Dr. Maria Snegovaya examines the drivers of Russian revanchism. Russia’s behavior has thrown into doubt the purported strength of international norms regarding territorial integrity, not least because Putin himself has spoken of seeking to ‘re-gather’ adjacent territory deemed ‘lost’—as they had been once under possession by Imperial Russia or the Soviet Union—through military means.

While recognizing that decisions to go to war and to reclaim lost territory are complex and multifaceted, the speaker argues that many analyses overlook—ironically—the nature of the political regime that rules Russia. If domestic political variables do matter for observers of Russia, the emphasis is on how Russia is institutionally autocratic such that it will pursue a foreign policy more aggressive than what would have been the case if it were democratic.

Maria Snegovaya and her co-author define a political regime in both institutional and behavioral terms to acknowledge the structural organization of power as well as the qualities of the elites that exercise influence. They show a strictly institutional definition of political regimes neglects the elite continuity that ties together the Soviet and the Russian leadership. This elite continuity across the two systems matter because the political regime still privileged particular beliefs about the use of force to settle international disputes, the intentions of the United States, and the relationship that certain nations should have vis-à-vis Russia. These beliefs, which they show to hold sway, had their Soviet antecedents.

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About Speaker

Maria Snegovaya is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Science at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service, a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University, and Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for New American Security. She is a comparative politics, international relations, and statistical methods specialist. The key focus of her research is democratic backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Russia’s domestic and foreign policy.

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Presented by the Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies. Co-sponsored by the Institute for European Studies and the Gender and Security Sector Lab.

Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili presents evidence from Afghanistan to illustrate how failure to break from Soviet-era centralized public administration undermined the massive state-building project and perpetuated a wedge between Afghan civil society and a state that failed to deliver on its promise.

Liberal state building continues to fall short of its promise of political order and economic development. The persistence of bureaucratic legacies in states seeking to recover from conflict, especially the persistence of centralized administrative structures, help explain these failures. These institutions are often the source of state collapse yet are often reinforced by the international community once the dust of war settles. This leads to a vicious cycle of centralization that reinforces rigidity through influxes of foreign aid. Elections often serve as a smokescreen that detract from meaningful administrative reform. The desire to concentrate power is at odds with societies that have governed without the state, or have become deeply distrustful of it, during conflict.

Please join us for this virtual conversation. Register here.

About the Speaker

Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili is an Associate Professor of Public and International Affairs, at the University of Pittsburgh.

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Presented by the Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies. Co-sponsored by the South Asia Program and the Gender and Security Sector Lab.

Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP) in collaboration with the Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, the Institute of Politics and Global Affairs, the Gender and the Security Sector Lab, Department of Government, and the Brooks School of Public Policy will be hosting a two-day meeting at Cornell University on October 28th and 29th. Sabrina M. Karim, Hardis Assistant Professor in the Department of Government and member of the EGAP network, will head the organization of the event, which will focus on two thematic areas:

Crime Reduction & Police AccountabilityDemocracy, Conflict, & Polarization

This closed event will bring together invited scholars and practitioners from the EGAP network, along with other experts in these two thematic areas, to showcase findings, identify research questions and promising interventions, and provide opportunities for matchmaking between researchers and practitioners.

For more information, please contact Sabrina Karim at smk349@cornell.edu or Ayuko Picot, Administrative Assistant, EGAP at ayukopicot@berkeley.edu.