presence, comes a focus on the means by which states have chosen to obtain these policy goals. International cooperation through economic integration has drawn increasing attention as a tool of economic growth. Historically, a vast amount of work on economic integration has centered around European integration and the development of the European Union. The main objective of this research is twofold. We first examine six major theories of integration that were originally developed to explain the European experience. These theories can also be applied to the study of the formation and development of other international regional organizations, such as Economic Cooperation organization (ECO). These theories include: Functionalism, Neofunctionalism, Dialectical Functionalism, Intergovernmentalism, Supranationalism, and Corporatism. Secondly, we discuss the nature, role, and structural organization of ECO in order to identify which integration theory would more clearly and comprehensively explain ECO's goals and operations. These research topics are significant since they are central to the study of international politics and help to identify and analyze forces that contribute to the formation of larger political communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fall of the Soviet Union was a colossal historical moment. Fifteen independent states were wrenched from the Soviet Union. Why were certain institutions made stronger than others? No test of tangible variables has ever turned up statistically signific ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]