The morphology of Putinism: the arrangement of political concepts into a coherent ideology
Scholarly analysis has been divided as to whether Putinism is a coherent ideology. With the decision to invade Ukraine, this question requires reexamination. This article interprets the evolution of Putinism in morphological terms, tracing how political concepts developed into a distinctive ‘thin’ ideology. After interpreting the original formation of Putinism (2000–2012), I unpack how interlinked processes of securitization and culturization reshaped the arrangement of core, adjacent and peripheral concepts. This was preceded by discursive closure between the Kremlin and its ideological antagonists over critical junctures in 2012 and 2014. An emphasis on the reactive, events-driven dynamic of Putinism reveals how it functions as an immanent morale that reinforces preexisting power networks and strives to win the loyalty of the population. Preserving culture and security has become synonymous with maintaining the very existence of the Russian Federation. With the launch of the ‘Special Military Operation’ in February 2022, this ideology was not immediately transformed but rather deployed on a new and more dramatic level. The ideological reconfiguration examined in this article must be understood as a crucial precursor to the decision to escalate the war in Ukraine, which ris reshaping Russia’s political trajectory in dramatic and unpredictable ways.
Pragmatism and protest: Russia’s communist party through Covid-19 and beyond
The Covid-19 epidemic came at a sensitive time for Russia’s leadership, which was attempting a political reset and structural reforms, including the removal of President Putin’s presidential term limits. This article examines how issues related to the pandemic provided new opportunities for the systemic opposition, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, who emerged as the main beneficiaries after capitalising on opportunities created by the epidemic. The underappreciated role of systemic opposition parties in electoral authoritarian systems, which balance “voice” and “loyalty” to benefit both themselves and the regime, is examined in the context of the Covid-19 crisis.
Introduction to the Special Issue on Under Communism’s Shadow The Memory of the Violent Past in Present-Day Russia
Perhaps no topic could be more crucial to the concept of “post-communism” than how the Soviet past is commemorated, challenged, or forgotten. The study of historical memory is often correctly tied to identity politics and nation-building. While the usable past framework is broadly applicable to all modern states, in the Russian case a degree of alarmism and negativity surrounds interpretations of how the country has managed its communist past, particularly its violent parts. A significant element to this is a teleological view of progress and the salience of the transition paradigm. In memory studies, this is manifested in the dominance of the cosmopolitan memory mode as the correct way the violent past should be commemorated. The introduction reviews the existing literature on Russia’s memory politics and highlights three limitations: (1) overemphasis on the political center and the failure to capture the diversity of regions, (2) too much focus on the supply side of memory politics, and (3) one-sided presentations of the role the Great Patriotic War plays in Russian memory politics. The introduction reviews how the special issue contributions address these limitations in the literature and shows how, taken together, they offer ideas for new research on memory studies. A case is made for how this new research agenda can better understand memory processes and how they relate to broader ideological, cultural, social, and political change in Russia.
Ecosystems and Ordering: A Dataset
This article presents a dataset, examining how global ecosystems are governed, offering data about cooperation initiatives around 221 cross-bordered ecosystems. This sample of cases was selected from a list of 1525 “meta-ecosystems” catalogued by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and a team of scientists (terrestrial ecosystems, [6]; freshwater ecosystems, [2]; and marine ecosystems, [9]). The 221 ecosystems were selected because they are shared by four or more bordering countries. Departing from this unit of analysis, we researched the cooperative cross-border governance anchored in each ecosystem and categorized each of these based on the level and type of cooperation. In generating this dataset, our coding scheme was designed to also capture cases of non-cooperation: when our search protocol did not result in the identification of any initiative for an ecosystem, the ecosystem was coded as a “zero case.” When we found initiatives connected to the ecosystems, our coding typology specifically classified cooperation initiatives along two dimensions: cooperation geographical scope and cooperation scope (single or multi-issue). The dataset presents ecosystem-anchored cooperation initiatives, as well as wider initiatives that may address ecosystem issues, to systematically attend to the question of the extent to which and in which form ecosystems are addressed in transboundary governance efforts. The dataset allows for further study of ecosystemic governance patterns, enabling analysis of the causes and consequences of cooperation, since it can be easily integrated with both the ecosystem and state-level data. The dataset is presented in two .csv files and has been handled with R software in order to present the visualization.
Climate Obstruction in Poland: A Governmental–Industrial Complex
Poland is known for its climate scepticism and denial throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Despite its recent rapid deployment of renewable energy sources, Poland remains Europe’s most coal-dependent economy. Since 2004, consecutive governments have been ‘pulling the brake’ on the European Union’s more ambitious climate policy initiatives and decarbonization targets. There are recent signs of changing societal attitudes, but the country is alone among EU nations in lacking a net zero emissions target or a coal power phase-out date. This situation has been created and perpetuated by a coalition of governmental institutions, agencies, state-owned energy companies, and utilities that constitute a governmental–industrial complex (GIC). While the GIC has moderated its discourse and policies, it continues to promote ‘silver bullet’ technologies such as ‘clean’ coal and new nuclear power plants. Poland’s commitment to a just, gradual energy transition is a climate imposter tactic, part of an overarching strategy of delay.
Contesting just transitions: Climate delay and the contradictions of labour environmentalism
The notion of ‘just transition’ (JT) is an attempt to align climate and energy objectives with the material concerns of industrial workers, frontline communities, and marginalised groups. Despite the potential for fusing social and environmental justice, there is growing concern that the concept is being mobilised in practice as a form of ‘climate delayism’: a problem more ambiguous than open forms of denialism as it draws in multiple and conflictual agents, practices, and discourses. Using an historical materialist framework, attentive to both energy-capital and capital-labour relations, we show how JT is vulnerable to forces and relations of climate delay across both fossil capital and climate capital hegemonic projects. We review this through an engagement with the climate obstructionism literature and the theory of labour environmentalism: the political engagement of trade unionists and workers with environmental issues. As tensions within the labour movement surface amidst the unsettling of the carbon capital hegemony, we assess the degree to which (organised) labour—as an internally differentiated, contradictory movement—is participating in climate breakdown through a ‘praxis of delay’. Trade unions and industrial workers are often implicated in resisting or undermining transitions, but this is related significantly to their structural power relations vis a vis the fossil hegemony. Notably, JT negotiations are themselves structurally embedded within the carbon capital economy. The general preferences of trade unions for social over environmental justice might be prevalent but are neither universal nor inevitable; JT is open and contested political terrain, and labour-environmental struggles remain imperative for building just energy futures.
From possible conflict to wartime cooperation: Laying the foundations of regional cooperation in the Caspian Sea (2002–2018)
This research paper uses snapshots of media coverage in the Caspian states to explore the stateled region-building efforts around the Caspian Sea from 2002–2018. Counter to the dominant conflict thesis in the literature, the findings suggest that the five states have moved towards more comprehensive political and economic cooperation. Relations have gradually been anchored in an understanding of the Caspian Sea as a shared space with multiple interlinkages and dependencies, even describing it as a “sea of peace and friendship”. This depiction is maintained by the Caspian states, also after the Sea became an arena and lifeline for Russia’s war against Ukraine after February 2022. This paper provides background and analysis of the developing regional cooperation and explores in the conclusion how this cooperation has gained new salience in Russia’s response to the sanction regime.
Digital Borders, Global Ties: The EU’s Dual Quest for Cybersecurity and Digital Sovereignty
The EU's approach to ‘digital sovereignty’ and cybersecurity addresses concerns about geopolitical instability, data ownership, and control over critical digital infrastructure. This policy brief highlights the EU’s ambiguous claim to digital sovereignty, which is not only about controlling the internal digital space but also about navigating external dependencies. As the EU seeks to reduce reliance on external actors and increase autonomy in its digital space, it must navigate the risks of isolation from global markets. This creates a delicate balance between strengthening (cyber)security and fostering international cooperation. The forthcoming EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) is illustrative of this tension; while the CRA aims to strengthen digital resilience and autonomy, it underscores the need for the EU to protect its digital borders whilst integrated in the global digital economy. This push for autonomy must account for international interdependencies, especially in cybersecurity, where external partnerships remain crucial. Ultimately, the EU must adopt a nuanced approach that aligns ambitions toward digital sovereignty with the realities of an interconnected world.
The Impact of the US Presidential Election on European Security
In cooperation with The Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) in London and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, NUPI is co-hosting a briefing on the impact of the US presidential election result on European security. This event is part of the Transatlantic Security research project between the three parties.