Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in the Post-Soviet Space

Description

This course studies the historical and ideological roots and current manifestations of nationalism and ethnic conflict in Russia and the former Soviet republics.
Arguably, no aspect of the political and cultural transformation of the post-perestroika decade has been as powerful as ethnicity and nationalism. Following the ideological bankruptcy of Soviet internationalism, ethnic clashes and tensions have swept across the expanses of the former USSR, fostering new nationalistic discourse and new cultural expressions of ethnic awareness. These developments are of hybrid origin, incorporating Tsarist and Soviet imperial legacies, as well as the dynamics of the post-colonial situation. Recently there has been an upsurge of interest in post-Soviet nationalism, as evident from the growing number of interdisciplinary studies that treat various aspects (political, historical, intellectual, cultural, etc.) of this multi-dimensional topic.
The course provides a suitable complement to the menu of courses on offer by the Programme in Diplomacy and International Relations. Students enrolled in the Diplomacy Programme will have the opportunity to pursue research in a broader international relations context based on post-Soviet material.