Political Processes in Eastern Europe

2024/2025

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

4

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

Department of Political Science and International Affairs

Course type:

Elective course

When:

4 year, 1, 2 module

Instructor

Maksimovtsova, Ksenia

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This course covers political development in the six partnership countries. These include: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. This trace how these countries develop, taking into an account their geographical location in between European Union and Russia, be way specific attention to the role of Russia has been playing in stirring these developments. The course aims to provide students with an understanding of key issues in political and societal developments in the six countries of the Eastern Partnership Programme. It covers a number of political and societal issues such as Russian/Soviet legacies; post-colonial/post-Soviet identities; state building; ethnicity, language policy, nation building and nationalism; (ethnic) conflict and violence; multiple forms of civil society and ambiguous impact of (external) development/democracy promotion efforts.

Learning Objectives

• Students are able to evaluate, model and forecast social and political processes at the global, international, national, regional, and local levels using methodology of empirical and theoretical research

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Students are able to apply the concepts of state building and state fragility; ethnicity, language and language policy, nationhood, nation building and nationalism, and (ethnic) conflict to analysis of the countries of the Eastern Partnership Programme
• Students are able to demonstrate critical thinking on variations in and drivers of political, economic, social, and cultural transformations in the six countries of the Eastern Partnership Programme
• Students are able to evaluate and predict policy outcomes of the EU in relation to the countries of the Eastern Partnership Programme
• Students are able to evaluate policy outcomes of the Eastern Partnership Programme
• Students are able to evaluate policy outcomes of the Eastern Partnership Programme for Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Belarus
• Students are able to evaluate, model and forecast social and political processes in modern Armenia and the evaluate the impact of the Eastern Partnership Programme on Armenia's foreign and domestic policy.
• Students are able to evaluate, model and forecast social and political processes in modern Belarus and the evaluate the impact of the Eastern Partnership Programme on Belarusian foreign and domestic policy.
• Students are able to evaluate, model and forecast social and political processes in modern Georgia and the evaluate the impact of the Eastern Partnership Programme on Georgia's foreign and domestic policy.
• Students are able to evaluate, model and forecast social and political processes in modern Moldova and the evaluate the impact of the Eastern Partnership Programme on Moldova's foreign and domestic policy.
• Students are able to evaluate, model and forecast social and political processes in modern Ukraine and the evaluate the impact of the Eastern Partnership Programme on Ukraine's foreign and domestic policy.
• Students are able to find similarities and differences in the trajectories of the development of the six countries of the Eastern Partnership Programme
• Students are able to reflect on the role of Russia in foreign and internal policies of the countries of the Eastern Partnership Programme
• Students demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the main societal and political developments in modern Ukraine.
• Students demonstrate knowledge of the key societal, political, and economic processes in the six countries of the Eastern Partnership Programme
• Students demonstrate the knowledge of the scholarly literature on post-Soviet nation-building, nationalism, and are able to apply different theoretical approaches to the analysis of the influence of Russia on the countries of the Eastern Partnership Programme
• Students know key issues in political and societal developments in modern Azerbaijan.
• Students know the main goals and the history of Eastern Neighbourhood Policy and Eastern Partnership Programme

Course Contents

• Eastern Neighbourhood Policy and Eastern Partnership Programme: Mission, Main Goals, and Expected Policy Outcomes
• An uneasy triangle: EU's Neighbourhood Policy, Post-Soviet States, and Russia
• Eastern Partnership Programme and Ukraine.
• Eastern Partnership Programme and Belarus.
• Eastern Partnership Programme and Moldova.
• Eastern Partnership Programme and Georgia.
• Eastern Partnership Programme and Azerbaijan.
• Eastern Partnership Programme and Armenia.
• Structured Discussion about the Impact of the Eastern Partnership Programme on the Six Post-Soviet Countries.

Assessment Elements

• Quizzes/tests
  Mini quizzes contain 10 questions to be answered in 10 minutes. The questions are MCQ with one correct answer to be picked among several. These questions are based on the class materials (lectures and mandatory readings for the class) for each topic. The overall grade for this component is made up as average grade for 10 quizzes offered during the course.
• Active participation in class discussions
• Group presentations
  Group presentations should be prepared by a small group of students (up to 4-5 students per group). Students should propose for approval by the instructor: 1) composition of their groups; 2) topics for their presentations based on the topics/readings for the tutorials; 3) outlines of their presentations. These presentations will function as basis for further class discussion. Therefore, presenters are supposed to cover mandatory and optional readings and, preferably, use other non-assigned sources for their analysis on the chosen topic in order to make a genuinely original contribution.
• Final exam
  The final exam will be made in the form of a test, which contains questions with one correct answer as well as open-ended questions where students will need to answer them thoroughly.

Interim Assessment

• 2024/2025 2nd module
  0.25 * Active participation in class discussions + 0.25 * Final exam + 0.25 * Group presentations + 0.25 * Quizzes/tests

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• A pivotal moment for the Eastern partnership: outlook for Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Belarus, Armenia, and Azerbaijan hearing before the Subcommittee of European Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, 113th Congress, 1st Session, hearing held November 14, 2013. (2014).
• Armine Ishkanian. (2008). Democracy Building and Civil Society in Post-Soviet Armenia. Routledge.
• Cheskin, A., & Kachuyevski, A. (2019). The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Post-Soviet Space: Language, Politics and Identity. Europe-Asia Studies, 71(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2018.1529467
• Delcour, L. (2015). Between the Eastern Partnership and Eurasian Integration: Explaining Post-Soviet Countries’ Engagement in (Competing) Region-Building Projects. Problems of Post-Communism, 62(6), 316–327. https://doi.org/10.1080/10758216.2015.1057075
• Elizaveta Gaufman. (2017). Security Threats and Public Perception : Digital Russia and the Ukraine Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Fix, L. V. (DE-588)1138134058, (DE-627)895473925, (DE-576)475793315, aut. (2019). Out of the shadow? Georgia’s emerging strategies of engagement in the Eastern partnership : between external governance and partnership cooperation Liana Fix, Andrea Gawrich, Kornely Kakachia & Alla Leukavets.
• Guliyev, F. (2005). Post-Soviet Azerbaijan: Transition to Sultanistic Semiauthoritarianism? An Attempt at Conceptualization. Demokratizatsiya, 13(3), 393–435. https://doi.org/10.3200/DEMO.13.3.393-436
• Kazharski, A. V. (DE-588)1156954118, (DE-627)101989752X, (DE-576)502531320, aut. (2021). Belarus’ new political nation? 2020 anti-authoritarian protests as identity building Aliaksei Kazharski, Charles University, Czech Republik; Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia.
• Kuzio, T. V. (DE-588)120488523, (DE-627)080706746, (DE-576)170547426, aut. (2018). The sources of Russia’s great power politics Ukraine and the challenge to the European Order Taras Kuzio and Paul D’Anieri.
• Maksimovtsova, K. (2019). Language Conflicts in Contemporary Estonia, Latvia, and Ukraine : A Comparative Exploration of Discourses in Post-Soviet Russian-Language Digital Media. ibidem.
• Pal Kolsto. (2018). Political Construction Sites : Nation Building In Russia And The Post-soviet States. Routledge.
• Prina, F. (2015). Linguistic Justice, Soviet Legacies and Post-Soviet Realpolitik : The Ethnolinguistic Cleavage in Moldova. Ethnopolitics, 14(1), 52–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449057.2014.928097
• Sęk, A. aut. (2013). Kremlin’s heavy handed approach to its “near abroad”? The Russian perspective on the EU’s Eastern Partnership Anita Sęk.
• The Routledge handbook on the European neighbourhood policy edited by Tobias Schumacher, Andreas Marchetti and Thomas Demmelhuber. (2018).
• Tokluoglu, C. (2012). Perceptions of State and Leadership in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan (1991–2009). Middle Eastern Studies, 48(3), 319–343. https://doi.org/10.1080/00263206.2012.661370
• VAN MEURS, W. (2015). Moldova: Nested Cases of Belated Nation-Building. Revue d’Études Comparatives Est-Ouest, 46(1), 185–209. https://doi.org/10.4074/S0338059915001084
• Wilson, A. (2015). The Ukrainians : Unexpected Nation, Fourth Edition: Vol. Fourth edition. Yale University Press.

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Sahakyan, M. (2021). The South Caucasus at the Crossroads: Great Powers and Regional Conflict. AsiaGlobal Online ; Https://Hal.Archives-Ouvertes.Fr/Hal-03209683 ; 2021.
• Trach, N. (2017). Language laws of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova: comparative aspect ; Мовне законодавство України, Грузії та Молдови: порівняльний аспект. Language: Classic - Modern - Postmodern.
• Turashvili, T. aut. (2015). Georgia after the Riga Eastern Partnership summit Teona Turashvili; Konrad Zasztowt.

Authors

• MAKSIMOVTSOVA Kseniia VIKTOROVNA