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
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Putin’s Strengths and Vulnerabilities: Three New Books
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RECOMMENDED
The Current Hostilities between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan: Commentary by Dzhuraev, McGlinchey, Markowitz, and Schatz
Shairbek Dzhuraev, Crossroads Central Asia Peace is on the brink in Central Asia. The border conflict between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has reached a new bottom. The clashes of the past week left at least 40-50 people killed, mostly civilians. More than a hundred houses were burned, and remnants of good neighborly relations in the region were shattered. Clashes involving stones and guns…
Can the EU’s new global strategy make a difference? Strengthening resilience in the Eastern Partnership countries
(Democratization) This article assesses the European Union’s (EU) performance in promoting societal resilience in the Eastern Partnership countries (EaP) on examples of Georgia and Ukraine. We examine two approaches to external resilience-building employed by the EU: support for the sources of societal resilience (social trust, legitimacy of governance actors, design of governance…
Statement on Andrew Kuchins
It is with alarm that we have been monitoring what strongly appears to be an effort to smear one of Kyrgyzstan’s leading academic institutions, the Bishkek-based American University of Central Asia (AUCA). This effort is most prominently symbolized by a criminal case recently launched against AUCA President Andrew Kuchins, an esteemed and long-time member of PONARS Eurasia known for his…
The Current Tensions Around Donbas
(PONARS Eurasia Commentary) What are the different actors’ perspectives on the increased tensions? What does the revival of tensions—and their apparent current decrease—tell us about the state of security? Georgi Derluguian (NYU Abu Dhabi) The geopolitical prediction of the Soviet collapse that Randall Collins made back in 1980 could be at work again. In the past, such…
From “Greater Europe” to “Greater Eurasia”: Status concerns and the evolution of Russia’s approach to alignment and regional integration
(Journal of Eurasian Studies) Russia’s approach to alignment and regional integration has evolved dramatically—from a focus on the West and disinterest and neglect of regional integration in the 1990s, to vigorous efforts to reintegrate the post-Soviet space under Russian leadership in the period between 2009 and 2014, to forming a “Greater Eurasia” that transcends the post-Soviet space…
The International System After Trump and the Pandemic
(Current History) The Trump administration sought to erode confidence in the international system, which it regarded as an affront to national sovereignty. The COVID-19 pandemic, by raising collective awareness of the need for global cooperation, may help to restore that confidence and encourage renewed commitment to multilateralism. Public opinion polls show that people around the world…
COVID-19 in Eurasia: PONARS Eurasia Policy Perspectives
In a new curated e-book of policy memos, PONARS Eurasia experts address the impact of COVID-19 in Eurasia. Table of Contents Part I. Facing the Unknown: Post-Soviet Responses to COVID-19Post-Soviet State Responses to COVID-19 Making or Breaking Authoritarianism?Marlene Laruelle and Madeline McCannThe Russian Power Vertical and the COVID-19 Challenge: The Trajectories of Regional…
Preparing for the Parliamentary Elections of 2021: Russian Politics and Society (Gel’man, Lankina, Semenov, Smyth, and more)
(Russian Analytical Digest) This issue provides a broad overview of Russian politics and society in the run-up to the 2021 parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for September. In eleven shorter contributions, international experts on Russia discuss domestic and foreign affairs as well as the economy. The focus of most of them is on attempts of the Russian leadership to deal with…
Listen to our podcast
- In today's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Olga Malinova about the myth of the "wild nineties" and the political actors involved in its construction.
- In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Alexander Gorbachev about the dynamic music scene in contemporary Russia, and how free Russian musicians are to make political statements.
- In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Anton Tabakh about rising food prices in Russia, and what they might mean for Russia's current and future stability.
- In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Felix Light and Nikolay Petrov about the contemporary Communist Party of the Russian Federation, including the divisions between its leadership and membership, its attitude toward Alexei Navalny, and why it might be more than just "systemic" opposition after all.
