scholarly journals Constructing Ethnic Diversity as a Security Threat: What it Means to Russia’s Minorities

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Federica Prina

This article analyses the Russian government’s securitisation of inter-ethnic relations, and national minorities’ responses to such processes. While Russia’s securitising dynamics have been linked to threats associated with ethnic groups (perceived as) culturally distant from the Russian majority (such as non-Slavic and Muslim minorities), this article argues that securitisation can affect all of Russia’s national minorities (including Slavic and well-integrated communities). Through the analysis of the securitisation of three, partly converging, spheres of domestic politics (civil society, migration, and minority issues) the article highlights forms of (in)security impacting upon national minorities with reference to their experience of securitisation and format of their civic engagement. The article contributes to research exploring the relationship between security and minority studies, through a bottom-up perspective focusing on national minorities’ experience of securitisation. It employs empirical data based on semi-structured interviews with minority representatives held in 2015–2016 in six locations in the Russian Federation.

Author(s):  
Olga Zotova ◽  
◽  
Nataliya Belousova ◽  
Olga Solodukhina ◽  
◽  
...  

The complexity of inter-ethnic relations is caused by various factors, e.g. globalisation processes, the intensification of migration flows, peculiarities of social interactions, and the presence of conflicts in a multi-ethnic environment. In this regard, the aim of our study was to examine the relationship between inter-ethnic attitudes and personal security among respondents of different ethnic backgrounds in different regions of the Russian Federation. Respondents were asked to fill out a questionnaire based on the questionnaire for a comprehensive study of acculturation developed by John Berry, aimed at studying such psychological constructs as the assessment of tolerance/intolerance of ethnic attitudes of the respondent, the assessment of migrant-phobia, the scale of assessment of integral security (physical, cultural, economic), the assessment of orientation towards multicultural ideology, the determination of acculturation expectations/strategies of respondents. The authors have found a statistically significant relationship between such variables as ethnic tolerance, attitudes towards social equality and levels of migrant-phobia; between such variables as economic, physical and cultural security and migrant-phobia. It was found that respondents in the Amur region are mostly oriented towards expectations such as integration and exclusion, while respondents in the Sverdlovsk region are more oriented towards integration and assimilation. The authors believe the study to be important and valuable since the resulting data indicate the presence of different features of inter-ethnic relations in different regions of the Russian Federation, determining the nature of inter- ethnic relations and the level of tension in the region.


Author(s):  
Steven Hurst

The United States, Iran and the Bomb provides the first comprehensive analysis of the US-Iranian nuclear relationship from its origins through to the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015. Starting with the Nixon administration in the 1970s, it analyses the policies of successive US administrations toward the Iranian nuclear programme. Emphasizing the centrality of domestic politics to decision-making on both sides, it offers both an explanation of the evolution of the relationship and a critique of successive US administrations' efforts to halt the Iranian nuclear programme, with neither coercive measures nor inducements effectively applied. The book further argues that factional politics inside Iran played a crucial role in Iranian nuclear decision-making and that American policy tended to reinforce the position of Iranian hardliners and undermine that of those who were prepared to compromise on the nuclear issue. In the final chapter it demonstrates how President Obama's alterations to American strategy, accompanied by shifts in Iranian domestic politics, finally brought about the signing of the JCPOA in 2015.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 53-64
Author(s):  
ANDREY KURIUKIN ◽  

The issue of ethnic relations and the conflicts generated by them is acutely relevant. Many branches and directions of modern science study it. Political science and jurisprudence are in the foreground of the modern study of ethno-national conflictology. Over a long period of research, they have developed several influential approaches that have become widespread. The growing complexity of the surrounding political and legal reality, the escalation of conflict in society, including ethno-national, require the search and application of new research paradigms. One of these is the analysis of political and legal discourse, which consists in studying the ways of how legal meanings, ideas, opinions and preferences, which are carried by legislators, are technically and meaningfully embodied in the texts of normative acts, subsequently forming a specific political and legal reality. Analyzing the domestic ethno-conflictological political and legal discourse, the author concludes that in the era of the Russian Empire, the legalization of ethno-national relations had little attention from legislators, the documents adopted in the 19th century carried widespread ideas of the legislative theory and existed unchanged until 1917. The basic paradigm of the Soviet political and legal regulation of ethno-national relations was the ideological dogmas of the theorists of Marxism-Leninism, within which, in Soviet society, such a phenomenon as an ethno-national conflict was denied, but, in fact, existed. At the present stage, after the acute events of the second half of the 1980s - 1990s, a serious system of political and legal regulation of ethno-national relations was developed. It bore fruit. Today, the domestic political and legal regulation of ethno-national relations has the character of a developing system designed to adequately respond to changes. The article can be used to improve the state social and legal policy of the Russian Federation. Also, the materials presented can provide the interest of students, graduate students, teachers, researchers and other people who are interested in the current social, political and legal development of Russia.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 1266-1285
Author(s):  
Sn.P. Mongush

Subject. This article explores the various aspects of the concept of Spatial Development. Objectives. The article aims to develop a conceptual basis for the spatial socio-economic development of the collaborating regions. Methods. For the study, I used the methods of comparative and statistical analyses. Results. The article shows how cooperation between the subjects of the Russian Federation increases the potential of economically united regions. Conclusions. When preparing national strategic planning documents, it is necessary to take into account the specifics of regions, their capacity, available resources, and focus on the relationship between regions.


Author(s):  
Pavel Agapov ◽  
Kirill Stepkin

The article considers the general theoretical foundations of the relationship of sectarianism and religious extremism in the Russian Federation. Practical examples of the role of destructive sects in modern religious extremism in the Russian Federation are given.


Author(s):  
Amanda Cabral ◽  
Carolin Lusby ◽  
Ricardo Uvinha

Sports Tourism as a segment is growing exponentially in Brazil. The sports mega-events that occurred in the period from 2007 to 2016 helped strengthen this sector significantly. This article examined tourism mobility during the Summer Olympic Games Rio 2016, hosted by the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This study expands the understanding of the relationship between tourism and city infrastructure, therefore being relevant to academics, professionals of the area and to the whole society due to its multidisciplinary field. The existence of a relationship between means of transportation and the Olympic regions as well as tourist attractions for a possible legacy was observed. Data were collected from official sources, field research and through participant-observation and semi structured interviews. Data were coded and analyzed. The results indicate that the city was overall successful in its execution of sufficient mobility. New means of transportation were added and others updated. BRT's (Bus Rapid Transit) were the main use of mass transport to Olympic sites. However, a lack of public transport access was observed for the touristic sites.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jielan Ding ◽  
Zhesi Shen ◽  
Per Ahlgren ◽  
Tobias Jeppsson ◽  
David Minguillo ◽  
...  

AbstractUnderstanding the nature and value of scientific collaboration is essential for sound management and proactive research policies. One component of collaboration is the composition and diversity of contributing authors. This study explores how ethnic diversity in scientific collaboration affects scientific impact, by presenting a conceptual model to connect ethnic diversity, based on author names, with scientific impact, assuming novelty and audience diversity as mediators. The model also controls for affiliated country diversity and affiliated country size. Using path modeling, we apply the model to the Web of Science subject categories Nanoscience & Nanotechnology, Ecology and Information Science & Library. For all three subject categories, and regardless of if control variables are considered or not, we find a weak positive relationship between ethnic diversity and scientific impact. The relationship is weaker, however, when control variables are included. For all three fields, the mediated effect through audience diversity is substantially stronger than the mediated effect through novelty in the relationship, and the former effect is much stronger than the direct effect between the ethnic diversity and scientific impact. Our findings further suggest that ethnic diversity is more associated with short-term scientific impact compared to long-term scientific impact.


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