Liberalism's loyal opposition : contemporary attitudes to Russia in the wake of the cold war

The thesis explores the continuities that underpin public debate about Russia in the post-Soviet era. It approaches the question using the conceptual framework of new Cold War warriors and re-invented fellow travellers for two reasons. The first is that debates that seek to re-conjure spectres of Marxism or socialism in contemporary Russia are not a notable feature of the work of today's academic scholarship. Instead most of the analysis is centred on evaluating either civilizational or sociological perspectives on the country. Much of it is focused too on the governance of Vladimir Putin, an approach which includes a singular amount of psychologising about his alleged personal failings, both as a leader and as a foreign policy strategist. The second reason is that, though radically opposed, these two concepts anchor the dissertation in the spectrum of liberal thought from classical Liberalism, to economic Liberalism, to neo-liberal utopianism and, more recently, liberal pluralism. The implication is that, in one way or another, for most commentators, both within Russia and internationally, Western liberal norms provide a benchmark with which to appraise Russia's response to the demands of modernity and modernisation, the vagaries of global capitalism and the institutionalisation of democratic freedoms. Within these contentious arenas, the dissertation falls broadly into two camps. On one side are those who are still welded to either a Cold War skepticism or an ideological rigidity that invites a ready condemnation of the new Russia; and those who are more hopeful that the country's future can be more humane than its past. The approach is not aimed at adjudicating about which side will carry the day. Rather it constitutes an inevitably selective, innovative and ambitious commentary about commentaries. Its intention is to foster in both writer and reader a more reflective understanding of the assumptions and presumptions, as well as the areas of uncertainty, in interpretations of today's governance. Admittedly, given the breadth of historical and ongoing research, as well as the myriad ways real existing social worlds defy easy categorisation, the result is more likely to veer towards an impressionistic effect. Admittedly too, it is also an effect which veers towards an antipathy about many of the claims of the new Cold War warriors

The St Petersburg International Economic Forum. A New World Order?

This item was commisioned by John Menadue - Pearls and Irritation

Obstacles and Opportunities for Economic Engagement between Australia and the Russian Federation

My presentation on contemporary Australia-Russia economic relations is divided into two sections. The first focuses on geo-economics, which looks at both countries current trade and foreign investment priorities, including the implications of China’s monumental One Belt One Road project (OBOR), in which Russia has often been characterised as an integral player. Its primary focus is on the issue that in addition to its cultivation of closer links with a rising China, Russia’s ‘pivot to the East’ has included the pursuit and gradual consolidation of wider trade and institutional initiatives across the Asia- Pacific, in which Australia’s involvement has been marginal. The second and interrelated section considers Australia’s response, drawing on the debates about the commonalities and differences between Russia’s and Australia’s approaches to Asia’s economic resurgence. It also looks at the issue of the current dominance in Australian political arenas of suspicion and a ready condemnation of the governance of post-Soviet Russia

PRESENTATION - Beware Cold Warriors

Thirty years since the end of the Cold War, tensions between Russia and the West are running high against the background of Syria, Ukraine and allegations of cyber attack. It more important than ever to continue questioning so-called received wisdom

Russia in the Wake of the Cold War: Perceptions and Prejudices

Amid widespread and increasing alarm in Western strategic and foreign policy circles following Russia’s capture of Crimea, support for rebels in Ukraine, and military intervention in Syria, this study provides a timely and sophisticated analysis of the nature and intentions of post-Soviet government under President Vladimir Putin. Based on both Russian and non-Russian sources, this book examines the enduring Cold War legacies underpinning Western perceptions of contemporary Russia. It analyzes the ways in which the West has interpreted and reacted to Russia’s domestic authoritarianism and foreign policy behavior and argues for diplomatic engagement based on liberal pluralism

Eurasianism Debates in Post-Soviet Russia

One commonplace conception often found among Western analysts, whose inspiration appears to stem from the bipolar enmities of a Cold War that ended thirty years ago, is that Russia’s contemporary “pivot to the east” foreign policy embodies a reconstruction of Eurasianist ideology.This item was commisioned by Australian Institute of International Affairs - Australian Outloo

Casting shadows? Authoritarianism in Putin's Russia Authoritarianism in Putin's Russia

One of the Cold War’s commonplaces about Russia was its abiding embrace of authoritarianism. Across the centuries, successive regimes, whether Tsarist or Communist, have been characterised by Western scholars as highly centralised, personalised power structures, with an intolerance of dissidence that too easily descended into barbaric brutality. Living on Europe’s farthest edge, Russia’s peoples are said to have been bypassed by Enlightenment modernity, the rise of liberal constitutionalism and the gradual entrenchment of individual rights and democratic freedoms. For those commentators inspired by such Cold War thinking, it is a legacy that continues to shape contemporary politics. The assumption is that Putin’s reclaiming of the presidency in 2012 is emblematic of an inevitable reversion to authoritarianism. Drawing on research in Russia during the March 2012 election, this article takes a critical look at the plethora of global statistical surveys that point to authoritarian trends under the current regime. It concludes that the conceptual framework underpinning the West’s revelations about the descent into authoritarianism in contemporary Russia is neither clear nor convincing

The Lord's Resistance Army is alive and well

For almost twenty years, across the settlements and subsistence farms of Central Africa the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has preyed upon civilian populations with exceptional cruelty, emerging from the bush in small units to commit unspeakable atrocities. These days there is a common assumption that the LRA has been decimated and scattered and that its leader Joseph Kony is in hiding and probably ineffectual. But visiting activist Sister Angelique Namaika insists this optimistic assessment is misguided