Nationalism in Russia

The articles in this issue examine the role played by nationalism in present-day Russian politics, focusing particularly on potential policy approaches to dealing with the various nationalist discourses that have gained in prominence in recent years.     

Making love in Yeltsin's Russia: A case of ``de-medicalization' and ``de-normalization'

The collapse of the Russian currency in August 1998 and the continuingdeterioration of the economy that has followed vindicates those scholarswho have held a negative view of post-Soviet changes.¹They have argued for years thatthe collapse of the Soviet system is leading to the disintegration andcriminalization of Russian society. And the brief history of sexuality inpost-Soviet Russia perhaps illustrates that these scholars have a point whenthey argue that the collapse of the Soviet regime has triggered a destructiveprocess. The criminalization and related sexualization are part of a morebroad problem in post-Soviet society. The country has not been so muchas transforming into a Western style capitalist society as suffering a generalmeltdown.     

Contents volume

Volume Contents

Contents volume     

The coordination of policy priorities among regional institutions from the Baltic Sea to the Arctic: the institutions – coordination dilemma

We examine the coordination of policy priorities among the Arctic Council, the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, the Council of Baltic Sea States, and the Nordic Council of Ministers. The member states of these groups established these institutions to coordinate their regional cooperation. However, the member states ended up having to coordinate the parallel work of these institutions. This coordination effort influenced their cooperation, creating an institutional coordination dilemma. We analyze how interests, leadership, and identity politics influence this dilemma and how negative, problem-solving, and positive forms of coordination can amend its effects regarding the temporal consistency of policy priorities and their sectoral overlap.     

Church,State, and Society in the East

The articles in this issue of Russian Politics and Law review the role of religion in state-society relations in the former Soviet Union. They examine the role of the Church in several former Soviet republics and show that the Orthodox Churches in former Soviet states share many commonalities.