Jason Lyall (Yale): Are Coethnics More Effective Counterinsurgents? Evidence from the Second Chechen War. Paul Gregory (Houston): The Ship of Philosophers: How the Early USSR Dealt with Dissident Intellectuals. From the Caucasian Review of International Affairs, Luke Chambers (Oxford): Authoritarianism and Foreign Policy: The Twin Pillars of Resurgent Russia; an interview with Julie A. George, author of The Politics of Ethnic Separatism in Russia and Georgia; and Fareed Shafee on the new geopolitics of the South Caucasus. From The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies, Juliette Cadiot (CERCEC): Russian Army, Non-Russians, Non-Slavs, Non-Orthodox: The Risky Construction of a Multiethnic Army; and a special issue on NGOs and power ministries in Russia. Leaving home to go home: Kyrgyzstan’s ethnic Russians, isolated and increasingly powerless, are heading to the Motherland in droves. From Open Democracy, a review of Let Our Fame Be Great: Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus by Oliver Bullough; and Zeynel Abidin Besleney on Circassian nationalism and the Internet. An interview with Oliver Bullough on books on the Caucasus. A review of Red Star Over Russia: A Visual History of the Soviet Union by David King. From Foreign Policy, a short history of a bad metaphor: Working with Russia isn't necessarily a bad idea — reducing it to a catchphrase is; the Obama administration's efforts to reach out to Russia won't work as long as Russians don't take them seriously; and the charge that U.S. allies have been betrayed by the Russian reset is simply false. The real reason why Russia and China aren’t interested in stopping Iran’s nuclear program. The Russians are stressed — and Russia is stressed too, which is why the world ought to take note.
