Andrzej Kobylinski (UKSW): From Nihilism to Communism: In Search of the Philosophical Roots of Totalitarian Regimes. Stanislav Markus (Chicago) and Martin Mendelski (Luxembourg): Institutional Complementarity, Economic Performance and Governance in the Post-Communist World. Ondrej Cisar (Charles): Social Movements after Communism. Towards an intellectual history of post-socialism: The introduction to Thinking Through Transition: Liberal Democracy, Authoritarian Pasts, and Intellectual History in East Central Europe After 1989, ed. Michal Kopecek and Piotr Wcislik. A bastion for democracy in an illiberal world: Twenty-five years after it was founded to promote openness in the post-Soviet era, the Central European University is grappling with new threats to democracy. Igor Jovanoski (SEEU): Laclau in the Balkans: Translating “Populist Reason” in an Illiberal Political and Cultural Context. Just how democratic are the former Yugoslav countries today?
Natalie Koch (Syracuse): Why No “Water Wars” in Central Asia? Lessons Learned from the Aral Sea Disaster. A perfect storm in Central Asia: For years, the five ex-Soviet republics have enjoyed surprising stability — but Russia’s economic crisis is shaking their foundations. With U.S. and Russian support, Tajikistan’s iron-fisted dictator Emomali Rahmon crushes religious expression and democratic protest. Should the U.S. worry about tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in central Asia? Akhilesh Pillalamarri on the weird case of the Uzbek language: Central Asia’s history under the Soviet Union resulted in distorted nomenclature and language across the region.
