The Transformation of Israel's Extreme Right

The extreme right in Israel was traditionally defined by its hawkish views on the occupied territories and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The decline of this political camp in the 1999 national elections brought many to the conclusion that the Israeli extreme right had died. The main argument of this article is that the king is dead - long live the king. Despite the popular belief that the extreme right in Israel is on the decline, the second wave of right-wing extremism is already here in a stronger and more prevalent form. By accepting a broader definition of the extreme right, it can be concluded that twenty percent of Israeli parliament members represent ideas similar to those of the European extreme right, especially antidemocracy and xenophobia.     

文化外交及其在当代对外关系中的独特价值——兼议地方对外文化交流的作用和实现途径

文化外交源于人类最古老的文化交流活动,但现代意义上的文化外交,其内涵、形态以及对一国总体外交的意义,已远远超出了早期传统外交的分工布局。不断发展变化的国际国内形势,正赋予文化外交以全新的战略地位和价值。     

Civil–Military Relations and Institutional Decay: Explaining Russian Military Politics

The Russian military's extraordinary decline is widely known. The changing political role of high-ranking officers and the different treatment they have been subjected to by Russian presidents has received relatively little scholarly attention, however. This article analyses this phenomenon—including the military elites' electoral participation, relationship to the executive, and opposition to state policy—and offers a method for explaining it. To generate a more penetrating understanding of Russian particularities while expanding our theoretical reach, the article combines the civil–military relations literature with that of the institutionalist approach, and more specifically, the concepts of path dependence and institutional decay.     

Contemporary Russian nationalisms: the state,nationalist movements,and the shared space in between

For several years, various nationalist groups and the Russian state have been competing over nationalism as a political concept and for popular support to nationalist claims. This paper analyzes the relationship between the state and anti-government, ethnocentric nationalistic groups that gather annually in an event called “the Russian March.” Emphasis is on the change in that relationship that happened in 2014, when the state added efforts to channel and mobilize the nationalists to its previous repressive and controlling measures. The article conceptualizes the competition over the nationalist argument in contemporary Russia as a case of dissentful and consentful contention in hybrid regimes, and shows how the dissentful nationalists have been forced to make way for the more consentful ones. Until recently, the room for maneuver for the radical nationalists was relatively wide. The events in Ukraine, however, divided the nationalists, and since 2014 radical nationalists have faced increased state repression. At the same time, pro-government nationalist actors have strengthened, and new players have appeared in the field. These developments tell us not only about the Kremlin’s diminished tolerance for dissentful contention, but also about the importance of the nationalist argument in Russian politics today.     

A Continuum for Responding to the Extreme Right: A Comparison between the United States and Germany

This article compares and contrasts the responses to right-wing extremism in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany. Essentially, the approaches of these respective countries represent two polarities on a continuum. Whereas in theory, the United States allows extremist groups much more freedom to espouse unpopular ideas, the Federal Republic of Germany has the legal authority to disband extremist groups and parties that it deigns a threat to the country's constitutional democracy. Despite these seeming differences, both countries have responded resolutely to manifestations of right-wing extremism and have actually cooperated on numerous occasions to stymie American extremist activists that have propagandized in Germany. There are advantages and disadvantages to the approaches these two countries employ in countering extremism.     

Remembrance of Things Past: the Lingering Impact of History on Contemporary Polish–Ukrainian Relations

This article investigates the continuing influence of the past on contemporary politics in Poland and Ukraine by examining the impact of the vocal ‘informed’ segment of public opinion on mutual relations between the two countries. The section ‘What history?’ examines the question of exactly what understanding of history matters so much in Polish–Ukrainian relations. The following sections examine how history influences the present, what are the contours of public opinion on Polish–Ukrainian relations within each state, and what is the impact of shared history on the contemporary politics of Polish–Ukrainian relations. Finally, the article suggests a potentially generaliseable hypothesis for future research.     

A Sociology of Dependence in International Relations Theory: A Case of Russian Liberal IR

This article addresses the question of interaction between Western and "non-Western" international relations (IR) by analyzing liberal theory of IR that is emerging in contemporary Russia. We argue that, despite a growing diversity within Russian scholarship of liberal orientation, it remains largely a product of Western, particularly American, intellectual hegemony, and more so than any other theoretical perspective. As compared to two other existing traditions in Russian IR—realism and critical studies—liberalism remains the most dependent and therefore must be explored before any other traditions as a crucial case for understanding the dialectic of cultural dependence and hegemony in production of global knowledge. We argue that the greater dependence of Russian liberal IR results from its relatively weak indigenous tradition, perception of Russia's material weakness as opportunity, and greater availability of Western research funds. We also discuss an alternative, less dependent version of Russian liberal IR, and opportunities that its existence implies for development of a global, de-centered international relations theory.     

俄罗斯知识分子的命运

这里发表的译文选自苏联新西伯利亚"科学"出版社1990年出版的布哈林文集<社会主义之路>,是尼·伊·布哈林在1925年做的一次关于知识分子问题的演讲.正文由山东大学政治学与公共管理学院博士研究生黄登学译出,中共中央编译局研究员郑异凡先生做了校订并补译了注释.讲演做于近70年前,今天听来却并无辽远之感.听得出,我们今天议论纷纷的诸如知识劳动者阶层的兴起、知识经济等当代资本主义发展的新趋势,讲演者在近70年前就做出了一定程度的预言,这不能不使人感佩这位杰出的马克思主义理论家的远见卓识.当然,对布哈林本人及苏联社会主义模式的命运感兴趣的读者可能另有感触:演讲词中关于创作自由、思想自由、普选权等问题的观点与讲演者本人及其为之奋斗的体制的结局之间可能有着某种关联.历史的积淀而使讲词蕴涵之富,恐远非讲演者本人当年所能想像.     

The Russian health crisis and the economy

Russia experienced a severe health crisis in the 1990s, as reflected by a drop in life expectancy. It has been suggested in literature that this poor state of health is likely to endure and will significantly retard economic growth in the country. This paper uses evidence from other former Communist countries and studies of income–health relationship across economies to evaluate these claims. It concludes that the mortality increases of 1988–94 and 1999–2000 were the effects, rather than causes, of the economic recession. The state of health is unlikely to put a brake on future economic growth.     

The Euromaidan and the crisis of Russian nationalism

This article examines the reverberations in Russia of the Euromaidan protests and the fall of the Yanukovych regime in Ukraine. It shows how the events in Kyiv provoked a major crisis in the Russian nationalist movement, which was riven by vituperative denunciations, the ostracism of prominent activists, the breakdown of friendships, the rupture of alliances, and schisms within organizations. Focusing on pro-Kremlin nationalists and several tendencies of opposition nationalists, it argues that this turmoil was shaped by three factors. First, the Euromaidan provoked clashes between pro-Kremlin nationalists, who became standard-bearers of official anti-Euromaidan propaganda, and anti-Putin nationalists, who extolled the Euromaidan as a model for a revolution in Russia itself. Second, the events in Ukraine provoked ideological contention around issues of particular sensitivity to Russian nationalists, such as the competing claims of imperialism and ethnic homogeneity, and of Soviet nationalism and Russian traditionalism. And third, many nationalists were unprepared for the pace of events, which shifted rapidly from an anti-oligarchic uprising in Kyiv to a push for the self-determination of ethnic Russians in Crimean and southeast Ukraine. As a result, they were left in the uncomfortable position of appearing to collaborate with the oppressors of their compatriots.