Description

This book discusses the return of geopolitical ideas and doctrines to the post-Soviet space with special focus on the new phenomenon of digital geopolitics, which is an overarching term for different political practices including dissemination of geopolitical ideas online, using the internet by political figures and diplomats for legitimation and outreach activity, and viral spread of geopolitical memes. Different chapters explore the new possibilities and threats associated with this digitalization of geopolitical knowledge and practice. Our authors consider new spatial sensibilities and new identities of global as well as local Selves, the emergence of which is facilitated by the internet. They explore recent reconfigurations of the traditional imperial conundrum of center versus periphery. Developing Manuel Castells’ argument that social activism in the digital era is organized around cultural values, the essays discuss new geopolitical ideologies which aim to reinforce Russia’s spiritual sovereignty as a unique civilization, while at the same time seeking to rebrand Russia as a greater soft power by utilizing the Russian-speaking diaspora or employing traditionalist rhetoric. Great Power imagery, enemy-making, and visual mappings of Russia’s future territorial expansion are traditional means for the manipulation of imperial pleasures and geopolitical fears. In the age of new media, however, this is being done with greater subtlety by mobilizing the grassroots, contracting private information channels, and de-politicizing geopolitics. Given the political events of recent years, it is logical that the Ukrainian crisis should provide the thematic backdrop for most of the authors.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Saara Ratilainen, Russian Digital Lifestyle Media and the Construction of Global Selves
Chapter 2. Brigit Beumers, Crossing Borders/Road Movies in Russia: The Road to Nowhere? Destinations in Recent Russian Cinema
Chapter 3. Galina Zvereva, Digital Storytelling on YouTube: The Geo-Political Factor in Russian Vernacular Regional Identities
Chapter 4. Andrei Tsygankov, Uses of Eurasia: the Kremlin, the Eurasian Union, and the Izborsky Club
Chapter 5. Marlène Laruelle, Digital Geopolitics Encapsulated. Geidar Dzhemal between Islamism, Occult Fascism and Eurasianism
Chapter 6. Sirke Mäkinen, Russia as an alternative model: Geopolitical Representations and Russia's Public Diplomacy-the Case of Rossotrudnichestvo
Chapter 7. Hanna Smith, Putin's Third Term and Russia as a Great Power
Chapter 8. Fabian Linde, Future Empire: State-Sponsored Eurasian Identity Promotion Among Russian Youth
Chapter 9. Per-Arne Bodin, Russian Geopolitical Discourse: On Pseudomorphosis, Phantom Pains and Simulacra
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Product details

Published 17 Mar 2016
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 374
ISBN 9781498521413
Imprint Lexington Books
Illustrations 24 b/w photos; 5 tables;
Dimensions 239 x 161 mm
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Anthology Editor

Mikhail Suslov

Anthology Editor

Mark Bassin

Contributor

Mark Bassin

Contributor

Brigit Beumers

Contributor

Per-Arne Bodin

Contributor

Sergiy Kurbatov

Contributor

Fabian Linde

Contributor

Sirke Mäkinen

Contributor

Alla Marchenko

Contributor

Ryhor Nizhnikau

Contributor

Greg Simons

Contributor

Hanna Smith

Contributor

Vlad Strukov

Contributor

Mikhail Suslov

Contributor

Andrei P. Tsygankov

Andrei P. Tsygankov is a professor of Internationa…

Contributor

Dirk Uffelmann

Contributor

Galina Zvereva

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