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This book explores what the concept of "being European" means to people in Russia and the states of the former Soviet Union. Katherine Graney provides a panoramic and historically rooted overview of politics in the post-Soviet world, focusing in particular on how Europe¿as both real place and symbol¿has structured the political trajectory of this vast region. In sum, Graney provides both a theoretical discussion of contemporary Europeanness, and an empiricalexamination of how Russia and each of the fourteen former Soviet states are actually attempting to "be European," or not.
About the author
Katherine Graney is Professor of Political Science at Skidmore College, where she has also held the Joseph C. Palamountain Chair in Political Science and directed the Gender Studies Program. She earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999. She has published widely on ethnic politics, gender and other aspects of contemporary politics in Russia.
Summary
Nearly three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, early hopes for the integration of the post-Soviet states into a "Europe whole and free" seem to have been decisively dashed. Europe itself is in the midst of a multifaceted crisis that threatens the considerable gains of the post-war liberal European experiment. In Russia, the Former Soviet Republics, and Europe Since 1989, Katherine Graney provides a panoramic and historically-rooted overview of the process of "Europeanization" in Russia and all fourteen of the former Soviet republics since 1989. Graney argues that deeply rooted ideas about Europe's cultural-civilizational primacy and concerns about both ideological and institutional alignment with Europe continue to influence both internal politics in contemporary Europe and the processes of Europeanization in the post-Soviet world. By comparing the effect of the phenomenon across Russia and the ex-republics, Graney provides a theoretically grounded and empirically rich window into how we should study politics in the former USSR.
Additional text
There are very few books that attempt to systematically compare the political trajectory of all 15 post-soviet states since the revolutions of 1989. Graney, however, seeks to fill this massive gap in the literature. She focuses on the theme of Europeanization, since the question of drawing closer to Europe has been central to regional foreign and security policies and to domestic national identity debates... Although economic policy is not directly addressed, apart from some tables on trade flows, Graney's assessment is informed and insightful throughout. This volume is a singular achievement in covering social, political, and security issues across all 15 former Soviet republics. Both theoretically informed and empirically grounded, it will be invaluable to those teaching post-Soviet politics and for courses on European politics concerned with the EU's eastern policy.
