Intercultural integration and informational infrastructure

2012 ◽  
Vol 74 (6) ◽  
pp. 525-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Boyd-Barrett

Peaceful development of large and fractious interethnic nations and regions is facilitated by and may require a shared informational infrastructure that meets the following conditions: public service orientation; independence of major state and corporate centers of power; contributing to the functioning of nationwide institutions of economic, political and cultural importance; and commanding benign public perception. With specific reference to the Russian news agency Interfax, this article explores the ‘black box’ of the often touted but seldom explicated relationship between news agencies and national or regional ‘development.’ It finds that Interfax has played an important role in the establishment of a political and economic, horizontal informational infrastructure that meets the above conditions. The article concludes that Interfax contributed to a new informational paradigm, synchronizing with macro processes of political and economic reform, and enveloping a heteroegenous swathe of Russia, the former Soviet Union (FSU) and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The agency thus helped create conditions conducive to regional, interethnic stability.

1998 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Renton ◽  
K. K. Borisenko ◽  
A. Meheus ◽  
A. Gromyko

1998 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-114
Author(s):  
John Churcher ◽  
Patricia Worgan

UK higher education, in partnership with UK industry, contributes positively to the training of managers and entrepreneurs from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the New Independent States and Russia. Since 1992, the University of Luton has delivered management training courses in CEE and the former Soviet Union (FSU), developing expertise to assist both UK companies and CEE/FSU managers to understand the different attitudes and experiences that will help to overcome potential partnership problems and encourage East-West industries to take full advantage of the increasing trading opportunities. This case study analyses the management training programmes, and details pre- and post-training insights.


2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacy Closson

Russia’s recent intent to use gas supplies to influence the former Soviet Union Republics, and now New Independent States (NIS), has mirrored that of the Soviet’s handling of hydrocarbon supplies to the Eastern bloc, or the Council on Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA). This paper explores the historical and unique conditions in making a comparison of energy trading patterns in the 1970s and 2000s. In the end, by comparing ‘then’ and ‘now’, we see a pattern of negative repercussions when the energy card is employed. This study employs a within case study cross-temporal comparative framework and asks: why would Russia transfer a failed policy of subsidies onto its newly independent states?


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (S2) ◽  
pp. 354-365
Author(s):  
Sergii A. Vavreniuk ◽  
Oleksandr M. Nepomnyashchyy ◽  
Oleksandra A. Marusheva ◽  
Iryna A. Lahunova ◽  
Svitlana M. Shostak

This article focuses on the problem of public administration in the countries of the former Soviet Union. It reveals the economic development issues of the states of the post-Soviet space, considers the main common and distinctive features for the newly independent states. The central problem raised in the article is the determination of the current state of the modernization process in post-Soviet societies. The author assumes the presence of demodernization and presents an argument in confirming his opinion. In addition, the article reveals the issues of the modern political state of such countries of the former USSR as Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The author traces the process of demodernization and dependence of political and social development on the governing elitist groups, leading to authoritarianism as opposed to the supposed democracy and modernization.


Author(s):  
Andrei Korobkov

Democratic transitions are especially complex in federal states and countries with multinational populations and compact, ethnic minority settlements; the increasing ethnic, linguistic, religious, and cultural heterogeneity of a society complicates the achievement of political compromises. In this sense, the post-Soviet newly independent states (NIS) face an especially complex transition pattern. Roman Szporluk, for example, enumerates three different transformations: the dissolution of the imperial structure and the resulting formation of independent states, the transition from a centralized to a market economic system, and the transition from authoritarianism to (at least ideally) a political democracy, with all three "combined or fused in the chaotic and extremely difficult process of formation and transformation of states and nations. " Thus the transition in the NIS is marked by simultaneous developments in the political, economic, social, religious, ideological, and cultural spheres, including the creation or re-creation of ethnic and other identities.


10.1068/b2658 ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Zamparutti ◽  
Brendan Gillespie

The 1993 Environmental Action Programme for Central and Eastern Europe presented a series of recommendations for integrating environmental objectives into the process of economic and democratic reform in Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) and the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union (NIS). In this paper, on the basis of findings of a recent OECD study, we look at progress across the region in light of these recommendations. In several CEEC, there has been a synergy among economic reforms, democratic development, and environmental improvement. These countries have seen important improvements in environmental conditions but now face a variety of challenges, many tied to the process of accession to the EU and the need to deepen integration between environment and sectoral policies, such as those for agriculture and transport. In other countries, and in particular many NIS, pollution reductions have mainly resulted from declines in economic production. Many of these countries face ongoing crisis in terms of establishing economic reform, stable societies, and environmental protection. In several areas of the former Soviet Union, environmental problems—in particular poor access to safe drinking water—pose serious threats to human health. Addressing these problems presents a difficult challenge both for national governments and for international cooperation agencies.


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