- Tartu, Tartumaa, Estonia
Andrey Makarychev
University of Tartu, Institute of Government and Politics, Faculty Member
- International Relations, Discourse Analysis, Peace and Conflict Studies, Russian Foreign Policy, European Studies, Cultural Geography, and 11 moreRussian Studies, Russia, Europe, Olympics and Olympism, Cultural Studies, Critical Theory, Political Philosophy, Comparative Politics, Political Sociology, Social Theory, and Social Changeedit
The authors analyse Lotman's semiotics in a series of temporal contexts, starting with the rigidity of Soviet-era ideologies, through to the post-Soviet de-politicization that - paradoxically enough - ended with the reproduction of... more
The authors analyse Lotman's semiotics in a series of temporal contexts, starting with the rigidity of Soviet-era ideologies, through to the post-Soviet de-politicization that - paradoxically enough - ended with the reproduction of Soviet-style hegemonic discourse in the Kremlin and ultimately reignited politically divisive conflicts between Russia and Europe. The book demonstrates how Lotman's ideas cross disciplinary boundaries and their relevance to many European theorists of cultural studies, discourse analysis and political philosophy. Lotman lived and worked in Estonia, which, even under Soviet rule, maintained its own borderland identity located at the intersection of Russian and European cultural flows. The authors argue that in this context Lotman’s theories are particularly revealing in relation to Russian-European interactions and communications, both historically and in a more contemporary sense
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This book focuses on the recent political trajectories within the Baltic Sea Region from one of the success stories of regionalism in Europe to a potential area of military confrontation between Russia and NATO. The authors closely... more
This book focuses on the recent political trajectories within the Baltic Sea Region from one of the success stories of regionalism in Europe to a potential area of military confrontation between Russia and NATO. The authors closely examine the following issues: new security challenges for the region stemming from Russia’s staunch anti-EU and anti-NATO polices, institutions and practices of multi-level governance in the region, and different cultural strategies that regional actors employ. The common threads of this innovative volume are issues of changing borders and boundaries in the region, and logics of inclusion and exclusion that shape its political contours. From diverse disciplinary and methodological positions the authors explain policies of specific Baltic Sea states, as well as structural matters that make them a region.
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The conflict in Ukraine and Russia's annexation of Crimea has undoubtedly been a pivotal moment for policy makers and military planners in Europe and beyond. Many analysts see an unexpected character in the conflict and expect negative... more
The conflict in Ukraine and Russia's annexation of Crimea has undoubtedly been a pivotal moment for policy makers and military planners in Europe and beyond. Many analysts see an unexpected character in the conflict and expect negative reverberations and a long-lasting period of turbulence and uncertainty, the de-legitimation of international institutions and a declining role for global norms and rules. Did these events bring substantial correctives and modifications to the extant conceptualization of International Relations? Does the conflict significantly alter previous assumptions and foster a new academic vocabulary, or, does it confirm the validity of well-established schools of thought in international relations? Has the crisis in Ukraine confirmed the vitality and academic vigour of conventional concepts?
These questions are the starting points for this book covering conceptualisations from rationalist to reflectivist, and from quantitative to qualitative. Most contributors agree that many of the old concepts, such as multi-polarity, spheres of influence, sovereignty, or even containment, are still cognitively valid, yet believe the eruption of the crisis means that they are now used in different contexts and thus infused with different meanings. It is these multiple, conceptual languages that the volume puts at the centre of its analysis.
This text will be of great interest to students and scholars studying international relations, politics, and Russian and Ukrainian studies.
These questions are the starting points for this book covering conceptualisations from rationalist to reflectivist, and from quantitative to qualitative. Most contributors agree that many of the old concepts, such as multi-polarity, spheres of influence, sovereignty, or even containment, are still cognitively valid, yet believe the eruption of the crisis means that they are now used in different contexts and thus infused with different meanings. It is these multiple, conceptual languages that the volume puts at the centre of its analysis.
This text will be of great interest to students and scholars studying international relations, politics, and Russian and Ukrainian studies.
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The article addresses the sphere of performing arts as part of Russia's security policy and, in particular, its propaganda dimensions. The authors approach cultural representations as appeals to universal norms rather than to national... more
The article addresses the sphere of performing arts as part of Russia's security policy and, in particular, its propaganda dimensions. The authors approach cultural representations as appeals to universal norms rather than to national interests and in this respect focus on two specific cases of aestheticization of military force applied beyond the national borders of the Russian Federation — in Georgia in August 2008 and in Syria since September 2015. These cases are comparable with each other, since the external projections of Russia's hard power were accompanied by similar cultural gestures — namely, public concerts of classical music performed by the world-famous Valery Gergiev's Mariinsky Theater in two sites controlled by Russian troops, Tskhinvali and Palmyra. The article argues that the Russian government uses two strategies of aesthe-ticizing its military missions — mimetic (implying the closest possible correspondence to reality) and aesthetic (based on imageries), though the distinction between the two is not always well fixed.
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This article sketches out general approach to using cultural semiotics as a cognitive tool for analyzing international relations in general and in post-Soviet area in particular. The authors discuss how the homegrown school of cultural... more
This article sketches out general approach to using cultural semiotics as a cognitive tool for analyzing international relations in general and in post-Soviet area in particular. The authors discuss how the homegrown school of cultural semiotics associated with the University of Tartu can be helpful for IR studies. In this respect we place cultural semiotic knowledge in a multidisciplinary perspective and look for projections of its concepts into the vocabulary of foreign policy. Then we intend to discuss the Tartu school from a political perspective, thus claiming that its premium put on cultural issues renders strong politicizing effects. Ultimately, we use cultural semiotic notions and approaches for problematizing the concept of the post-Soviet with its conflictual split between reproducing archaic policies and discourses, on the one hand, and playing by the rules of the post-modern society, with entertainment, hybridity and the spirit of deconstruction as its pivots.
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The article addresses two dimensions of the refugee debate in Estonia – political discourses and cultural representations. The authors specifically focus on distinctions between the mainstream Estonian narrative and that of the Russophone... more
The article addresses two dimensions of the refugee debate in Estonia – political discourses and cultural representations. The authors specifically focus on distinctions between the mainstream Estonian narrative and that of the Russophone community, as well as on the role of Russia and Europe as two major shapers of the refugee debate
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In this article three arguments are key. First, we deem that the conflict conventionally described as “a battle over Ukraine,” under a close constructivist scrutiny, reveals its much deeper roots, which ultimately boil down to the... more
In this article three arguments are key. First, we deem that the conflict conventionally described as “a battle over Ukraine,” under a close constructivist scrutiny, reveals its much deeper roots, which ultimately boil down to the unfinished process of mutual readjustment of two identities-in-the making, that of the post-Soviet Russia and thatof the post-Lisbon EU, respectively. Second, we claim that, in spite of the depth of contradictions between them, the two identities are constitutively dependent oneach other. Third, the EU and Russia, being in deep conflict, have come to grow more akin to each other in many respects. Conflictual intersubjectivity results in both differentiation and convergence, mutual adaptation and mimicry.
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An important recent development in the discipline of International Relations (IR) has been the growing interest in the national schools and “non-core” theorizing. Even though this interest is fully justified, we argue that the tendency to... more
An important recent development in the discipline of International Relations (IR) has been the growing interest in the national schools and “non-core” theorizing. Even though this interest is fully justified, we argue that the tendency to describe all such schools as invariably promising and helpful in overcoming the Eurocentrism of the discipline is misguided. It originates in the false assumption that the infinite diversity of collective experiences throughout the world can only be approached on the basis of epistemological pluralism. We explore the confusion between the ontological and epistemological aspects of the problem by looking at the state of international studies in Russia. The development of Russian IR is defined by a controversy between pro-Western transitological approaches and the dominant relativist position centered around the doctrine of multipolarity. The latter is translated into the epistemological domain, leading to a totally counterproductive assertion that “Western” science is unable to understand Russia’s specificity.
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... as a legitimising force for cultural alienation and distancing of a non-central actor either from a core or from another non-central actor. ... In terms of the mainstream official discourses in Pskov, the EU and NATO enlargements will... more
... as a legitimising force for cultural alienation and distancing of a non-central actor either from a core or from another non-central actor. ... In terms of the mainstream official discourses in Pskov, the EU and NATO enlargements will have a positive effect on this Russian border region ...
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... pan-Russian security architecture in order to combat and ameliorate the non-traditional sources of ... s), Shaimiev set up, in February 1995, an office on humanitarian issues under the ... in Ingushetia Third, the establishment of... more
... pan-Russian security architecture in order to combat and ameliorate the non-traditional sources of ... s), Shaimiev set up, in February 1995, an office on humanitarian issues under the ... in Ingushetia Third, the establishment of regional industrial projects can benefit national security. ...
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... so quickly that nothing will be left for Medvedev to even pick at.16 Close observation of Russian politics at ... Petersburg in March 200817 and the appearance of the Institute for Contemporary Development, a liberal think tank... more
... so quickly that nothing will be left for Medvedev to even pick at.16 Close observation of Russian politics at ... Petersburg in March 200817 and the appearance of the Institute for Contemporary Development, a liberal think tank estab-lished to supply the new president with ...
This article begins with an analysis of Boris Nemtsov’s critical contribution to the Sochi Olympics debate and then projects it onto a wider discourse about mega-events in Russia. Being a native of Sochi, Nemtsov followed the issues... more
This article begins with an analysis of Boris Nemtsov’s critical contribution to the Sochi Olympics debate and then projects it onto a wider discourse about mega-events in Russia. Being a native of Sochi, Nemtsov followed the issues related to its transformation into an Olympic city, and even ran for mayor in 2009. In 2013 he co-authored a widely circulated report, “Winter Olympics in the Sub-tropics,” in which he raised substantial issues about transparency and accountability that remain relevant after the Olympics. Nemtsov’s analysis remains an important reference point for critical discourses that put an emphasis on corruption, mismanagement and societal risks associated with global sports events in authoritarian countries. In conclusion, the authors examine the plethora of critical Olympic discourses related to the nature of the current political regime in Russia as well as the policies pursued by global sports institutions.
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The State and Education in Russia
Russian Soft Power
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EU-Russia Disconnections after Ukraine
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PONARS Memo
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The rising generation of Russian foreign policy experts and commentators, especially outside Moscow, is increasingly sceptical about the key premises of Russian diplomacy and see more failures than achievements in Russia's relations with... more
The rising generation of Russian foreign policy experts and commentators, especially outside Moscow, is increasingly sceptical about the key premises of Russian diplomacy and see more failures than achievements in Russia's relations with its closest partners, including the EU and neighbouring states. This is the conclusion that stems from a series of interviews and focus groups carried out with young Russian professionals about Russia's current foreign policies. The study reveals a strong cognitive dissonance between the official diplomatic discourse of the Kremlin and the perceptions of young experts who work in a variety of fields dealing with international cooperation either at a lower level of the state hierarchy or in different professional domains.
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... http://www.echo.msk.ru/interview/1.html View all notes. or the “old good Europe”,7 7 A. Okara, “Kakaya Evropa nuzhna Rossii”. ... http://nationalism.org/library/publicism/okara/okara-what-europe. htm View all notes. preserving its... more
... http://www.echo.msk.ru/interview/1.html View all notes. or the “old good Europe”,7 7 A. Okara, “Kakaya Evropa nuzhna Rossii”. ... http://nationalism.org/library/publicism/okara/okara-what-europe. htm View all notes. preserving its sovereignty and resisting America-led globalisation. ...
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... http://www.echo.msk.ru/interview/1.html View all notes. or the “old good Europe”,7 7 A. Okara, “Kakaya Evropa nuzhna Rossii”. ... http://nationalism.org/library/publicism/okara/okara-what-europe. htm View all notes. preserving its... more
... http://www.echo.msk.ru/interview/1.html View all notes. or the “old good Europe”,7 7 A. Okara, “Kakaya Evropa nuzhna Rossii”. ... http://nationalism.org/library/publicism/okara/okara-what-europe. htm View all notes. preserving its sovereignty and resisting America-led globalisation. ...
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Published 10-22-2013 (Co-authored by Andrey Makarychev and Olga Gulina) The Russian model of multiculturalism is in crisis having recently proven itself to be a mixture of intolerance, xenophobia, and racism. These sentiments have all... more
Published 10-22-2013 (Co-authored by Andrey Makarychev and Olga Gulina) The Russian model of multiculturalism is in crisis having recently proven itself to be a mixture of intolerance, xenophobia, and racism. These sentiments have all been publicly legitimized by a false rhetoric of "national patriotism," with "Russia for Russians" having become the most popular slogan among growing nationalist segments within Russian society. Kondopoga, Manezh Square, Pugachev, and now Biryulyovo, are but a few examples of the nationalist riots and pogroms which have spread throughout the country. Russia is of course not alone in this. European countries have their own records of ethnic-based discontent (France in 2005, Great Britain in 2011, Sweden in 2013, etc.) Yet in Paris, Lyon, London, or Stockholm, protestors were mostly young immigrants. In Biryulyovo, it was the locals who went to the streets in search of a "people's justice," demanding the immediate inves...