This study explores the complex military issues that are raised by the transition to post-communist rule with particular reference to Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and the new members of NATO. All faced similar problems yet their responses, it emerges, were surprisingly diverse.
This accessible handbook is the first of its kind to examine the sociological approach to the study of the military. The contents are compiled from the work of researchers at universities around the world, as well as military officers devoted to the sector of study. Beginning with a review of studies prior to contemporary research, the book provides a comprehensive survey of the topic. The scope of coverage extends to civic-military relations, including issues surrounding democratic control of the armed forces; military culture; professional training; conditions and problems of minorities in the armed forces; an examination of structural change within the military over the years including new duties and functions following the Cold War.
Almost fifteen years after the end of the Cold War, the process of creating a "Europe whole and free" is incomplete and likely to be so for the foreseeable future. In this volume, a group of highly distinguished contributors from both East and West examines the complicated and multi-faceted process of NATO and EU enlargement in the context of the changed global situation since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This book examines the enlargement processes not only from the perspective of the West and western institutions, but also from the point of view of the former communist countries. If an enlarged NATO and EU are to be stable and successful in the long run, they must take account of the wishes and interests of both their new, former-communist members and those European states that will not become members of either NATO or the EU in the foreseeable future Contributors include Christopher Bobinski (Unia & Polska), Vladimir Baranovsky (Institute of the World Economy and International Relations), Heather Grabbe (Center for European Reform), Karl-Heinz Kamp (Konrad Adenauer Foundation), Charles King (Georgetown University), Alexander J. Motyl (Center for Global Change and Governance), Zaneta Ozolina (University of Latvia), Alexander Sergounin (Nizhny Novgorod Linguistic University), William Wallace (London School of Economics), and Leonid Zaiko (Strategy Center).
Sakwa's Russian Politics and Society is the most comprehensive study of Russia's post-communist political development. It has, since its first publication in 1993, become an indispensable guide for all those who need to know about the current political scene in Russia, about the country's political stability and about the future of democracy under its post-communist leadership. This is the ideal introductory textbook: it covers all the key issues; it is clearly written; and it includes the most up-to-date material available. For this third edition, Sakwa has updated the text throughout to include details of Yeltsin's second term and the impact on Russian politics of the rise of his successor, Vladimir Putin. It also contains a substantially expanded bibliography and appendices showing election results, chronology, social and demographic figures and recent census data.
This book examines the ways in which European democracies, including former communist states, are dealing with the new demands placed on their security policies since the cold war by transforming their military structures, and the effects this is having on the conceptualisation of soldiering. In the new security environment, democratic states have called upon their armed forces increasingly to fulfil unconventional tasks - partly civilian, partly humanitarian, and partly military - in most complex, multi-national missions. Not only have military structures been transformed to make them fit for these new types of deployments, but the new mission types highlight the necessity for democracies to come to terms with a new image and ethos of soldiering in defence of a transnational value community. Combining a qualitative comparison of twelve countries with an interdisciplinary methodology, this edited volume argues that the ongoing transformations of international politics make it necessary for democracies to address both internal and external factors as they shape their own civil-military relations. The issues discussed in this work are informed by Democratic Peace theory, which makes it possible to investigate relations within the state at the same time as analysing the international dimension. This approach gives the book a systematic theoretical framework which distinguishes it from the majority of existing literature on this subject. This book will be of much interest to students of civil-military relations, European politics, democratisation and post-communist transitions, and IR in general.
Fifteen years after the fall of communism, we are able to appraise the results of the multi-faceted postcommunist transition in Central and Eastern Europe with authority. This volume specifically addresses the fascinating area of Civil-Military relations throughout this transitional period. The countries of the region inherited a onerous legacy in this area: their armed forces were part of the communist party-state system and most were oriented towards Cold War missions; they were large in size and supported by high levels of defence spending; and they were based on universal male conscription. Central and eastern European states have thus faced a three fold civil-military reform challenge: establishing democratic and civilian control over their armed forces; implementing organisational reform to meet the security and foreign policy demands of the new era; and redefining military bases for legitimacy in society. This volume assesses the experiences of Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro, Ukraine and Russia in these areas. Collectively these countries illustrate the way in which the interaction of broadly similar postcommunist challenges and distinct national contexts have combined to produce a wide variety of different patterns of civil-military relations. This book was previously published as a special issue of European Security.
This book is the first comprehensive description of the Church-State systems that are in force in the post-Communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The reports it contains are structured along similar lines, so that analogies and differences of the national legal systems can easily be identified and no significant profile of Church and State relations is overlooked. After a short historical and sociological introduction, each report deals with issues like registration of religious organizations, financing of Churches, religious education in public schools, etc.
This publication contains the proceedings of an international seminar, held in Moldova in July 2003 and organised by the European Commission for Democracy through Law (also known as the Venice Commission). The seminar considered approaches to the establishment of a multi-ethnic state where the interests of different minorities are taken into account without compromising the unity of the country, and and on the different challenges that democracies, both new and well established, will have to face in the twenty-first century. Topics discussed include federalism, autonomy and linguistic diversity.
Russia's transition from communism holds great significance not only for itself but also for the wider world. This collection of essays examines the spectrum of Russia's transition since 1991 - considering not only the pattern of events but also what the changes have meant for Russians themselves.
A comparative analysis of the foreign policies of eight post-communist states which considers the extent to which official communist ideology has been replaced by nationalism and establishes how these states express their national identities through foreign policy.