PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • Membership
      • Membership | Core
      • Membership | Collegium
      • Membership | Associates
      • About Membership
    • Ukraine Experts
    • Executive Committee
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
    • Submissions
  • Podcasts
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
  • Ukraine Experts
Contacts

Address
1957 E St NW,
Washington, DC 20052

adminponars@gwu.edu
202.994.5915

NEWSLETTER
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Podcast
PONARS Eurasia
PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • Membership
      • Membership | Core
      • Membership | Collegium
      • Membership | Associates
      • About Membership
    • Ukraine Experts
    • Executive Committee
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
    • Submissions
  • Podcasts
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
  • Ukraine Experts
DIGITAL RESOURCES
digital resources

Bookstore 📚

Knowledge Hub

Course Syllabi

Point & Counterpoint

Policy Perspectives

RECOMMENDED
  • Will Ukraine Wind Up Making Territorial Concessions to Russia? Foreign Affairs Asks the Experts

    View
  • Pro-Kremlin Propaganda’s Failure in Ukraine | New Voices on Eurasia with Aaron Erlich (Jan. 19)

    View
  • Kyiv-Washington Relations in Times of Colossal War: The Ultimate Test of a Strategic Partnership

    View
  • Russia’s war in Ukraine threatens students daily and forces teachers to improvise

    View
  • Prevailing Soviet Legacies

    View
RSS PONARS Eurasia Podcast
  • The Putin-Xi Summit: What's New In Their Joint Communique ? February 23, 2022
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman speaks with Russian China experts Vita Spivak and Alexander Gabuev about the February meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and what it may tell us about where the Russian-Chinese relationship is headed.
  • Exploring the Russian Courts' Ruling to Liquidate the Memorial Society January 28, 2022
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with scholars Kelly Smith and Benjamin Nathans about the history, achievements, and impending shutdown of the Memorial Society, Russia's oldest and most venerable civic organization, and what its imminent liquidation portends for the Russian civil society.
  • Russia's 2021 census and the Kremlin's nationalities policy [Lipman Series 2021] December 9, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with social scientist Andrey Shcherbak about the quality of the data collected in the recent population census and the goals of Vladimir Putin's government's nationalities policy
  • Active citizens of any kind are under threat [Lipman Series 2021] November 5, 2021
    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.
  • Russia's Legislative Elections followup [Lipman Series 2021] October 4, 2021
    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.
  • Why Is the Kremlin Nervous? [Lipman Series 2021] September 14, 2021
    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.
  • Vaccine Hesitancy in Russia, France, and the United States [Lipman Series 2021] August 31, 2021
    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.  
  • Is Russia Becoming More Soviet? [Lipman Series 2021] July 26, 2021
      In a new PONARS Eurasia Podcast episode, Maria Lipman chats with Maxim Trudolyubov about the current tightening of the Russian political sphere, asking whether or not it’s helpful to draw comparisons to the late Soviet period.
  • The Evolution of Russia's Political Regime [Lipman Series 2021] June 21, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Grigory Golosov and Henry Hale about the evolution of Russia's political regime, and what to expect in the lead-up to September's Duma elections.
  • Volodymyr Zelensky: Year Two [Lipman Series 2021] May 24, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Sergiy Kudelia and Georgiy Kasianov about Ukrainian President Zelensky's second year in office, and how he has handled the political turbulence of the past year.
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Pluralism or Impunity?

  • September 24, 2012
  • Andrey Makarychev

 

Notes from Kraków

How effective are theories as explanatory tools? How strong should our commitments be to certain theories? These questions ignited a vivid debate at the 9th Convention of the Central and East European International Studies Association held at Jagellonian University, Kraków, Poland, September 20-22.

The conference started with an address by Chris Brown of the London School of Economics who attempted to pinpoint the “universal” characteristics of humans and relate them to different understandings of international relations. But if each of these characteristics inevitably requires substantial exceptions, how universal are the values of human rights? How solid are the political grounds for the promotion of universal human rights?

This theoretical prelude framed a more policy-oriented debate on universality, particularity in wider Europe. Piles of articles and books have been written in recent decades to vindicate the EU’s self-portrayal as a unique type of international actor. Perhaps this is not senseless; paradoxically the EUs’ uniqueness can be explained by its ability to incarnate the universal values of democracy.

Yet are we dealing with ability or intention? As Giselle Bosse from Maastricht University disclosed, EU “norm” transfers may only strengthen authoritarian regimes as unintended effects of Brussels’ neighborhood policies. She was not alone in arguing that EU policies in neighboring countries are not about democracy, but rather about governance. This approach is fine when there is a relative consensus with EU partners, but what if this is not the case? Then perhaps the EU has to recognize that the transfer of norms is not simply a technical process – ultimately it’s all about power, which requires using a host of political instruments. Yet this list is actually not very long. It may include sanctions, political isolation of a regime (e.g., Belarus), discontinuation of association talks (e.g., Ukraine), and … what else?

Apparently, Brussels would prefer to avoid using these tools – perhaps, to make its power less visible. In fact, power relations are often intentionally concealed by presumably depoliticized approaches and discourses – in Europe as well as in Russia.

Of course, Russia traditionally asserts its own specificity, allegedly irreducible to experiences of other countries. In this sense, the (pro)Kremlin’s dominating discourses share some similarities with countries like Turkey where post-colonial narratives are quite popular. Yet, as Viatcheslav Morozov from Tartu University suggested, the very fact of possessing a peculiar record of interaction with the outside world does not necessarily presuppose either the need for Russia-specific conceptual and theoretical approaches, or their feasibility. Of course, many in Russia deem that since the world is pluralist, so scientific knowledge has to be pluralist and relational as well – an approach which justifies “our own” assessments of democracy, human rights, transparency, ecological standards, food safety, etc.

Undeniably, pluralism interpretations of the world have to be welcomed: debates between rationalists and constructivists, or realists and idealists, are as natural as indispensable part of international relations as a discipline. But are “national schools” a good and workable idea? I am not completely sure. Moreover, in the Russian context, references to “indigenous specificity” contain a clear political message, since they serve as a pseudo-intellectual pretext for questioning the utility of international standards for Russia and its subsequent isolation from international society. Alas, many mainstream politicians use the academic argument of plurality of the world to politically claim Russia’s impunity and immunity. Perhaps, this is the strongest argument against those who deem that academic theorizing is bereft of practical significance.

Andrey Makarychev is a Guest Professor at the Free University of Berlin, blogging for PONARS Eurasia on the Russia-EU neighborhood.

 

Related Topics
  • Makarychev
  • Russia
Previous Article
  • In the News | Hовости

Gazprom Losing its Clout?

  • September 23, 2012
View
Next Article
  • Commentary | Комментарии

The Ukrainian Opposition in the 2012 Election: Elvis has left the building

  • September 25, 2012
  • Sergiy Kudelia
View
You May Also Like
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Kyiv-Washington Relations in Times of Colossal War: The Ultimate Test of a Strategic Partnership

  • Volodymyr Dubovyk
  • January 11, 2023
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Prevailing Soviet Legacies

  • Irina Busygina and Mikhail Filippov
  • December 27, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

In Russia’s Nuclear Messaging to West and Ukraine, Putin Plays Both Bad and Good Cop

  • Simon Saradzhyan
  • December 23, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Ukraine’s Asymmetric Responses to the Russian Invasion

  • Nurlan Aliyev
  • July 28, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем
  • Territorial Conflict

Dominating Ukraine’s Sky

  • Volodymyr Dubovyk
  • March 5, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Russian Anti-War Protests and the State’s Response

  • Lauren McCarthy
  • March 4, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Путин и Лукашенко

  • Konstantin Sonin
  • August 29, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Отравление оппозиционеров в России превратилось в регулярную практику

  • Vladimir Gel'man
  • August 22, 2020

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

PONARS Eurasia
  • About
  • Membership
  • Policy Memos
  • Recommended
  • Events
Powered by narva.io

Permissions & Citation Guidelines

Input your search keywords and press Enter.