Author: aacapstudies

On 23 April 2021 the AACaPS’ Dr Milenko Petrovic (the National Centre for Research on Europe, University of Canterbury, New Zealand) and the members of his Jean Monnet Chair team took part in the academic workshop ‘EU Enlargement and the Eastern Partnership in Post-Covid 19 Europe’. The workshop was organized as the designated activity of Dr Petrovic’s JM Chair project at the historic Christchurch Arts Centre and it featured papers from several established scholars and the NCRE’s PhD candidates that initiated an interesting and robust discussion. The workshop was enhanced by the contributions of Dr Matthew Castle from Victoria University of Wellington, Dr James Headley from the University of Otago and Dr Nicholas Ross Smith from the University of Nottingham (Ningbo, China).

ZOOM link: http://zoom.us/j/98072415115
WEBSITE: https://www.krasnoevents.com/march-9-2021.html
with HIROAKI KUROMIYA (Stalin biographer, Indiana Univ.), WILLIAM TAUBMAN (Pulitzer prize winning Khrushchev & Gorbachev biographer, Amherst College), DONALD RALEIGH (Brezhnev biographer, UNC-Chapel Hill, and ANGELA STENT (Putin biographer, Georgetown Univ.).
(introduced & moderated by KLAUS LARRES, UNC-Chapel Hill)
The U.S. has imposed new sanctions on Russia & Alexey Navalny has been sent to a harsh prison camp. This event with 4 OUTSTANDING SCHOLARS analyzes developments in Russia and western relations with Moscow from WORLD WAR II to the very PRESENT
Please join our next exciting Krasno event on TUESDAY, MARCH 9, at 5.30pm EST –
(11.30pm in Berlin; 10.30pm in London; 6.30am, March 10, in Beijing, and 9.30am, March 10, in Sydney)

The AACaPS Executive Committee is very pleased to share the news about the latest edited volume which came out following a successful bi-annual conference in 2019 at Griffith University on the Gold Coast. The book, entitled 30 Years since the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Turns and Twists in Economies, Politics, and Societies in the Post-Communist Countries, is co-edited by Dr Alexandr Akimov and Dr Gennadi Kazakevitch and contains 17 chapters by many members of the association. 

“The year 2019 marks 30 years since the fall of the Berlin wall. This symbolic event led to German unification and the collapse of communist party rule in countries of the Soviet-led Eastern bloc. Since then, the post-communist countries of Central, Eastern and South-eastern Europe have tied their post-communist transition to deep integration into the West, including EU accession. Most of the states in Central and Eastern Europe have been able to relatively successfully transform their previous communist political and economic systems. In contrast, the non-Baltic post-Soviet states have generally been less successful in doing so. This book, with an internationally respected list of contributors, seeks to address and compare those diverse developments in communist and post-communist countries and their relationship with the West from various angles.
The book has three parts. The first part addresses the progress of post-communist transition in comparative terms, including regional focus on Eastern and South Eastern Europe, CIS and Central Asia. The second focuses on Russia and its foreign relationship, and internal politics. The third explores in detail economies and societies in Central Asia. The final part of the book draws some historical comparisons of recent issues in post-communism with the past experiences.”

The book’s details and ordering information is available at: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9789811503160#aboutBook

The Canadian Association of Slavists (CAS) is delighted to host the 10th World Congress of the International Council for Central and East European Studies (ICCEES). The event will be held at Concordia University in Montréal, Canada from 4-9 August, 2020.

Founded in 1974, ICCEES is a global consortium of national scholarly associations dedicated to promoting international cooperation and multi-disciplinary scholarly studies of Central and Eastern Europe, including former Soviet countries of Central Asia. ICCEES’ aims are to:

• promote international scholarly exchange and cooperation in Central and East European Studies by holding a World Congress every five years;
• share experience and support in critical methods, scholarly publishing, and organizational skills; and
• welcome young scholars working in the field.

Call for submissions and Panel Proposals is currently open. For more information and how to apply, please see the following webpage: https://sites.events.concordia.ca/sites/iccees/en/iccees2020/call_for_submissions

The International Council for Central and East European Studies was founded in 1974 as an international body that could bring together national associations from around the world which were engaged in Russian, Central and East European, and Eurasian Studies. Representatives from 29 different countries participated in the founding conference, mostly from Western Europe and North America.
Since then, the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union led to a huge expansion of participation in the activities of ICCEES. The five yearly ICCEES congresses as well as regular regional congresses are now truly global events.
In recognition of ICCEES’ mission to promote international collaboration in scholarship across the world, the Executive Committee is asking for nominations for an award for an international network of scholars which has demonstrated an outstanding contribution to ICCEES’ aim of global cooperation in scholarship. The winners of the award will be announced at the 2020 World Congress of ICCEES in Montreal, and will be awarded €2,000 for the future work of the network.
Nominations should be submitted via the form on the ICCEES website by 31st January 2020. For full terms and conditions, please see their webpage: http://iccees.org/latest_information/call-for-nominations-for-an-award-for-the-promotion-of-international-cooperation-in-central-and-east-european-and-eurasian-studies/

Dear Members,
The following Call for Papers and conference details could be of interest to you and your networks.

The 2019 CAIS 4th Biennial Early Career and Postgraduate Conference is primarily concerned with the area encompassing the Arab World, Central Asian states, Iran, Turkey, and Afghanistan. Other regions including the Caucasus, Pakistan, and Sub-Saharan Africa countries, are also included for their contemporary and historical interaction with the Middle East and Central Asia regions. We welcome submission from various backgrounds and disciplines. The Conference will be designed to accommodate a wide range of topics but will focus on issues pertaining to governance, security and asymmetrical warfare. In addition, the Conference seeks to discuss how Australia can engage with these regions and evaluate Australia’s regional policies and security concerns.

We particularly encourage paper and panel submissions about topics that include, but not limited to:
–    Governance, state-building, and political change.
–    State’s legitimacy, decentralized governance, corruption, and transparency.
–    Regional security policies and military strategies, including issues of asymmetrical warfare.
–    Transnational insurgencies and violence.
–    Inter-state tensions and competition for power and influence.
–    Role of international actors on shaping security and governance outcomes.
–    Australia’s security and political strategies towards the Middle East and Central Asia.
–    Gender roles in governance and security.
–    Economic, social and political reforms.
–    Human and economic security.
–    Contemporary history of Central Asian and the Middle East.

Proposals for complete panels (of either three or four speakers) are very much welcomed. We particularly encourage panels which involve participants or collaborations with those working outside of academia. In addition, we warmly invite individual paper proposals on any topic related to Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies. Our aim is to foster dialogue between scholars studying the Middle East and Central Asia from all disciplines, forming dynamic panels in which these individual submissions can speak to one another in energising and fruitful ways.

Please note that paper abstracts must not exceed 250 words, and must be received by Wednesday 31 July 2019.
Paper submissions must be made online via this form: https://goo.gl/forms/U1C1C2mzqtwebdGV2

If you wish to propose a panel, please do not use the above form. Instead, panel organisers should submit a Word document providing the panel title, a short summary of the panel theme, and the names, position titles, and institutions of your proposed presenters/panellists, along with their abstracts (if relevant). Please email the Word document directly to caisconference2019@anu.edu.au with “2019 Conference – panel proposal” in the subject line.

Details:
–    20 November: Theoretical and practical approaches to studying and understanding the Middle East.
–    21-22 November: Full Conference.
–    Conference dinner: Thursday 21 November.

Registration:
–    Student: $100 (3 day), $50 (1 day)
–    Full: $150 (3 day), $60 (1 day)
–    Conference dinner (optional): $40

Funding
The Conference organisers expect to offer a limited amount of funding for some presenters, consistent where possible with ANU benchmarks. Funding will be offered on a case by case basis to those presenting papers, and is at the discretion of the organisers. Funding will only be considered for all abstracts and papers submitted in a timely manner by Doctoral candidates.
For queries regarding the Conference, please contact us. Please note that abstracts submissions are only accepted via the following link: https://goo.gl/forms/U1C1C2mzqtwebdGV2

Website for further information: http://cais.cass.anu.edu.au/events/conferences/governance-security-and-asymmetrical-warfare-central-asia-and-middle-east#acton-tabs-link–qt-governance_security_and_asymmetr-ui-tabs1

Professor Mark Edele from Melbourne University  has recently spoken to Sky news about Russian cabinet shake up. The link to his interview is available here.

Associate Professor Stephen Fortescue from the University of New South Wales published ‘The political economy of Russia: is it changing?’ in Torbjorn Becker and Susanne Oxenstierna (eds), The Russian Economy under Putin, Routledge, London and New York, 2019, chapter 12, pp.202-18. He also published ‘Managing Russia’s resource wealth: coalitions and capacity’, in Andreas R.D. Sanders, Pal Thonstad Sandvik, Espen Storli (eds), The Political Economy of Resource Regulation. An international and comparative history, 1850-2015, University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, 2019, chapter 5, pp.118-138.

Dr Nina Markovic Khaze from Macquarie University published “The Tragedy and Fallacy of NATO’s Balkan Experiment: 20 Years On”, Counterpunch, 10 April 2019, Available at:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/10/the-tragedy-and-fallacy-of-natos-balkan-experiment-20-years-on/

Conjoint Professor Roger Markwick published Советский тыл 1941–1945: повседневная жизнь в годы войны. The Soviet Home Front 1941-1945: Everyday Life in Wartime. Edited by Beate Fieseler & Roger Markwick (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2019). Link: http://www.rosspen.su/ru/catalog/.view/good/978-5-8243-2307-8/limit/0.20…./

Conjoint Professor Roger Markwick also co-authored an article in the Journal of Historical Geography entitled “The kitchen garden movement on the Soviet home front, 1941–1945”. It argues that the Soviet World War II gardening movement helped to avert mass starvation. It also demonstrates how Soviet gardening propaganda invoked motherhood, family and Motherland: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305748818301324

Vice-President of the Association, Dr Milenko Petrovic, edited a Special Issue of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of European Studies (ANZJES) entitled ‘Serbia on its way to EU membership – the remaining challenges and obstacles’. The Special Issue is a timely and highly relevant reflection on the EU’s increased attention to the future of its enlargement policy and the European Commission’s latest ‘Western Balkan Enlargement Strategy’. Our Executive Committee member, Dr Nina Markovic Khaze, also provided a contribution to this volume. The publication is freely available for download at: https://cesaa.org.au/anzjes_issue/volume-10-no-3/

Executive Committee members, Emeritus Professor Graeme Gill and Dr Yelena N. Zabortseva jointly published a book chapter in the first edition of Routledge Handbook of Russian Security, edited by Roger E. Kanet (2019). The volume identifies key contemporary topics of research and debate and takes into account the changes that have occurred in the study of Russian security strategy since the end of the Cold War. Gill and Zabortseva’s chapter is entitled ‘Russian Security Strategy in Central Asia’. This timely and comprehensive publication is available for purchase at: https://www.crcpress.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Russian-Security/Kanet/p/book/9780815396710

Dr Alexander Korolev from the University of New South Wales published “Reluctant Allies: System-Unit Dynamics and China-Russia Relations,” (with Vladimir Protyakov), International Relations, Vol. 33, Issue 1 (March 2019): 40-66, available at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0047117818812561

The 14th Biennial AACaPS conference photos are provided below.

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The fourteenth conference of the Association, sponsored by the Griffith Business School and the National Centre for Research on Europe at the University of Canterbury, was held at Griffiths’ Gold Coast campus on 31 January – 1 February 2019. The theme of the conference was thirty years of post-communism, and featured more than fifty papers from a wide range of local and overseas speakers. The conference had two stimulating keynote presentations: “Post-communism and the borders of Europe” by Professor Stephen E. Hanson of William and Mary College, USA, and ”Russia’s Pacific policy in the 21st century” by Professor Viktor Larin of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Science.

There were two plenary panel sessions, one on the “Road to Peace and Cooperation in the Korean Peninsula” and featuring the Russian Ambassador to Australia, Mr Grigory S. Loginov, and the other on “How Communism and Post-Communism are Tracking” with a panel of Australian-based scholars. The more than fifty papers were organised into 15 parallel sessions, and ranged widely across central Europe, Russia and the former Soviet Union, Central Asia, China and Vietnam. In terms of disciplinary area, they included papers in political science, international relations, history, media, cultural studies, and economics. The Best Student Paper Award was given to two students, Sofya Glazunova (QUT) and Berikbol Dukeyev (ANU) for the papers they presented at the conference. The general consensus was that this was a most enjoyable and stimulating conference, one of the best the Association has held. The General Meeting of the Association was held at the same time, electing office-bearers and dealing with the other business of the Association.