Caucasus SurveyPub Date : 2023-09-15DOI: 10.30965/23761202-bja10012
Laure Delcour, Elene Panchulidze
{"title":"“It Takes Three to Tango”: Georgia’s Engagement in Trilateral Formats as Part of the Eastern Partnership","authors":"Laure Delcour, Elene Panchulidze","doi":"10.30965/23761202-bja10012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/23761202-bja10012","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Drawing on the case of Georgia, this article seeks to understand better how the EU’s partners adjust to the uncertainty of the EU’s offer as part of the Eastern Partnership, and how their identification narratives evolve in response to this indeterminacy. We use the concept of liminality to capture the imprecision of the EU’s offer and the state of in-betweenness of the EU’s associated partners. Through an analysis of Georgia’s identification practices, we then shed light on how Georgian elites have pushed for an identity-driven self-representation as a key political strategy vis-à-vis the EU. We argue that such repositioning and, more recently, the tactical use of the Association Trio reflect Georgia’s approach to developing its agency in response to uncertainty.","PeriodicalId":37506,"journal":{"name":"Caucasus Survey","volume":"57 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135485679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Caucasus SurveyPub Date : 2023-09-15DOI: 10.30965/23761202-bja10015
Nino Imedashvili, David S. Siroky
{"title":"“Tit-for-Tat:” Understanding Russia – NATO Interactions in Eastern Europe","authors":"Nino Imedashvili, David S. Siroky","doi":"10.30965/23761202-bja10015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/23761202-bja10015","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article analyzes North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ) – Russia dynamics in Eastern Europe, focusing on the competition for influence in Georgia and Montenegro with comparisons to Moldova and Ukraine. Whereas all four countries have expressed a desire to join NATO – and Russia has consistently communicated its disapproval – Moscow has pursued divergent means to curb NATO expansion and escalated with tit-for-tat strategies. We argue that whether Russia deployed military strategies, economic levers, political tactics or covert actions has varied according to its relative power projection capacity along with the responses of NATO and the target countries. Where power projection capacity is greater due to its contiguous geography (Georgia, Ukraine), Russia staged military interventions, and where it was weaker, in non-contiguous countries (Montenegro, Moldova), it resorted to non-military means. Russia may be uniformly opposed to NATO expansion, but its strategies to keep its neighbours out of NATO and in Russia’s orbit are contingent upon its relative power.","PeriodicalId":37506,"journal":{"name":"Caucasus Survey","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135485673","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Caucasus SurveyPub Date : 2023-09-15DOI: 10.30965/23761202-bja10013
Lia Tsuladze
{"title":"Euro-optimism Intertwined with Pragmatism: Elite and Popular Discourses on Georgia’s Europeanization through Q Methodology","authors":"Lia Tsuladze","doi":"10.30965/23761202-bja10013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/23761202-bja10013","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The article discusses Georgian political and intellectual elites’ and citizens’ discourses on the country’s Europeanization in the context of pragmatic and identity considerations. The research is based on Q methodology that, in contrast to its traditional use, has been integrated into in-depth interviews with political and intellectual elites and focus group discussions with citizens. Q analysis reveals that both elites and citizens are characterized by Euro-optimistic views perceiving Georgia’s Europeanization in light of pragmatic considerations. The major pragmatic factors are related to the improved protection of human rights and the safeguarding of the country’s security. Unlike previous studies, the current research shows that, at least at the rhetorical level, Georgia’s Europeanization is not perceived as a threat to the national identity.","PeriodicalId":37506,"journal":{"name":"Caucasus Survey","volume":"140 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135485678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Caucasus SurveyPub Date : 2023-07-17DOI: 10.30965/23761202-bja10023
P. Manning
{"title":"Metro Girl: The Alliance of Art and Architecture in the Visual Aesthetics of the Modern Georgian City of the 1960s","authors":"P. Manning","doi":"10.30965/23761202-bja10023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/23761202-bja10023","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article explores the way a new specifically Georgian post-Stalinist art form (cheduroba, metal engraving) that emerged in the 1960s became a commonly encountered emblematic feature of the equally new urban spaces of the rapidly changing modernist Tbilisi cityscape. This new, and yet seemingly old, art form, which frequently featured the face of a traditional Georgian girl, usually a Khevsur girl from the mountains, came to be a diagnostic part of the modern urban assemblage of Tbilisi in the 1960s. This traditional face from the Georgian past became a paradoxical figure for the alliance of art and architecture in the visual aesthetics of the modern Georgian city in the 1960s, and the art form became the stereotypical “face” of a specifically Georgian post-Stalinist “traditional-modernist” public urban art. This art form soon became diagnostic of modern Georgian urban spaces, like the Tbilisi metro, which also opened around the same time in the 1960s. The recurrent distribution of this face across newly-created modernist urban spaces together formed a Georgian version of “socialist modernism,” producing a visually-experienced “brand of socialism” for urban spaces, a procession of images traditional or national (in style or theme) in socialist modernist spaces connecting the traditional architecture of the city to the modernist architectural spaces of the new socialist city of the 1960s.","PeriodicalId":37506,"journal":{"name":"Caucasus Survey","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47674052","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Caucasus SurveyPub Date : 2023-06-15DOI: 10.30965/23761202-bja10020
G. Yemelianova
{"title":"Turkey, the Karabakh Conflict and the Legacy of the Eastern Question","authors":"G. Yemelianova","doi":"10.30965/23761202-bja10020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/23761202-bja10020","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The article addresses the discursive, political and geopolitical evolution of the so-called Eastern Question by focusing on its Armenian dimension from the nineteenth century until the present. It examines major stages of the Question’s historical reconfiguration in terms of its key protagonists, beneficiaries and the ramifications for modern Turkey’s relations with Armenia and Azerbaijan. It contends that the legacy of the Eastern Question has continued to shape Turkey’s policy in the Caucasus in general and its positioning towards the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Karabakh, in particular.","PeriodicalId":37506,"journal":{"name":"Caucasus Survey","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44626430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Caucasus SurveyPub Date : 2023-05-12DOI: 10.30965/23761202-bja10016
A. Ohanyan
{"title":"Interactive Peacemaking: A People-Centered Approach, written by Susan H. Allen","authors":"A. Ohanyan","doi":"10.30965/23761202-bja10016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/23761202-bja10016","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37506,"journal":{"name":"Caucasus Survey","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42162830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Caucasus SurveyPub Date : 2023-05-12DOI: 10.30965/23761202-bja10018
Mikayel Zolyan
{"title":"Three Republics of Armenia: The Soviet Past and the Politics of Memory in Post-Soviet Armenia (1991–2018)","authors":"Mikayel Zolyan","doi":"10.30965/23761202-bja10018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/23761202-bja10018","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Deciding how to relate to the Soviet past is a key question in the politics of memory for the societies and political elites of the post-Soviet countries. Throughout the post-Soviet decades Armenian political and intellectual elites tried to form a complex attitude to the Soviet past, neither rejecting, nor appropriating the Soviet legacy completely, but assimilating it within the paradigm of national history. Within this paradigm Soviet Armenia is viewed as a stage in the development of Armenian nationhood, as “the second republic”, which links the first “attempt” at building a nation-state, “the first republic” of 1918–1920, to the “3rd republic”, i.e. the post-Soviet state of Armenia. This paradigm, in which the Soviet past is neither completely rejected, or accepted, but certain elements of it are integrated into the national history narrative, is optimal for post-Soviet Armenia, given both the peculiarity of Armenia’s historical experience (particularly the role played by Russia/USSR in the context of Armenian-Turkish relations), as well as the current geopolitical setting, in which Armenia and Russia are formal allies. This attitude, which can be described as “mnemonic ambiguity”, allows the assertion of an independent and sovereign Armenian state as legitimate, while at the same time avoiding a confrontation with an ally in the realm of memory politics.","PeriodicalId":37506,"journal":{"name":"Caucasus Survey","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48934610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Caucasus SurveyPub Date : 2023-03-31DOI: 10.30965/23761202-20230002
E. Holland, Elvira Churyumova, Baasanjav Terbish
{"title":"Kalmykia, Decolonization, and the Study of Russia’s Republics: Introducing the Special Issue","authors":"E. Holland, Elvira Churyumova, Baasanjav Terbish","doi":"10.30965/23761202-20230002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/23761202-20230002","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37506,"journal":{"name":"Caucasus Survey","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48166885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Caucasus SurveyPub Date : 2023-03-31DOI: 10.30965/23761202-bja10017
{"title":"Internal Migration from a Russian Republic: The Everyday Experiences of Kalmyk Migrants in Moscow","authors":"","doi":"10.30965/23761202-bja10017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/23761202-bja10017","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This paper recounts the lived experiences of internal migrants in the Russian Federation, specifically those who have moved from the Republic of Kalmykia in the country’s southwest to the capital of Moscow. Recounting exposure to racism and xenophobia, challenges in the housing and employment markets, and negotiating an evolving city, informants offer grounded interpretations of migration within contemporary Russia. In part, the conversations that inform this paper focus on the everyday experiences of Kalmyk migrants in Russia and in turn aim to fill a gap in the existing academic literature on internal migration in Russia. Most migration in Russia is internal, yet we know relatively little about the diverse nature of the experiences of these migrants at their destinations.","PeriodicalId":37506,"journal":{"name":"Caucasus Survey","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46562753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}