Eastern Partnership Summit – Riga 2015, EEAS, CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0
Eurasia – Going East or West?
Postgraduate Workshop
10 June 2016
The University of Edinburgh | George Square Campus
The Edinburgh Europa Research Group invites abstracts from postgraduate students for a one-day workshop exploring the (geo)political challenges facing the Eurasian post-Soviet space.
Workshop Theme
This upcoming December will mark the 25th anniversary of the dissolution of the USSR. The Eurasian post-Soviet space (including the Baltic States, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan and others) has undergone dramatic political and economic change in the intervening quarter century.
At the same time, the trajectory of the different countries within the space has varied tremendously – with the Baltic States eventually joining the European Union, Georgia engaged in protracted disputes with Russia, and Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan developing their natural resources.
One of the major geopolitical considerations impacting upon their trajectories has been the countries’ orientation towards the West (the EU and the US) or the East (Russia or, increasingly, China). More recently, Ukraine has become a political and military background in the conflict between these opposing directions. This workshop explores these highly topical contrasts and challenges in a postgraduate conference environment. The keynote speaker will be announced in due course.
Submissions
The Call for Papers is now open.
Topics should focus on the (geo)politics of the post-Soviet space, such as:
– Political institutions
– Economic transformation
– European integration and the Eastern Partnership
– One Belt, One Road
– The Eurasian Union
– Europeanisation
– Western v. Eastern models of development
– Energy and natural resources
– Security and state-building
Interested postgraduates should submit an abstract (max 250 words) to europaresearchgroup@ed.ac.uk.
The deadline for submissions is 7 March 2016.
All applicants will be informed of the results of the selection by 14 March 2016.
Funding
We will offer fixed travel grants to speakers.
We hope to be able to contribute to accommodation costs as well.
Further information will be provided following the close of the Call.
Papers and Output
Papers should be up to 5000 words and must be submitted by 27 May 2016.
The organisers intend to edit and publish an e-book on the workshop theme. Participants have the option to include their papers in this publication.
Should authors wish, papers may also be considered for publication in the Edinburgh Europa Institute’s working paper series or in summarised form on European Futures, the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Europa Institute blog on Europe and European affairs.
Nataliya Muzyka and Anthony Salamone
Europa Research Group
.
This workshop is supported by the Graduate School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh.