Lehigh University Professor Arman Grigoryan International Relations arg210@lehigh.edu Maginnes 206 Tel: (610) 758-3394 IR 169 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF RUSSIA AND EASTERN EUROPE Spring 2014 Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:35-3:50 LI 404 Course description: The course is organized around a set of questions, which inform the contemporary debates on the politics of Russia and Eastern Europe: Why was the path of modernization of the Russian Empire so different from the Western European path? What role did culture, geography, ethnic fragmentation, and economic backwardness play in charting that path? Why did the Soviet experiment fail, and could it not have failed? Why were the outcomes of political and economic transitions different in different postcommunist countries? Why did the end of the Cold War give way to new tensions and rivalries? What explains Russia s policies in the post-soviet space? Should the United States accommodate or confront Russia? We shall look for answers to these questions relying on relevant theories and debates in comparative politics, political economy, and international relations theory. Requirements and grades: Because the class will be a mix of lectures and discussions, students are expected to read the assigned material in advance in order to be able to participate actively in class discussions. Class participation will be worth 10% of the final grade. In addition, there will be two in-class exams and two take-home essay assignments. The exams will test how well the students have mastered the material, while the essays will test the students ability to analyze some problem or puzzle based on what they have learned in class. The first exam and essay will be worth 15% and 20% of the final grade respectively. The second essay and exam will be worth 25% and 30% of the final grade respectively. Texts: There are two books we shall rely on particularly heavily Ronald G. Suny, The Soviet Experiment, 2 nd edition (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2010), and Anders Aslund, Russia s Capitalist Revolution: Why Market Reform Succeeded and Democracy Failed (Washington, DC: Peterson Institute, 2007). These books are recommended for purchase. All other materials will be available electronically on coursesite. In addition to what is on the syllabus, we will occasionally discuss articles published in major newspapers and websites focusing on Russia and Eastern Europe. Office hours: Mondays 4:00-6:00PM or by appointment.
Schedule and readings January 13: Introduction - No readings. January 15: Bad Bear - Cheney Chides Russia in Speech to European Security Conference, The Wall Street Journal, 7 September, 2008. http://online.wsj.com/article/sb122071391447206907.html - Syria: Russia on the Wrong Side, Editorial, The Guardian, 6 February, 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/07/syria-russia-un-veto - Dimitri Simes and Paul Saunders, To Save Syria, We Need Russia, The New York Times, 21 December, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/22/opinion/to-save-syria-america-needsrussias-help.html - Tim Judah, Fighting for the Soul of Ukraine, The New York Review of Books, 9 January, 2014. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/jan/09/fighting-soulukraine/?page=2 - Andrei Schleifer and Daniel Treisman, Why Russia Says No: A Question of Russian Interests, not Psychology, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 90, no. 1 (January/February, 2011), pp. 122-138. PART 1 RUSSIA S ROAD TO MODERNITY January 20, 22 Imperial Russia - Suny, The Soviet Experiment, chs. 1-2. January 27, 29 Understanding the Soviet Experiment - Suny, The Soviet Experiment, chs. 3 (pp. 68-84), 5, 9, 10. February 3 Is Russian Politics the Consequence of Russian Culture? - Ronald Inglehart, Culture and Democracy, in Lawrence Harrison and Samuel Huntington, eds., Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2001), pp. 80-97. - Richard Pipes, Flight from Freedom: What Russians Think and Want, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 83, no. 3 (May/June, 2004), pp. 9-15. - Nicolas Gvosdev, Russia, European, But not Western? Orbis (Winter 2007), pp. 129-140. February 5 Geopolitics and Russian Politics - Mark E. Pieterzyk, International Order and Individual Liberty: Effects of War and Peace on the Development of Governments (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002), ch. 3. - Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (New York, NY: Random House, 1987), ch. 1, and pp. 86-94.
- William C. Fuller, Strategy and Power in Russia, 1600-1914 (New York, NY: Free Press, 1998), ch. 10. February 10, 12 Russia s Economic Backwardness and Its Effects on Russian Politics - Alexander Gerschenkron, Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962), chs. 1, 6 (esp. pp. 142-151). - Alec Nove, Economic Rationality and Soviet Politics or Was Stalin Really Necessary? (New York, NY: Frederick A. Praeger, 1964), ch. 1. February 17, 19 Ethnic Diversity and Russian Politics (First essay assignment handed out on Feb. 19) - Robert A. Dahl, Poliarchy: Participation and Opposition (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1971), ch. 7. - Marc Raeff, Patterns of Russian Imperial Policy toward the Nationalities, in Edward Allworth, ed., Soviet Nationality Problems (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1971). - Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2010). PART 2 WHY DID THE SOVIET EXPERIMENT FAIL? February 24 After Stalin (Essays are due back at the beginning of class) - Suny, The Soviet Experiment, chs. 17 (pp. 413-433), 18 (pp. 447-449, 455-460, 463-470). February 26 Midterm Examination March 10- Perestroika and the Collapse of the USSR - Suny, The Soviet Experiment, ch. 19. March 12 Ethnic Diversity and the Collapse of the USSR - Ronald Suny, The Revenge of the Past (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1993), chs. 3-4. March 17 Economic Problems and the Collapse of the USSR? - Aslund, Russia s Capitalist Revolution, pp. 21-30, 38-42, 52-62, 67-72. PART 3 THE ECONOMIC TRANSITION March 19 The Transition to Market Economy - Aslund, Russia s Capitalist Revolution, ch. 3-4.
March 24 Why Were the Reforms Flawed? - Joel Hellman, Winners Take All: The Politics of Partial Reform in Post- Communist Transitions, World Politics, Vol. 50, no. 2 (January, 1998), pp. 203-234. - Joseph Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents (New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 2003), ch. 5. March 26 - Putinomics - Aslund, Russia s Capitalist Revolution, ch. 5. - Clifford G. Gaddy and Barry W. Ickes Russia after the Global Financial Crisis, Eurasian Geography and Economics, Vol. 51, no. 3 (May/June 2010), pp. 281-311. Part 4 THE POLITICAL TRANSITION March 31 Why Some Transitions Succeeded and Others Failed - Steven Fish, The Hazards of Half-Measures: Perestroika and the Failure of Post- Soviet Democratization, Demokratizatsiya, Vol. 13, no.2 (Spring 2005), 241-253. - Michael McFaul, Transitions from Post-Communism, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 16, no. 3 (July, 2005), pp. 5-19. April 2 Combining (or Failing to Combine) Authority and Democracy in Modern Russia - Putin Moves to Centralize Authority, Washington Post, 14 September, 2004. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/a17838-2004sep13.html - Kathryn Stoner-Weiss, The Russian Central State in Crisis: Center and Periphery in the Post-Soviet Era, in Zoltan Barany and Robert G. Moser, eds., Russian Politics: Challenges of Democratization (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001). - Dmitry Gorenburg, Regional Separatism in Russia: Ethnic Mobilization or Power Grab? Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 51, no. 2 (March, 1999), pp. 245-274. - Vladimir Shlapentokh, Early Feudalism The Best Parallel for Contemporary Russia, Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 48, no. 3, (1996), pp. 393-411. PART 5 THE COLD WAR AND AFTER April 7, 9 - The Cold War and How It Ended - Suny, The Soviet Experiment, chs. 15, 17 (pp. 436-445), ch. 18 (pp. 470-475), reread ch. 19. April 14, 16 - The End of the End of the Cold War - Zbigniew Brzezinski, Premature Partnership, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 73, no. 2 (March/April, 1994), pp. 67-82. - Sergo Mikoyan, Russia, the US, and Regional Conflict in Eurasia, Survival, Vol. 40, no. 3, (Autumn 1998), pp. 112-126.
- Jack Snyder, Russian Backwardness and the Future of Europe, Daedalus, Vol. 123, no. 2 (Spring 1994), pp. 179-201. - Strobe Talbott, Why NATO Should Grow, The New York Review of Books, 13 July, 1995. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1995/aug/10/why-natoshould-grow/?pagination=false - Michael Brown, The Flawed Logic of NATO Expansion, Survival, Vol. 37, no. 1 (Spring 1995), pp. 34-52. April 21: Russian Neoimperialism? - Stephen Blank, From Neglect to Duress: The West and the Georgian Crisis Before the 2008 War, in Svante Cornell and Frederick Starr, eds., The Guns of August 2008: Russia s War in Georgia (New York, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2009), pp. 104-121. - Alexander Cooley and Lincoln A. Mitchell, No Way to Treat Our Friends: Recasting Recent US-Georgian Relations, Washington Quarterly, Vol. 32, no. 1 (January 2009), pp. 29-41. - Seumas Milne, This is a tale of US expansion, not Russian aggression, The Guardian, 13 August, 2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/14/russia.georgia - Stephen Cohen, Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2011), ch. 7. April 23 What Does the Future Hold? (Second essay assignment is handed out) - Steven Pifer, The Future Course of the US-Russia Relationship (Testimony to the US House of Representatives, 21 March, 2012). http://www.brookings.edu/research/testimony/2012/03/21-arms-control-pifer April 28 Second essay is due back in my office by noon. Final Examination date TBD.