Pål Kolstø Pořadí knih (chronologicky)

Lev Tolstoi, one of the world's most famous writers, was also a religious thinker and influential critic of the Orthodox Church. This book offers a new account of his relationship with the Church, showing how most of his main ideas drew on his Christian heritage – a radical reinterpretation of the faith he encountered in his own life.

Exploring the interplay between discourse and conflict outcomes, this book delves into the under-researched area of how language influences both violent and non-violent results in ethnic conflicts. By integrating theories on identity construction and discourse analysis, it offers a thorough examination of the former Yugoslav countries, providing a nuanced understanding of the role of discourse in shaping conflict dynamics. This comprehensive study aims to fill a significant gap in existing literature, making it a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners alike.

"Our research project organised a capstone conference at Tallinn University 28-29 April 2016, and most of the chapters in the current volume were first presented as papers at that conference."--Page xvii.

Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 marked a watershed in post-Cold War European history and brought East-West relations to a low. At the same time, by selling this fateful action in starkly nationalist language, the Putin regime achieved record-high popularity.This book shows how, after the large-scale 2011-13 anti-Putin demonstrations in major Russian cities and the parallel rise in xenophobia related to the Kremlin's perceived inability to deal with the influx of Central Asian labour migrants, the annexation of Crimea generated strong 'rallying around the nation' and 'rallying around the leader' effects.The contributors to this collection go beyond the news headlines to focus on overlooked aspects of Russian society such as intellectual racism and growing xenophobia. These developments are contextualised with an overview of Russian nationalism: state-led, grassroots and the tensions between the two.

Several bipolar states of the world, such as Rwanda, Burundi, and Sri Lanka, have experienced savage bloodshed and even to the total collapse of state order. By contrast, Latvia and Kazakhstan have so far to a remarkably high degree been spared the kind of communal violence which has erupted in many other Soviet successor states. This book gives an in-depth analysis of ethnopolitics in Latvia and Kazakhstan and explores the reasons for this tranquil outcome. Of all the states of the former Soviet Union, it is in Latvia and in Kazakstan that the titular nation represents the lowest share of the total population: as of 1997, approximately 57% in Latvia and 50% in Kazakstan. In such a situation it is difficult to see how the "national" or "titular" culture (Latvian, Kazak) can serve as a consolidating element in the nation-building project. Quite the contrary: any ethnic-based nation-building, one would assume, could easily lead to increased tension between members of the titular group and "outsiders." And yet, in both these states nation-building is following the same general post-Soviet pattern: the traditions and symbols of the titular nations form the basis, while the remainder of the population, however strong it may be, gets treated as ethnic ‘minorities’. While the means employed differ somewhat, it seems fair to say that Latvian nation-building is geared towards the latvification of the Latvian state and in Kazakstan kazakification is a desired goal. But is this at all possible? Is half of the population supposed to be "integrated" into the other half--and, if so, what will be the result? Obviously, the answer to these questions need not be the same in both counties. Latvia is a small European country, the size of Ireland, while Kazakstan, straddling the European-Asian boundary, covers a territory as large as Western Europe. However, precisely the combination of important similarities and dissimilarities between the two cases is what makes a comparison of Latvia and Kazakstan a fruitful endeavor.