The politicization of education: Identity formation in Moldova and Transnistria

This article examines how education, linguistic and citizenship policies have influenced the development of Moldovan identity and relations with the breakaway region of Transnistria. The article explores the influence of three specific education policies (Russian language instruction, an integrated history course and Romanian language school closures in Transnistria) on the debate concerning Moldovan identity and ultimately Moldovan statehood. The Romanian language school closures in Transnistria demonstrate that education is not only an important agent of identity formation, but also that such crude political tactics as school closures ultimately affect other education policies, reinforce negative stereotypes and make meaningful dialogue impossible. The larger issue than the school closures in Transnistria is whether devolution of authority on issues such as education policy is possible no matter how autonomy is granted.     

Politicized policy access: The effect of politicization on interest group access to advisory councils

Current scholarship often concludes that technical expertise is one of the most important commodities for interest groups wishing to gain access to political-administrative venues. Less attention has been given to politicization and the scope of societal support that interest groups bring to bear. Specifically, I hypothesize that the capacity of interest groups to supply broad societal support is decisive for gaining access in highly politicized policy domains. To test this expectation, the article combines a mapping of interest group membership in 616 Belgian advisory councils with survey data from more than 400 organized interests. The empirical analyses demonstrate that interest groups with broad support are more likely to gain access to advisory councils in highly politicized policy domains, but this effect is negatively moderated when interest groups involve their constituencies intensely in advocacy processes.     

The Thawing of a Frozen Conflict: The Internal Security Dilemma and the 2004 Prelude to the Russo-Georgian War

While the proximate causes of the 2008 Russo–Georgian war have yet to be satisfactorily investigated, an assessment of an earlier occasion of conflict in South Ossetia in 2004 can lay the groundwork for an analysis of the later war. Like the 2008 war, the 2004 conflict was comprehensible on the basis of the ambitious war plans of opposing sides, but it was ultimately rooted in a security dilemma. The conflict thus provides a precedent for considering how a mix of limited offensive intentions, insecurity, uncertainty, and cognitive shortcuts and misperceptions had the capacity to lead to inadvertent war between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia.     

The armed struggle and underground intelligence: An overview

This comparative analysis of the dynamics of underground, revolutionary intelligence is based on a generation of analytical association with recent and continuing armed struggles. It is a first effort to depict the unconventional nature of intelligence in an illicit and covert world that is not merely the mirror image of orthodox practice. It is mainly a discussion of strategic and tactical aspects, their structure, focus, and role, as well as special factors such as counterintelligence and heresy, prisoners and foreign contacts. Underground, these are in great part shaped by the aspirations and ideals of the rebels as well as by the special conditions that assure inefficiency in return for cover. The article is, then, a preliminary, general analysis of a largely neglected aspect of unconventional conflict.