Family of Sites 
Historical Context and Modern Demands: Reinterpreting Linguistic Human Rights in Ukraine
The concept of human rights in an international context and on the scale that exists today did not come into being until the 20th century….
Security
Russian MiniLessons: Землетрясения и российской помощи – Earthquakes and Russian Foreign Aid
The following bilingual Russian MiniLesson is meant to build your vocabulary by providing Russian phrases within English text. Hover over the bold Russian to reveal…
The Soviet Union in Angola: Soviet and African Perspectives on the Failed Socialist Transformation
Africa’s drive for independence came to a head by the 1960s, at the height of the Cold War. It was seen by the Soviet Union…
Ordinary Men? Collaboration and Resistance in Occupied Mogilevskaya Oblast’
The subject of collaboration and resistance in occupied Europe is one of the most controversial issues related to the history of the Second World War….
The State of the Russian Navy: History and Prospectives
Russia has had a long historical tradition of a strong military and a special pride in its naval forces. From Peter the Great to the…
Russian MiniLessons: Ссориться по-русски – Fighting in Russian
The following bilingual Russian MiniLesson is meant to build your vocabulary by providing Russian phrases within English text. Hover over the bold Russian to reveal…
Russian MiniLessons: Органы = Security Forces (FSB and Spies)
The following bilingual Russian MiniLesson is meant to build your vocabulary by providing Russian phrases within English text. Hover over the bold Russian to reveal…
Politics in the Former Soviet Union: A Personal View from an American born of Russian Immigrants
On December 3, 2007 I awoke with a hangover, even though I had not imbibed the night before. The evening of December 2 was my…
From the Silk Road to Chevron: The Geopolitics of Oil Pipelines in Central Asia
Kazakhstan has received much press recently as a result of the success of the comic film Borat. However, that movie got everything wrong in its depiction…
Kyrgyzstan’s Energy Alternatives: Between Scylla and Charybdis
Russia has often been accused recently of “energy blackmail,” using its large hydrocarbon reserves to gain political influence in countries which are dependent on energy…
Russia’s Shrunken Air Defense Perimeter
In recent months political disputes between Russia and the United States have grown to include sharp differences over Washington’s expanding plans for ballistic missile defense…
The Rise of Economic Nationalism under Globalization and the Case of Post-Communist Russia
Across the globe, trends of nationalization and economic nationalism have crept into the policies of nation-states recently. Fueled by popular nationalist sentiment, state elites from…
Empire, Nationalities, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union
Michael Doyle defines empires as follows: “Empires are relationships of political control imposed by some political societies over the effective sovereignty of other political societies.”[1]…
Languages in Conflict: The Case of Russia and Estonia
On a park bench in Moscow, I befriended a lively group of young actors from Tallinn, Estonia. They had come to Russia three years earlier…
Military Learning Between the Chechen Wars
The downward spiral of the Russian military that began with Afghanistan is often compared to the U.S. army’s experience in Vietnam. However, unlike the American…
US-Russian Energy Security in the Caucasus: The Prospects for Conflict in the National Interest
It has taken energy (namely coal and oil) to produce the industrialized and economically prosperous nations of today. That is certain to change in the…
The Effects of the Mongol Empire on Russia
The history of Russia has always been a relatively sad and tumultuous one wrought with wars, power struggles, and abrupt changes. These changes have often…
Russian MiniLessons: Armed Forces – Вооружённые силы
Note, the following excerpt was written by Dr. Lawerence Mansour, West Point. It was originally published in The Russian Context: The Culture behind the Language, edited…