OUR MISSION
The Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia (PONARS Eurasia) is a network of over 125 academics, mainly from North America and post-Soviet Eurasia, advancing new approaches to research on security, politics, economics, and society in Russia and Eurasia. Its core missions are to connect scholarship to policy on and in Russia and Eurasia and to foster a community, especially of mid-career and rising scholars, committed to developing policy-relevant and collaborative research.
Policy memos
RECOMMENDED
Revealing schemes: The politics of conspiracy in Russia and the post-Soviet region
(LSE Blogs) What motivates governments and other political actors to promote conspiracy theories? And what impact do these theories have on society? Drawing on a new book covering Russia and the post-Soviet region, Scott Radnitz explores the causes, consequences, and contradictions of conspiracism in politics. Conspiracy theories have been in the news of late, often in…
Understanding Putinism | PONARS Eurasia Online Academy
Authored by Brian Taylor, professor of political science at Syracuse University and author of The Code of Putinism (2018), Understanding Putinism explains the style and system of President Vladimir Putin’s rule. The video is accompanied by a list of additional sources, providing a foundation for those who would like to learn more about the specific topics addressed. Online Academy | YouTube
Did the Internet Bring Down the Soviet Union?
(Transitions) Tim Berners Lee, on 6 August 1991, put up the first world wide website on a computer at the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva. Two weeks later, Soviet hardliners launched a coup, which failed, leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union. A coincidence? Yes, as it happens. A pure coincidence. The invention of the internet had nothing to do with the Soviet…
Are Elections Bad for Georgia’s Democracy?
(PONARS Eurasia Commentary) Georgia’s politics has always been operatic, a blend of comedy and tragedy. Like opera, it is a performance for and by elites. The latest drama was the secret arrival in Georgia of Mikheil Saakashvili, who, on the eve of crucial municipal elections in Georgia, was detained by Georgian police and dispatched to prison in the provincial city of Rustavi. Runoffs in…
The Russian Orthodox Church | PONARS Eurasia Online Academy
Orthodox Christianity plays an important role in contemporary Russian identity beyond serving strictly as a religious faith. In this video, we unpack the interactions between the Russian Orthodox Church and the State, and explore how it has emerged as a key player in Russian politics. The video is accompanied by a list of additional sources, providing a foundation for those who would like…
How Russian Economic Policy is Made | PONARS Eurasia Online Academy
In the latest PONARS Eurasia video, Christopher Miller (Tufts University) provides a succinct overview of Russian economic policy. The video is accompanied by a list of additional sources for those who would like to learn more about the specific topics addressed. PONARS Eurasia Online Academy | YouTube
Authoritarian Rallying as Reputational Cascade? Evidence from Putin’s Popularity Surge after Crimea
(American Political Science Review) When international conflict causes an authoritarian leader’s popularity to soar, extant theories lead us to treat such “rallying” as sincere preference change, the product of surging patriotism or cowed media. This study advances a theory of less-than-fully sincere rallying more appropriate for nondemocratic settings, characterizing it as at least partly…
Russia’s Military Interventions: Patterns, Drivers, and Signposts
(RAND Corporation) Moscow’s use of its military abroad in recent years has radically reshaped perceptions of Russia as an international actor. With the 2014 annexation of Crimea, the invasion of eastern Ukraine and sustainment of an insurgency there, and (in particular) the 2015 intervention in Syria, Russia repeatedly surprised U.S. policymakers with its willingness and ability to…
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Listen to our podcast
- In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Alexander Verkhovsky about the Kremlin's ever expanding toolkit against political and civic activists, journalists, and other dissidents.
- In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Tanya Lokot and Nikolay Petrov about the results of Russia’s legislative elections and about what comes next.
- In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Ben Noble and Nikolay Petrov about Russia’s September 17-19 legislative elections, repressive measures against electoral challengers, and whether to expect anything other than preordained results.
- In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast episode, Maria Lipman chats with Denis Volkov, Naira Davlashyan, and Peter Slevin about why COVID-19 vaccination rates are still so low across the globe, comparing vaccine hesitant constituencies across Russia, France, and the United States.
