Political Geographies of the Post-Soviet Union

John O’Loughlin is College Professor of Distinction in Geography at the University of Colorado-Boulder, USA. He has conducted field work for over 25 years in the states of the former Soviet Union on state building, national conflicts, and emerging geopolitical orientations. Ralph S. Clem is Emeritus Professor of Geography at Florida International University-Miami, USA. His research focuses on the interface between national security and geopolitics in the post-Soviet space.

1. Introduction: Political Geographies of the Post-Soviet Union 2. Who identifies with the "Russian World"? Geopolitical attitudes in southeastern Ukraine, Crimea, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria 3. The Eurasian Economic Union: the geopolitics of authoritarian cooperation 4. The US Silk Road: geopolitical imaginary or the repackaging of strategic interests? 5. Benevolent hegemon, neighborhood bully, or regional security provider? Russia’s efforts to promote regional integration after the 2013–2014 Ukraine crisis 6. (Dis-)integrating Ukraine? Domestic oligarchs, Russia, the EU, and the politics of economic integration 7. Building identities in post-Soviet "de facto states": cultural and political icons in Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, Transdniestria, and Abkhazia 8. The decline and shifting geography of violence in Russia’s North Caucasus, 2010-2016 9. Clearing the Fog of War: public versus official sources and geopolitical storylines in the Russia-Ukraine conflict 10. Cleavages, electoral geography, and the territorialization of political parties in the Republic of Georgia 11. The political geographies of religious sites in Moscow’s neighborhoods