Journal of Soviet and Post-soviet Politics and Society 2016 ― Violence in the Post-soviet Space

This special issue deals with the phenomenon of violence in the post-Soviet space. It examines both political and legal discourses and practices of internal and external violence, broadly conceived, simultaneously aspiring to situate them in the broader literature on political violence and ethnic and separatist conflict, and to examine these from political, legal, and security studies perspectives. The issue approaches the problem of violence in the post-Soviet space from three perspectives: international-structural, inter-state, and domestic-political. The contributors focus on structural sources of violence, such as the relevance of the self-determination principle, the role of democratization, and the relationship between violent behavior inside and outside the state. They also analyze the role of the Russian Federation in generating, perpetuating, and mitigating political violence. Finally, they adopt a bottom-up approach, exploring how non-state actors contribute to political violence.

Guest editors: Marcin Kaczmarski is assistant professor at the Institute of International Relations, University of Warsaw, and the head of the China-EU Program at the Center for Eastern Studies, Warsaw. His main research interests include Russia-China relations and Russian foreign policy. He is the author of Russia-China Relations in the Post-crisis International Order.

Natasha Kuhrt is a lecturer in the department of war studies at King's College London. She is the author of Russian Policy towards China and Japan: the El'tsin and Putin Periods and co-editor (with Aidan Hehir and Andrew Mumford) of International Law, Security and Ethics: Policy Challenges in the Post-9/11 World.