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International Relations and Geopolitics Dissertation Topics

Published by Carmen Troy at January 9th, 2023 , Revised On August 16, 2023

Introduction

Are you in search of the best dissertation topics on International Relations and Geopolitics?

To help you get a jump-start at mind-mapping and lifting off with International Relations and Geopolitics dissertation, we have formalized a list of the latest trending topics for you. These international relations and geopolitics dissertation topics have been scrutinised by our highly qualified writers to ensure that they can serve as a basis for your dissertation so that you may select them without any doubt.

You may also want to start your dissertation by requesting a brief research proposal from our writers on any of these topics, which includes an introduction to the topic, research question , aim and objectives , literature review along with the proposed methodology of research to be conducted. Let us know if you need any help in getting started.

Check our dissertation examples to get an idea of how to structure your dissertation .

Review the full list of dissertation topics for 2022 here.

2022 International Relations and Geopolitics Dissertation Topics

Topic 1: russia-israel relationship and its impact on syria and the middle east..

Research Aim: Russia and Israel share significant aspects of their strategic cultures. Both countries have a siege mentality and are led by a security-first mindset and a predominantly military view of authority. p Russia’s relationship with Israel has grown in importance in the context of Russia’s military operation in Syria. This study aims to examine the relations between Russia and Israel and how they have impacted Syria and the middle east—focusing on different policies, agreements, and military interventions.

Topic 2: The Impact of International Refugee Laws on Incidence of Human trafficking- A Case of Refugees on the Eastern EU border

Research Aim: This study aims to find the impact of international refugee laws on the incidence of human trafficking in the Eastern EU border. It will determine whether the international refugee laws have a statistically significant effect on the incidence of human trafficking. Furthermore, it will link EU immigration policies and international refugee laws to show how these encourage or discourage human trafficking. Lastly, it will also recommend how the EU can reduce the incidence of human trafficking through more flexible immigration policies following international refugee laws.

Topic 3: The rise of China as a superpower- Impact on Russia’s relationship with the west.

Research Aim: The Asia-pacific region has become the centre of global economic and political gravity. This region has enormous natural resources, industrial financial and people potential. As the focus of global growth turns to the East, Russia sess Asia-pacific region as the engine of the global economy with rising China as a superpower. This study will focus on the rise of China as a superpower and its impact on Russia’s relations with the Western world, focusing on how Russia is strengthening its ties with China how it is influencing liberal western values.

Topic 4: CPEC- The rising economy of Pakistan

Research Aim: CPEC is a huge international initiative to enhance infrastructure within Pakistan in order to boost commerce with China and further develop the region’s countries. CPEC contributes to the creation of modern transportation infrastructure in Pakistan and makes the country’s economy more competitive in the international market. This study will examine the impact of CPEC on the development of Pakistan’s economy, also focusing on the role of China and Chinese technology in the industrial sector to revolutionise the industrial sector of Pakistan.

Topic 5: The role of cryptocurrencies on international diplomacy.

Research Aim: Taxation., information regulation, and governance all have the potential to be disrupted with significant implications for international politics. This study will analyse the role of cryptocurrency in international diplomacy. Furthermore, it will also focus on how the widespread of digital currencies have the potential to change the world financial system.

2020 Covid-19 International Relations and Geopolitics Research Topics

Topic 1: international relations and covid-19.

Research Aim: This study will address the geopolitical issues and International relations during COVID-19

Topic 2: COVID-19 is a geopolitical instrument

Research Aim: COVID-19 has disturbed everything from health to the world’s economy, and it has also created tensions among the nations of the world. This study will identify whether Coronavirus is a geopolitical instrument or not.

Topic 3: International relations scholars and COVID-19

Research Aim: This study will reveal the opinions and role of international relations scholars and COVID-19

Topic 4: Meta-geopolitics and COVID-19

Research Aim: This study will focus on the meta-geopolitics during the COVID-19 crisis

Topic 5: The global order post Coronavirus pandemic

Research Aim: This study will predict the global order post coronavirus pandemic, including international relations, geopolitics, and geo-economics after COVID-19.

2021 International Relations and Geopolitics Dissertation Titles

Topic 1. what impact would brexit have on the relations between uk and scotland.

Research Aim: the current topic would address the relationship between the United Kingdom and Scotland after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union. It is assumed to significantly impact the ties present between the two regions, as it is considered that the Scottish part would want to exit.

Topic 2. Pakistan-Afghanistan relations post-Taliban-US peace accord vis-à-vis US withdrawal from Afghanistan

Research Aim: the current topic would aim to analyse the Pakistan- Afghanistan relations, especially the role that Pakistan is playing in the smooth exit of the US from Afghanistan. It will also critically review the impact that the US withdrawal will have in influencing the upcoming US elections of 2020.

Topic 3. Legitimising the Taliban in Afghanistan’s combat is likely to change the peace situation in Afghanistan

Research Aim: This research topic will consider the possibilities that the Taliban’s legalisation into Afghanistan will have within Afghanistan and its surroundings. How will it affect the relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan?

Topic 4. Exploring the status of ISIS in Afghanistan post US withdrawal

Research Aim: the current topic would aim to consider the past of ISIS, where it was, the devastation it caused in Syria. It would also analyse the future of ISIS in Afghanistan, especially considering its strong foothold in Afghanistan’s east. It will also put forward the implications of a more robust and growing ISIS presence in the regions and Afghanistan’s international relations with its neighbouring countries.

Topic 5. Possibilities of a domino effect in EU post BREXIT

Research Aim: the current topic aims to study the BREXIT deal. Considering the advantages that Britain thinks it has bagged, how much possibility is Britain creating a domino effect? It will also study the scope of which countries can opt for a BREXIT-like movement and be successful. Most importantly, the research will look into the factors that made the BREXIT deal possible.

Topic 6. The British colonisation of the Indian subcontinent and its after-effects even in the 21st century

Research Aim: The current topic aims to study in-depth the effects that the British colonisation had on the Sub-continent. It will present a detailed analysis of how British East India took over the Indian subcontinent and then gradually went from being traders to rulers. It will explain the after-effects that the British colonisation still has over the minds and culture of the people that now live divided into different countries like Pakistan and India.

Topic 7: Can the issue of Kashmir be the ultimate trigger for India-Pakistan to have a nuclear war? Can the United Kingdom play a key role instead of the US in averting this situation?

Research Aim: The current topic aims to investigate the Kashmir issue and analyze the effect that it is causing on two nuclear holding counties, namely India and Pakistan. Can the recent curfew imposed in Kashmir and revoking their special status trigger a nuclear war between India and Pakistan? Will the UN, and the US, step in as promised to resolve the issue, and will it all be in vain as nuclear war is triggered? Or can the UK play a key role in trying to avert the situation?

Topic 8. Trump’s “vision for peace” and its impact on the European Union and the UK

Research Aim: This research will investigate the scope of the current plan that Trump has put forward to divide Palestine into smaller pieces to resolve the conflict that has been going on for ages. How will this “vision for peace” implicate countries like Jordon, Iran, Egypt, etc.? It will also put forward the impact this plan would have on the rest of the world, especially the Middle East, the greater European Union, and the United Kingdom.

Topic 9. What role is the UK playing in the global warming and increasing energy crisis?

Research Aim: This study will enable the readers to understand that the threat of global warming is real. It is not localised to a specific region, country, or continent. Having said this, the current topic will perform an in-depth analysis of the growing global warming issue and what role the UK is trying to fulfill to curb the problem, raise awareness and promote going green. How big is the UK’s footprint?

Topic 10. Can the African Union be inspired by the BREXIT movement?

Research Aim: the current topic aims to look into the BREXIT movement’s success. The study’s scope will also include possibilities that the BREXIT can inspire the African Union to go their own way. Are there any indicators that this might happen shortly?

Topic 11. Analysis and Implication of US sanctions on Iran

Research Aim: the current topic aims to review the US’s sanctions upon Iran. It will also analyse the implications that the US has to face due to Iranian General Qassim Suleimani. It will explore the possibility that the US has gained the strategic advantage they were looking for or have they angered a sleeping giant. The study will also look into the retaliation strategy of Iran and if it holds any weight. How far will Iran be able to withhold these sanctions before succumbing to US wishes?

Topic 12. Human rights violation in the valley of Kashmir

Research Aim: the current topic aims to study fundamental human rights and the many violations against them in Kashmir. The recent revoking of the Kashmiris’ special status and the curfew imposed by India in the Kashmir valley are all evidence of the many violations of human rights that are happening there. The increasing number of missing persons, kidnapping, sexual and physical abuse are serious human rights violations. Why is the world keeping a shut-eye towards the Kashmiris, and where are the so-called custodians of human rights?

Topic 13. What are the political consequences of the NATO alliance for the UK?

Research Aim: the current topic aims to question the NATO alliance and the political consequences of such an alliance between multiple countries, especially in the UK. NATO might be the biggest known alliance amongst many such countries, and what political and personal gain from the UK’s perspective. The study will address the advantages and disadvantages of being a part of the UK’s NATO alliance.

Topic 14. The effect of terrorist organisations on the international relations of the UK

Research Aim: the current topic aims to explore the effects that a terrorist organisation might have on the UK’s international relations. The example under consideration would be the UK and its dealings with a terrorist plagued country like Pakistan. The study would research how the Taliban of Pakistan adversely affected its international relations and destroyed its image globally while also addressing the remedial steps that Pakistan is taking or has taken to overcome them and refurbish a new image globally. The study will also include how successful they have been in bridging the gap between them and the UK.

Topic 15. Coronavirus and International disease prevention, especially in the UK

Research Aim: this study aims to explore the extent to which Coronavirus has spread starting from China and in a concise amount of time spreading into the different corners of the world. Why was no prevention method applied? The study will implore the need to create better and more effective ways to prevent diseases from spreading across countries. The study’s scope will also include putting forward practices for a more proactive rather than reactive method to disease prevention across nations, especially in the UK. What is the UK doing right to stay and remain safe from the coronavirus?

Topic 16. “Make America Great Again” – an attempt to maintain uni-polarity in the World

Research Aim: the current topic aims to study the central ideology behind the concept of “Make America Great Again.” The world is shifting from uni-polar to multi-polar due to the newly forming alliance between China and Russia. America is trying to preserve its status, but the concern is quite prominent and evident in the slogan of “Make America Great Again”. The study’s scope will include the steps that the US is taking to maintain the status quo. It will also put forth the alliance that Russia and China are forging and the impact that it is having on the US as well as the rest of the world.

Topic 17. The implications of UK-EU and US-China trade wars on developing countries

Research Aim: The current study aims to highlight the impact that the United Kingdom and European Union and the United States and China trade wars have on developing countries’ economies. The study’s scope will include an in-depth analysis of the rising cost of living in such countries, along with the deterioration in the sector of education, health, and GDP per capita. It will also put forward the growing concerns that such developing countries are facing.

Topic 18. The relationship between Canada and the UK

Research Aim: the current topic aims to analyse Canada and the UK’s relationship critically. It is most likely to evolve now that the ex-royal couple is planning to relocate to Canada. How will the terms between Canada and the United Kingdom improve? Will they develop more, or will irreconcilable differences emerge and surface in front of the world.

Topic 19. Prince Harry and Meghan Markel leave the British Crown – How will the monarch be affected?

Research Aim: the current topic aims to study in detail the reasons that might have led to a crowned prince, 7th in line to one of the most powerful thrones in the world have to quit all royal duties and the HRH title. Will Canada accept them? What implications does it have for the taxpayers and the millions of pounds they will save on providing security for the royal couple?

Topic 20. A bright future for more strengthened relationships between the African Union and the European Union

Research Aim: the current topic aims to study in-depth the scope that a strong alliance between the European Union and the African Union will have on eliminating and improving problems in Africa. It will be providing theoretical data supported by facts and statistics. The study’s scope will also examine how developing and investing within Africa will help it overcome the internal and external problems it faces.

How Can ResearchProspect Help?

ResearchProspect writers can send several custom topic ideas to your email address. Once you have chosen a topic that suits your needs and interests, you can order for our dissertation outline service which will include a brief introduction to the topic, research questions , literature review , methodology , expected results , and conclusion . The dissertation outline will enable you to review the quality of our work before placing the order for our full dissertation writing service!

Important Notes:

As a student of international relations and geopolitics looking to get good grades, it is essential to develop new ideas and experiment with existing international relations and geopolitics theories – i.e., to add value and interest in your research topic.

The field of international relations and geopolitics is vast and interrelated to many other academic disciplines like civil engineering , construction , project management , engineering management , healthcare , finance and accounting , artificial intelligence , tourism , physiotherapy , sociology , management , and project management , graphic design , and nursing . That is why it is imperative to create a project management dissertation topic that is articular, sound, and actually solves a practical problem that may be rampant in the field.

We can’t stress how important it is to develop a logical research topic based on your entire research. There are several significant downfalls to getting your topic wrong; your supervisor may not be interested in working on it, the topic has no academic creditability, the research may not make logical sense, and there is a possibility that the study is not viable.

This impacts your time and efforts in writing your dissertation as you may end up in the cycle of rejection at the initial stage of the dissertation. That is why we recommend reviewing existing research to develop a topic, taking advice from your supervisor, and even asking for help in this particular stage of your dissertation.

While developing a research topic, keeping our advice in mind will allow you to pick one of the best international relations and geopolitics dissertation topics that fulfill your requirement of writing a research paper and add to the body of knowledge.

Therefore, it is recommended that when finalizing your dissertation topic, you read recently published literature to identify gaps in the research that you may help fill.

Remember- dissertation topics need to be unique, solve an identified problem, be logical, and be practically implemented. Please look at some of our sample international relations and geopolitics dissertation topics to get an idea for your own dissertation.

How to Structure your International Relations & Geopolitics Dissertation

A well-structured dissertation can help students to achieve a high overall academic grade.

A Title Page
Acknowledgements
Declaration
Abstract: A summary of the research completed
Table of Contents
Introduction : This chapter includes the project rationale, research background, key research aims and objectives, and the research problems. An outline of the structure of a dissertation can also be added to this chapter.
Literature Review : This chapter presents relevant theories and frameworks by analysing published and unpublished literature available on the chosen research topic to address research questions . The purpose is to highlight and discuss the selected research area’s relative weaknesses and strengths whilst identifying any research gaps. Break down the topic, and critical terms can positively impact your dissertation and your tutor.
Methodology : The data collection and analysis methods and techniques employed by the researcher are presented in the Methodology chapter which usually includes research design , research philosophy, research limitations, code of conduct, ethical consideration, data collection methods, and data analysis strategy .
Findings and Analysis : Findings of the research are analysed in detail under the Findings and Analysis chapter. All key findings/results are outlined in this chapter without interpreting the data or drawing any conclusions. It can be useful to include graphs, charts, and tables in this chapter to identify meaningful trends and relationships.
Discussion and Conclusion : The researcher presents his interpretation of results in this chapter, and states whether the research hypothesis has been verified or not. An essential aspect of this section of the paper is to draw a linkage between the results and evidence from the literature. Recommendations with regards to implications of the findings and directions for the future may also be provided. Finally, a summary of the overall research, along with final judgments, opinions, and comments, must be included in the form of suggestions for improvement.
References : This should be completed following your University’s requirements
Bibliography
Appendices : Any additional information, diagrams, and graphs used to complete the dissertation but not part of the dissertation should be included in the Appendices chapter. Essentially, the purpose is to expand the information/data.

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Articles on Geopolitics

Displaying 1 - 20 of 150 articles.

Invisible lines: how unseen boundaries shape the world around us

Mend Mariwany , The Conversation

China: why the country’s economy has hit a wall – and what it plans to do about it

Hong Bo , SOAS, University of London

Paris 2024: conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East threaten to turn the Olympic Games into a geopolitical battleground

Jung Woo Lee , The University of Edinburgh

Demand for computer chips fuelled by AI could reshape global politics and security

Kirk Chang , University of East London and Alina Vaduva , University of East London

Is the United States overestimating China’s power?

Dan Murphy , Harvard Kennedy School

The 100-hour war between El Salvador and Honduras is famous for starting with a football match – the truth is more complicated

Pedro Dutra Salgado , University of Portsmouth

This course examines how conflicts arise over borders

Nita Prasad , Quinnipiac University

A net-zero world will be more peaceful, it’s assumed – but first we have to get there

Michael Bradshaw , Warwick Business School, University of Warwick

Don’t be fooled by Biden and Xi talks − China and the US are enduring rivals rather than engaged partners

Michael Beckley , Tufts University

International reaction to Gaza siege has exposed the growing rift between the West and the Global South

Jorge Heine , Boston University

Who will write the rules for AI? How nations are racing to regulate artificial intelligence

Fan Yang , The University of Melbourne and Ausma Bernot , Charles Sturt University

Agoa trade deal talks: South Africa will need to carefully manage relations with the US and China

Arno J. van Niekerk , University of the Free State

Four reasons why western companies have been ‘trapped’ in Russia since it invaded Ukraine

Simon Evenett , University of St.Gallen and Niccolò Pisani , International Institute for Management Development (IMD)

Book review: African thinkers analyse some of the big issues of our time - race, belonging and identity

Ademola Adesola , Mount Royal University

G20 summit proved naysayers wrong – and showed Global South’s potential to address world’s biggest problems

As BRICS cooperation accelerates, is it time for the US to develop a BRICS policy?

Mihaela Papa , Tufts University ; Frank O'Donnell , Boston College , and Zhen Han , Sacred Heart University

An expanded BRICS could reset world politics but picking new members isn’t straightforward

Bhaso Ndzendze , University of Johannesburg and Siphamandla Zondi , University of Johannesburg

African Union: climate action offers organisation unique chance for revival

Kenneth Nsah , Université de Lille and Eric Tevoedjre , Institut catholique de Lille (ICL)

What’s on the agenda as Biden heads to NATO summit: 5 essential reads as Western alliance talks expansion, Ukraine

Matt Williams , The Conversation

What is the ‘ nine-dash line’ and what does it have to do with the Barbie movie?

Donald Rothwell , Australian National University

Top contributors

Professor of History and Political Science, University of Michigan

Interim Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Boston University

Professor of Sport and Geopolitical Economy, SKEMA Business School

Lecturer, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington

Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of International Relations at La Trobe University., La Trobe University

Assistant Professor, Kinesiology, Western University

Distinguished Professor of History and Environmental Studies, Penn State

Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, University of Oxford

Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Presidential History, Southern Methodist University

Professor of Political Science, Macalester College

Distinguished Professor, Arthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics, & Interim Head, Department of Sustainability, Rochester Institute of Technology

Research Fellow, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University

Project scientist, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam

Director of Koi Tū, the Centre for Informed Futures; former Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of New Zealand, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

Professor in The Division of Global Affairs and The Department of Political Science, Rutgers University - Newark

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Four Scenarios for Geopolitical Order in 2025-2030: What Will Great Power Competition Look Like?

Photo: Romolo Tavani/Adobe Stock

Commentary by Samuel Brannen

Published September 16, 2020

CSIS’s Risk and Foresight Group created four plausible, differentiated scenarios to explore the changing geopolitical landscape of 2025-2030, including the potential lasting first- and second-order effects of Covid-19. The scenarios center on the relative power and influence of the United States and China and the interaction between them, along with detailed consideration of other major U.S. allies and adversaries within each of four worlds.

Each scenario narrative was informed by deep trends analysis and subject-matter-expert interviews. CSIS’s Dracopoulos iDeas Lab brought to life the scenarios in four engaging videos designed to test policymakers’ preconceived notions about the defense and security challenges facing the United States and its allies in the second half of this decade. This research was sponsored by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Strategic Trends Division.

Figure 1: Scenario Axes

Key Findings

The world order is fragmenting without a clear organizing principle to follow. Within this transforming geopolitical landscape, the most important variables at play are the relative influence and leadership of the United States and China, and the bilateral relationship between these countries. The scenarios suggested that the relative influence of the United States and China and their interaction would play a preponderant role in defining the international landscape in key regions around the world during this timeframe. The relative recovery of both countries from Covid-19, and the degree to which they are weakened or strengthened as a result, was also found to play a significant role in shaping the future geopolitical landscape.

These variables form the X- and Y-axes of the deductive model used to generate the scenario analysis.

Under no scenario was the U.S.-China relationship found to be fully cooperative or positive, though cooperation was possible on select, shared global interests when U.S. power and influence equaled or was greater than China’s. In all scenarios, the U.S.-China relationship remained intertwined, and in all scenarios but the most severe reduction of Chinese global influence, bilateral dynamics were increasingly competitive. Notably, the United States could find sustained advantage in shaping the behavior of China through its allies and partners but only when it was willing to engage multilaterally and when other nations made the cost-benefit calculus that supporting a world under greater U.S. leadership would be preferable to a China-led or non-aligned order. U.S. alliances generally held across scenarios but were more stable and predictable in Europe than Asia and the Middle East, where geopolitics were more in flux and shared interests under increased strain.

This scenario analysis found that the highest likelihood outcome for world order in the decade ahead would not be a unipolar order or a bipolar Cold War-style competition, but a loose multipolarity. Under any outcome, the relative strength of both the United States and China would be diluted or balanced by the influence and independent foreign and security policies of India, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and others. There also emerged in the scenarios a growing number of contestations of U.S. power and influence—in particular due to the “spoiler” or other nefarious behavior of Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Despite its relative loss of economic power during this timeframe, Russia remained the most problematic global actor for the United States and its allies, with only limited room for cooperation on issues of strategic stability. Iran was most aggressive across scenarios in which it sensed weakened U.S. commitment to the Middle East. North Korea remained a consistent challenge in the expansion of its weapons programs, though it was more open to negotiation when the United States was stronger and China was weaker. Violent extremist organizations were active across scenarios but more localized and less transnational. They preyed on relative U.S. weakness or its seeming retreat from key regions where they sought to consolidate gains and when they sensed diminished U.S. cooperation with regional partners.

The scenarios notably identified volatility in the China-Russia relationship, suggesting in many ways that ties between countries may have reached a high-water mark that will be difficult to sustain. Russian foreign policy was found to be strongly tied to its own views of its relative strength vis-à-vis both China and the United States, against which it dynamically rebalanced to its own perceived advantage.

Technological and military surprise were “black swans” in 2025-2030. Military application of technology was more likely to be evolutionary than revolutionary, but technological surprise could not be ruled out and in many ways was considered inevitable, if impossible to precisely predict. Key technologies to track, in order of likely strategic importance, included conventional and nuclear hypersonic weapons, autonomous systems, and synthetic biology. Strategic surprise seemed especially problematic and likely to occur in outer space amid intensified gray zone competition and potential warfighting. Related, inadvertent and uncontrolled escalation across domains was a concern in multiple scenarios, paving the way either for a basis for new strategic stability considerations and possible arms control talks or military confrontation. Last, U.S. adversaries increased gray zone activities across scenarios, seeking to reduce the risk of conventional or nuclear conflict while gaining political objectives in areas the United States has struggled to respond. The risk of conventional or nuclear conflict between countries was understood to increase inversely to relative U.S. influence and was especially high in a world order in which the influence of both China and the United States was diminished and global recovery from Covid-19 especially problematic.

Methodology: CSIS scholars Samuel Brannen, Stirling Haig, Habiba Ahmed, Brian Katz, Lindsey Sheppard, and Joseph Federici conducted a comprehensive literature review of key geopolitical, military, and technology trends shaping the 2025-2030 global security environment. That informed the development of a threat matrix that sought to identify highly likely and high impact trends and highly uncertain and high impact trends.

Director of the CSIS Risk and Foresight Group Samuel Brannen then conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with leading defense and security experts as well as internal U.S. Department of Defense experts. All discussions were held under Chatham House Rule to allow for frank exchange and occurred at the unclassified level based on open source information. The interviews sought to identify both consistencies and differences in opinion between experts, including the use of a pre-screening questionnaire. The interviews focused on understanding the underlying logic or basis for divergence of opinion between experts. The threat matrix was consistently revised based upon these expert interviews. Finally, the highest-impact, most uncertain trends were identified to form the central axes for a 2x2 set of deductive scenarios.

Samuel Brannen leads the Risk and Foresight Group and is a senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C.

Commentary is produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).

Samuel Brannen

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Geopolitics: A Very Short Introduction (1st edn)

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Geopolitics: A Very Short Introduction shows why, for a full understanding of contemporary global politics, it is essential to be geopolitical. Geopolitics is a way of looking at the world: one that considers the links between political power, geography, and cultural diversity. In certain places such as Iraq or Lebanon, moving a few feet either side of a territorial boundary can be a matter of life or death, dramatically highlighting the connection between place and politics. Even far away from these ‘danger zones’ geopolitics remains an important part of everyday life. A country's location and size as well as its sovereignty and resources affect understanding and interaction in that country with the wider world.

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The Top 10 Geopolitical Risks for the World in 2020

2020 will prove a tipping point moment in international politics. In recent decades, globalization has created opportunities, reduced poverty, and supported peace for billions of people. But with China and the US decoupling on technology, the 21st century economy is now breaking in two. Developed world countries have become toxically polarized. Climate change matters as never before. Taken together, these trend lines are likely to produce a global crisis. Governments and the private sector will respond, but the scale of the challenges is greater than in the past, and tribalism within national politics undermines global cooperation. These are Eurasia Group’s Top 10 risks for 2020.

1. Rigged!: Who Governs the US?

In 2020, US political institutions will be tested as never before, and the November election will produce a result many see as illegitimate. If Trump wins amid credible charges of irregularities, the result will be contested. If he loses, particularly if the vote is close, same. Either scenario would create months of lawsuits and a political vacuum, but unlike the contested Bush-Gore 2000 election, the loser is unlikely to accept a court-decided outcome as legitimate. It’s a U.S. Brexit, where the issue isn’t the outcome but political uncertainty about what the people voted for.

2. The Great Decoupling

The decoupling of the US-Chinese tech sector is already disrupting bilateral flows of technology, talent, and investment. In 2020, it will move beyond strategic tech sectors like semiconductors, cloud computing, and 5G into broader economic activity. This trend will affect not just the $5 trillion global tech sector, but other industries and institutions, as well. This will create a deepening business, economic, and cultural divide that will risk becoming permanent, casting a deep geopolitical chill over global business. The big question: Where will the Virtual Berlin Wall stand?

3. US/China

As this decoupling occurs, US-China tensions will provoke a more explicit clash over national security, influence, and values. The two sides will continue to use economic tools in this struggle—sanctions, export controls, and boycotts—with shorter fuses and goals that are more explicitly political.

4. Peak MNCs

Far from filling the gaps on critical issues like climate change, poverty reduction, and trade liberalization created by underperforming national governments, multinational corporations (MNCs) will face new pressures from political officials, both elected and unelected. Politicians working to manage slowing global growth, widening inequality, populist rivals, and security challenges created by new technologies will assert themselves at the expense of MNCs.

5. India gets Modi-fied

In 2019, Prime Minister Modi and his government revoked the special status for Jammu and Kashmir, piloted a plan that stripped 1.9 million people of their citizenship, and passed an immigration law that considers religious affiliation. Protests of various kinds have expanded across India, but Modi will not back down, and a harsh government response in 2020 will provoke more demonstrations. Emboldened state-level opposition leaders will directly challenge the central government, leaving Modi with less room for maneuver on economic reform at a time of slowing growth.

6. Geopolitical Europe

European officials now believe the EU should defend itself more aggressively against competing economic and political models. On regulation, antitrust officials will continue to battle North American tech giants. On trade, the EU will become more assertive on rules enforcement and retaliatory tariffs. On security, officials will try to use the world’s largest market to break down cross-border barriers to military trade and tech development. This more independent Europe will generate friction with both the US and China.

7. Politics vs. Economics of Climate Change

Climate change will put governments, investors, and society at large on a collision course with corporate decision-makers, who must choose between ambitious commitments to reduce their emissions and their bottom lines. Civil society will be unforgiving of investors and companies they believe are moving too slowly. Oil and gas firms, airlines, car makers, and meat producers will feel the heat. Disruption to supply chains is a meaningful risk. Investors will reduce exposures to carbon intensive industries, sending asset price lower. All this as warming makes natural disasters more likely, more frequent, and more severe.

8. Shia Crescendo

The failure of U.S. policy toward Iran, Iraq, and Syria—the major Shia-led nations in the Middle East—creates significant risks for regional stability. These include a lethal conflict with Iran; upward pressure on oil prices; an Iraq caught between Iran’s orbit and state failure, and a rogue Syria fused to Russia and Iran. Neither Donald Trump nor Iran’s leaders want all-out war, but deadly skirmishes inside Iraq between U.S. and Iranian troops are likely. Iran will disrupt more tanker traffic in the Persian Gulf and hit the U.S. in cyberspace. It may also use its proxies in other Middle East countries to target U.S. citizens and allies. The chance is rising that the Iraqi government will expel U.S. troops this year, and popular resistance from some Iraqis against Iran’s influence there will strain the Iraqi state—OPEC’s second-largest oil producer. Feckless U.S. policy in Syria will also drive regional risk in 2020.

9. Discontent in Latin America

Latin American societies have become increasingly polarized in recent years. In 2020, public anger over sluggish growth, corruption, and low-quality public services will keep the risk of political instability high. This comes at a time when vulnerable middle classes expect more state spending on social services, reducing the ability of government to undertake austerity measures expected by foreign investors and the IMF. We’ll see more protests, fiscal balances will deteriorate, anti-establishment politicians will grow stronger, and election outcomes will be less predictable.

President Erdogan—who has a long history of provocative behavior in response to threats, sparking confrontation with both foreign and domestic critics—has entered a period of steep political decline. He’s suffering defections from the ruling Justice and Development Party as popular former allies establish new parties. His ruling coalition is shaky. Relations with the US will hit new lows as likely US sanctions take effect in the first half of this year, undermining the country’s reputation and investment climate and putting further pressure on the lira. Erdogan’s responses to these various pressures will further damage Turkey’s ailing economy.

Red herrings

The new “Axis of Evil”— Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Syria are unlikely to blow up, despite the headlines. Iran is the biggest challenge, but neither Trump nor Tehran wants all-out war.

The world’s advanced industrial democracies—the US, Europe and Japan—remain well-positioned to withstand the populist storm in 2020.

A big win for Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party—and an historic-sale loss for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party—gives Britain a much-needed break from Brexit madness in 2020.

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Geopolitics and Political Geography in Russia: Global Context and National Characteristics

V. a. kolosov.

Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

M. V. Zotova

N. l. turov.

Against the backdrop of global trends, the main directions, methodological approaches, and the most striking research results in the field of geopolitics and political geography in 2011–2021 are considered. Political geography is being widely integrated with neighboring scientific fields. Russian political geography and, to a much lesser extent, geopolitics are based on a wide range of concepts known in world literature. Researchers in these areas are promptly responding to current foreign policy and other challenges, including the coronavirus pandemic. Particular attention is paid to geopolitical publications about the pivot of Russian foreign policy to the East and the Greater Eurasia concept. Since the 2010s, the theory of critical geopolitics has become more widespread in Russia, operating not with speculative reasoning, but with large amounts of information analyzed by modern quantitative methods. The flow of studies of state borders and frontiers is growing. In such publications, a large place belongs to the works devoted to the growing gaps in the pace and directions of economic development between former USSR countries. Shifts in the topics of border studies are associated with a deeper study of security issues. Many works reflect the desire to preserve the positive experience of cross-border cooperation between Russian and European partners in a deteriorating environment. Most of Russian publications on regionalization at different spatial levels involve the Baltic Basin. The body of research on territorial conflicts and separatism is growing. Russian geographers and other scholars have made a significant contribution to studying the problems of uncontrolled territories and unrecognized (partially recognized) post-Soviet states. Conflicts around them are considered in relation to their internal differences, complex composition, intricacies of formation and identity of the population, influence on neighboring regions and in historical retrospect.

INTRODUCTION

Geopolitics was considered in the USSR until the last years of its existence as a reactionary bourgeois science aimed at justifying the expansion of international imperialism, while political geography remained a peripheral area of human geography, developing almost exclusively using the data on foreign countries. Turbulent political events during the collapse of the Soviet Union—the search by newly independent states for their place on the global political map and identity building, the outbreak of ethnoterritorial conflicts and heated discussions on border issues, the first democratic elections and reform projects of state structure and administrative division—caused a spike in attention to geopolitics and political geography. The 1990s were marked by a rapid increase in the number of publications in these fields; their authors were not only, and often not so much geographers, but political scientists and, in particular, former professors of Marxist–Leninist philosophy and scientific communism.

Today, scientific and public interest in geopolitics and political geography remains high. A Department of Regional Policy and Political Geography has been created at St. Petersburg University, and political and geographical divisions have also appeared in the leading universities of Moscow: MGIMO and National Research University “Higher School of Economics.” Noteworthy works have been published by scholars from other Russian research centers: Orenburg and Irkutsk, Vladivostok and Kaliningrad, Smolensk and Ulan-Ude. An evident trend in the development of geopolitics and political geography has been the blurring of formal boundaries between disciplines, especially between geography, political science, and sociology. Over the past decade, the relation in the number of studies in individual fields has also changed: interest in electoral geography has fallen, but attention to the study of borders, regionalism, and citizens’ representations about the their country and region’s place in the world has increased.

It is unfeasible to give a complete picture of the current state of geopolitics and political geography in Russia within one article, so we have opted to briefly review the most popular fields or the topics in which, in our opinion, the most interesting results have been achieved. As with other papers in this special issue, it includes mainly publications from 2011–2021. The objective of this paper is to identify the main features of development of geopolitics and political geography in Russia over the past decade and their relationship with global trends and modern theoretical concepts. The authors begin with geopolitical publications. Particular attention is paid to the “pivot to the East” in Russian foreign policy and the Greater Eurasia concept. We then move on to border studies, an expanding interdisciplinary field where geographers play a prominent role, as well as on regionalization, an important factor in changing and redistributing the functions of borders. The article concludes with an assessment of the contribution of Russian political geography to the study of uncontrolled territories and unrecognized states as an integral element of the modern world geopolitical order.

GEOPOLITICS: THE BOOM CONTINUES

Geopolitics remains extremely popular in Russia as an interdisciplinary area of scientific or pseudoscientific publications. As in the 1990s (Kolosov and Turovsky, 2000), one can find many attempts at simple explanations for complex political phenomena that refer to the peculiarities of Russia’s geographical location or its supposedly permanent and indisputable national interests. Geopolitics is taught in universities and various faculties (Mäkinen, 2008): more than 100 textbooks, teaching aids, and anthologies have been published in Russia, the titles of which include the terms “geopolitics” or “geopolitical.” The global amount of publications on this topic is also increasing, as is the share of publications with the participation of Russian scholars. According to Scopus, in 2017 it reached 10%, which is about four times more than the total share of works by Russian authors indexed by international bibliographic databases. A particularly significant increase in publication activity was noted after 2012, and 2015 became the peak year (Silnichaya and Gumenyuk, 2020). This reflected a deep transformation of the international system and a double crisis: the conflict in the south-east of Ukraine and the actual rupture of Russian-Ukrainian relations, and the sharp deterioration of relations between Russia and the West, sanctions and counter-sanctions. As before, neoclassical publications by political scientists, sociologists, and economists predominate. Geographical studies in the Russian database “eLibrary,” containing the named terms in the title, keywords and annotations, in 1991–2015 amounted to only 2.5% of the total number of materials (Pototskaya and Silnichaya, 2019).

Despite the abundance of publications Russian geopolitics still appears to be a vague subject area. In world science there has not yet been a consensus, too, either in defining its content, or in approaches and methods. An alternative to neoclassical geopolitics since the early 1990s has been critical geopolitics, which operates not with speculative reasoning, but large amounts of information analyzed using modern quantitative methods. In critical geopolitics, it was possible to “remove” the contradiction between the use of geopolitical ideas to justify political decisions (geopolitics as an ideology and political practice) and the study of spatial factors influencing foreign policy or political activity in general. The authors of the concept of critical geopolitics proposed considering it as a discourse that reflects the interests of various social strata and political forces. Later, its scope was broadened with studying the role of geopolitical symbols, images, and ideas contained not only in the discourse of political leaders, but also in media reports, advertising, cartoons, movies and caricatures.

In Russia, critical geopolitics was little known until the early 2010s. One of the first to use its methods were the scholars of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who developed ideas about the integration of individual geopolitical images into the geopolitical picture of the world formed in the collective consciousness of social groups and individuals. It includes representations about the country’s place in the world, its foreign policy orientation, ”natural” and desirable allies, major political players, national security threats, historical mission and shared past with neighboring countries, as well as advantages and disadvantages of certain foreign policy strategies. The geopolitical picture of the world is a product of national history and culture, the result of the synthesis of views professed by various strata of the political elite, academic experts, creative intellectuals, and public opinion in general (Kolosov, 2011).

The methodology used by the authors is aimed at an analysis of the relationship between the “high” geopolitics developed by political leaders and experts (academic scientists, well-known journalists, etc.), and “low” geopolitics, i.e., the geopolitical picture of the world in the minds of citizens. The tool for studying high geopolitics is qualitative and quantitative analyses of discourse. Low geopolitics is studied with sociological methods: mass surveys, focus groups, and in-depth interviews.

The staff of the Institute published, including with foreign coauthors, a number of works devoted to Russian political discourse in relation to the attack of American cities by terrorists and an attempt at rapprochement with the West, comparisons of discourses of various political forces with the opinions of ordinary citizens in different areas, identified through mass surveys, representations of the population about the foreign world and their origin, etc. (O’Loughlin et al., 2004a, 2004b). Based on the materials of the project of the Fifth European Framework Program “Vision of Europe in the world” (EuroBroadMap) and surveys among about 10 thousand students in 18 countries according to a single methodology, the dependence of representations about the world on social stratification, spatial mobility of respondents and their families, and their knowledge of foreign languages was studied. The resulting geopolitical vision of the world was compared with the global “space of flows”—the geographical distribution of foreign trade, foreign direct investments, migrations, international flights, arms supplies, political relations, expressed in solidarity voting in the UN, etc. In other words, the aim was to find out to what extent the “visibility” and image of a country depend on its “actual” place in the world, the intensity and nature of its external contacts. The initial hypothesis also assumed that the vision of the world depends on the physical and cultural distance between countries (similarity of language and religion).

The study showed that in Russia, as in other countries, the respondents are most familiar with the world’s major powers, neighboring countries and “newsmakers” —the regions of international conflicts regularly covered by the media. The countries of Africa and significant parts of Asia and Latin America were rarely mentioned. The most known and attractive for Russian students were Western European countries, which were associated primarily with a high living standard, tourism, and consumption of goods and services, but also with a rich cultural heritage and democratic regimes. In most of the countries where the survey was conducted, Russia iself was well known, but mostly inattractive.

Political discourse in Russia and other countries—official (interviews and statements of political leaders), media (media materials) and expert (academic publications)—was compared with the results of specially conducted and/or available public opinion polls. A study of Russian official discourse and publications in a number of newspapers over several years showed in particular the ambiguity and divergence in interpreting the concept of the “Russian world.” Simultaneous mass surveys carried out at the end of 2014 in the regions of southeastern Ukraine and in all post-Soviet unrecognized republics revealed large territorial differences in the self-identification of respondents with the “Russian world,” their high correlation with Russian or Ukrainian identity (for the first time in the post-Soviet years; such a dependence has not been observed before) and orientation towards Russian or Ukrainian TV channels. Statistical modeling helped to create a portrait of a typical supporter of the Russian world, i.e., the interdependence of sociodemographic characteristics, ways of socialization, and trust in political leaders and electoral behavior (O’Loughlin et al., 2016).

In subsequent studies in political geography, much attention was paid to tools used by states and individual political forces to convince citizens of the validity of a certain geopolitical vision of the world and foreign policy strategy based on it (Kolosov et al., 2018). This task is becoming more difficult due to the rise of individualism and the spread of the Internet and social networks. At the same time, control over telecommunications and, in particular, the main TV channels has made it easier for the authorities to manipulate public opinion. The socialization of schoolchildren, including the content of history and geography textbooks, plays an important role in shaping the geopolitical vision of the world. The official discourse and content of several generations of school textbooks in Ukraine (Vendina et al., 2014a) and Estonia (Vendina et al., 2014b) were compared. This analysis led to the conclusion that the model of strengthening Ukrainian identity through sharp opposition to Russia undermined, rather than supported, Ukrainian statehood. It was manifested in the events of February 2014.

Since the 2010s, the theory of critical geopolitics has become more widespread, in particular, thanks to the works of I. Okunev and other MGIMO scholars. They examined the relationship between official Moldovan political discourse and everyday discourse of minorities—the Gagauz and Bulgarians—using the idea that collective identities can be based on the images of “others” as constitutive markers, in this case, Russia (Okunev, 2016). L. Zhirnova (2021) highlighted the role of Russia as a significant “Other” in cartoons published in Latvian newspapers, and N. Radina (2021) conducted a semantic analysis of a vast array of publications in Russian newspapers, in 2019 and early 2020 with the keyword “coronavirus.” She showed how the impending pandemic served as an excuse both to demonize China and condemn American hegemonism and D. Trump. A series of works by K. Aksenov et al. considers the “ideologization” of the urban space of CIS countries. The emergence of new states in the post-Soviet space was accompanied by the nationalization of urban toponyms, the transition from their single “matrix,” which formed a common Soviet identity, to the regional diversification of approaches to changing toponyms (Aksenov, 2020; Aksenov and Andreev, 2021; Axenov and Yaralyan, 2012).

Analyzing the world literature on geopolitics, including critical geopolitics, St. Petersburg geographer A. Elatskov proffered a broad theoretical concept, presented in a large series of articles (2012, 2013) and then a monograph (2017). He considers a geopolitical relation (GR) the key object of geopolitics— combination of geographical and political relations in different proportions, the synthesis of which gives it a new quality. In the geographical component of GR, Elatskov singles out formal-spatial (positional) and content-related elements. An example is different kinds of cross-border movements that have a certain territorial pattern, geographical (e.g., as part of value added chains) and at the same time political meaning (e.g., the impact of migration on the domestic political situation in a country and areas of the largest inflow of migrants). Elatskov understands geopolitics as the organization of geopolitical relations between different actors and, at the same time, a field of knowledge and thought aimed at identifying and transforming these relations. He subdivides “geopolitical thought” into three levels. The ordinary level is predominantly an unsystematic, emotionally colored set of stereotypes, myths, and psychological complexes, called “low geopolitics” in critical geopolitics. Practical geopolitical thought is dominated by an applied component related to the everyday level and using ready-made concepts. Finally, the top level is conceptual geopolitics involving research, ideas, and generalizations (“high geopolitics”). Elatskov divides geopolitical knowledge into several geospatial types according to the method of analysis, theoretical and ideological directions, etc., including contextual, reflecting the balance of external and internal conditions of GR. In his opinion, critical geopolitics, which claims to be impartial, cannot remain politically neutral, and through its optics geography appears not as a reality, but an image of it. The author proposes calling the synthesis of modernized classical and critical geopolitics “postclassical.” I. Okunev (2014) arrived at similar opinion.

Achievements in the theory of geopolitics and political geography include a review of their state-of-the-art at St. Petersburg University over nearly three centuries (Kaledin et al., 2019). A. Fartyshev, geographer based in Irkutsk, used game theory for the first time to formalize the category of “geopolitical location.” Based on the Soviet–Russian concept of geographical position, he distinguished passive (a set of factors contributing to protection against expansion), active (factors contributing to the expansion and broadening of the country’s influence) and geoeconomic (factors contributing to economic development) geopolitical position. Fartyshev focused on assessing the geoeconomic position of Siberia, the uniqueness of which is largely determined by its “ultra-continentality” in terms of L. Bezrukov. Similarly to papers of many political scientists who developed synthetic indicators of a country’s power, Fartyshev used in his reasoning the concept of geopolitical power. In his opinion, the geopolitical position of a territory in general is determined by the ratio of its geopolitical power to the aggregated geopolitical power of the other (neighboring) territories, adjusted for the degree of influence of each of them on the territory in question and the political relations with it. Fartyshev proposed a set of specific variables for assessing these indicators, including political relations on a friendliness–hostility scale (2017, 2019).

PIVOT TO THE EAST AND THE GREATER EURASIA CONCEPT

One of the most important topics of geopolitical publications in recent years has been the “pivot to the east,” which refers to the need to diversify the country’s external sources of development and strategic interaction with China and Asia-Pacific countries. The pivot to the east was accelerated by the geopolitical crisis provoked by the events in Ukraine and sharply aggravating relations between Russia and the West. The presumption was to use relations with China to modernize the economy, attract new direct investments, accelerate structural changes in the economies of the Far East and Eastern Siberia, and halt the depopulation of these regions.

In the late 2010s, the discussion about Greater Eurasia, closely related to the pivot to the east intensified. Political scientists, including leaders and high-ranking experts of the influential Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, have played the main role, but geographers have also actively joined this debate, since this topic of Greater Eurasia has not only an external, geopolitical, but also an internal dimension.

The essence of this concept is the formation of new economic, political and cultural space “from Vladivostok (or Shanghai) to Lisbon”—“a space of free trade, development, peace and security, conditions for the sovereign development of all its member countries, cultures and civilizations” (Karaganov, 2019, pp. 9, 12). The theory of Greater Eurasia is outwardly similar to the concept of Eurasianism, one of the main elements of Russia’s geopolitical tradition. However, Eurasianism arose as a reaction to contradictions between the Russian Empire and European powers pitting the East against the West. Its ideological basis was the idea of Russia as a special cultural and historical community, different from both Asia and Europe, but equal to it, coinciding more or less exactly with the borders of the Russian Empire (Laruelle, 2008).

Greater Eurasia is not only much larger than Eurasia–Russia, but it also has a different architecture. It is based not so much on adjacency but on network interaction, with a multipolar and multiscale structure created by regional integration processes at different levels. Therefore, one of the main geopolitical arguments is Russia’s possibility to maintain its position as an independent great power in conditions of a multipolar Eurasia, despite its economic growth rates lagging behind the United States, China, and India, a decrease in population, and, accordingly, a drop in “weight” in the world. The pivot to the east corresponds to the fundamental orientation of post-Soviet Russia towards the creation of a multipolar geopolitical order and prevention of hegemony of any individual country or group of countries (Suslov and Pyatachkova, 2019). Another important geopolitical argument is avoidance of the alternative of turning Russia into a junior partner either of the collective West or Beijing. In the Greater Europe that never evolved, Russia would have remained a marginal periphery, an eternally lagging pupil in the school of European values, forced to follow norms established without its participation. In addition, with the stark and increasing asymmetry in the Russia and its great eastern neighbor potential, Moscow is interested in balancing China’s power in a system of diverse network relations and institutions.

In the opinion of the supporters of Greater Eurasia, there are the prerequisites for its formation, which Russia cannot ignore. These include actual stagnation of the EU economy, the crisis of European integration, and the obvious shift of the gravity center of the world economy to Asia. At the core of the Greater Eurasia concept are the priority of economic interactions, separation of the economy from the burden of geopolitics, overcoming the differences inherited from the Cold War and preventing the emergence of new ones, and resolving disagreements and frictions between the participants (Toward …, 2018, p. 29).

The pivot to the east and Greater Eurasia concept are also justified by internal Russian reasons: the need to accelerate and eliminate distortions in the development of Siberia and the Far East and use their rich natural resources more efficiently (Kotlyakov and Shuper, 2019). These problems are directly linked to the discussion about the “continental and resource curses” of Russia, and Siberia in particular; i.e., the fatal low efficiency of economy because of vast distances and high transport expenses (Bezrukov, 2008), and international specialization on the export of fuel and raw materials (Kryukov and Seliverstov, 2022).

However, the Greater Eurasia concept has triggered a cautious or openly skeptical attitude among some Russian authors. They argue that, despite real common interests, the states of Europe and Asia, primarily China and India, are involved in conflicts among themselves, have different political regimes and orientations, and profess fundamentally different views on state sovereignty and the nature of international relations (Kortunov, 2019). Critics emphasize that small and medium-sized countries are wary of using the Greater Eurasia concept by China, Russia, and other major powers in their struggle for political influence. They note the lack of an adequate political infrastructure as a common forum for the Eurasian states, especially in the field of security (the Shanghai Cooperation Organization cannot satisfy such ambitions).

Other authors argue that hopes for a sharp increase in Chinese investment in the manufacturing industry, an increase in the share of high-value-added goods in Russian exports to China, and the implementation of large infrastructure projects in Russia did not materialize. Chinese partners are interested in access to Russian raw materials, but not in investing in high-tech industry. The growth of Russian–Chinese trade turnover is hampered by noneconomic obstacles (Kolosov and Zotova, 2021b). Although the share of EU countries in Russian foreign trade has been declining, changes in its distribution across countries since 2014 showing no a decisive pivot to the East. China confidently took first place among Russia’s trading partners, ahead of Germany, but the EU as a whole still accounts for most of trade (43% in 2019). In Chinese foreign trade, Russia occupies a very modest place accounting for 2.9% of imports and 1.3% of exports (2019)—far less than the turnover with the US or major EU countries. The emerging Greater Eurasia promises the Russian Federation not only new geostrategic opportunities, but also fundamental risks. The growing specialization of Asian Russia in the export of energy, minerals, and timber to China and Asian countries exacerbates its lag behind partners, stimulates the concentration of the population and economy in few foci, and contributes to the involvement of the eastern regions in foreign economic relations to the detriment of the domestic (Druzhinin, 2020).

BORDER STUDIES: CHALLENGES OF RUSSIA’S MULTINEIGHBOR POSITION

The global upheavals in recent years have highlighted with renewed vigor the importance of state borders in the life of society. The coronavirus pandemic has led to the closing and sharp asymmetry in the functions of many interstate borders. A series of migration crises in Europe and other parts of the world have given impetus to securitization policies that have increased use of the latest technologies in border security and combating illegal migration, as well as accelerating the construction of physical barriers along borders. In Russia, which borders 16 countries (including Abkhazia and South Ossetia, recognized by Moscow), additional factors that have increased attention to borders in the 2010s were the creation of the EAEU, the annexation of Crimea, the civil war in the Donbass, international sanctions and countersanctions, aggravation of relations with neighboring EU countries and, at the same time, intensification of cooperation with China. Border studies, just like abroad, have become a rapidly developing interdisciplinary field of knowledge, remaining one of the classic areas of political geography.

The central concept in modern border studies has been understanding of borders as a complex social category created as a result of bordering—constant reproduction of distinctions by various social and political actors in the course of their activities (Brambilla and Jones, 2020; Konrad, 2015; Paasi, 2021; Paasi and Prokkola, 2008; Scott 2021). In this way, a border is at the same time a self-developing legal institution, a material phenomenon (crossing points and other infrastructure), a dividing line and the adjacent space it affects, a social practice, a symbol, and a set of social concepts.

The topics of border studies by Russian authors are in general similar to their European colleagues. For EU countries and Russia, the problem of redistributing functions between borders is very important ( debordering and rebordering ). As is known, in the EU, many functions of state borders have been transferred to the external borders, while internal borders have become more open. In the post-Soviet space, conversely, the borders between the former republics of the USSR have become state borders. The zero-sum game in relations between Russia and the West in the struggle for influence in former USSR countries determined the redistribution of barrier and contact functions of borders: they increasingly depended on the involvement of post-Soviet states in integration processes under the auspices of the Russian Federation.

There are also two obvious differences in the directions of border studies in Russia and European countries. First, there are much fewer studies on the relationship between borders and migration in Russia. Although Russia is the third largest world destination for international migrants after the US and the EU, this problem is less acute due to the openness of borders, especially between EAEU countries. Second, in Russia, on the contrary, there are relatively more publications about the “material” functions of borders—their role in the formation of cross-border socioeconomic and cultural contrasts, regulation of cross-border flows, and the impact of interactions between neighboring countries on border regions.

This topic is the most important both in terms of the number of studies and geographical coverage. In the West, attention to studying cross-border contrasts peaked in the 1980s–2000s, when similar studies were carried out on the border between the “old” EU members and former socialist countries seeking to join it (Stryjakiewicz, 1998), between the United States and Mexico (Martinez, 1994). Borders are a powerful tool for reproducing spatial inequality. In Russia, special interest in the analysis of border gradients was caused by the growing asymmetry in the rates and directions of economic development of the former Soviet republics, the differences between their economic and political and legal space increasing in the course of state building (Kolosov and Morachevskaya, 2020). An analysis of contrasts focused in particular on settlement systems and the territorial structure of the economy of border regions makes it possible to assess the prospects for cross-border cooperation. Economic peripherality and the largest gradients in the level of economic development between Russian regions and their neighbors are most noticeable on the old borders inherited from the USSR in the European part of Russia (Zotova et al., 2018a) and reflect its relative lagging behind the EU countries. A significant gap in socioeconomic indicators, as a rule, reduces interest in cooperation and increases the risk of unequal relations, when the stronger party receives the greatest benefits. An example is economic relations between border regions of Russia and China. At the same time, cross-border differences between adjacent territories can also serve a significant resource for them, allowing them to expand the domestic market thanks to customers from neighboring countries, to better meet the demand for goods and services, improve the culture of production, etc. (Zotova et al., 2018b).

As many Russian authors have shown, in the post-Soviet borderlands, there is increasing contrast in the level of development both between the border areas of neighboring countries and within each the border zone. The priority of state building in the post-Soviet states leads to an increase in the peripherality of territories far from urban centers along new borders, which interferes with the negative influence of the border. It becomes a significant obstacle to interaction between EAEU countries (Morachevskaya, 2010; Rossiiskoe …, 2018). The depression of most municipal districts along the Russian–Belarusian border is also associated with the hyperconcentration of economic activity in metropolitan agglomerations, which creates deep contrasts (Yas’kova, 2021).

An important aspect of studying post-Soviet borderlands is analysis of demographic and migration processes, the ethnocultural situation, the settlement pattern on both sides of the state border (Popkova, 2011), as well as their role in the formation of cross-border regions and the development of cross-border cooperation (Gerasimenko, 2011; Karpenko, 2019; Novikov, 2015).

The development potential of border areas was assessed via analysis of foreign economic relations. Their effectiveness was estimated by multifactor modeling in terms of the ratio and composition of exports and imports and intersectoral balance (Bilchak, 2011). The indicators of transport and border infrastructure were also considered as a factor in interactions between states. A borderland was zoned according to the level of its infrastructural development (Rygnyzov and Batomunkuev, 2016).

Studies by a number of geographers have assessed the influence of different types of borders (natural, economic, administrative, state) on the agricultural specialization of border areas. Whereas the role of administrative boundaries has sharply decreased due to the development of market relations, the influence of natural and state boundaries remains significant (Baburin et al., 2019).

The French geographer M. Foucher called borders a “factory of identities.” The relationship between borders, territory, and identity is the core not only of border studies, but whole political geography. Research on this topic—the symbolic function of borders constitutes the second main direction of border studies in Russia. Their objective is to analyze social representations about the optimal configuration of a state border based on citizen’s views on the criteria that separate “us” from “them,” and the regime and functions of borders. Many authors considered the role of borders in national identity, political discourse, historical narratives, as well as the symbolic landscape of borders, etc. Such studies are often based on sociological data and study of socialization of different generations, i.e., on the paradigm of critical geopolitics (Amilhat Szary, 2020; Paasi, 1996; Scott, 2021; Vendina and Gritsenko, 2017).

In the post-Soviet space, state and administrative boundaries are often seen as boundaries between identities in the geographical space. The delimitation between the republics and territorial autonomies of the former USSR was based precisely on this principle: the more the formal border coincided with the border of identities, the more it was interpreted as fair. Meanwhile, in many areas of a mixed settlement pattern of different ethnic groups, such correspondence cannot be achieved. Studies by D. Newman and other Western authors well demonstrate that the problem of primacy of identity or boundaries is the chicken and egg question.

This phenomenon is shown in studies of relict (historical) borders that have lost the most important functions of dividing lines between states, but have remained significant political, economic, and cultural barriers. Past belonging to other historical, cultural, and political regions has a significant impact on the social practices and identity of their inhabitants and on various activities; it manifests itself in the cultural landscape and can be used to mobilize public opinion, e.g. for the purposes of secession. These are called phantom boundaries. Their significance is well analyzed in (Janczak, 2015; von Hirschhausen et al., 2019; etc.). In Russia, typical phantom borders are those of territories joined to the former Soviet Union (RSFSR) before World War II and as its result, as well as former frontiers and linear defense systems which have existed in the 16th–19th centuries in Russia’s South and East. The visibility of phantom borders is also determined by the depth of the wealth gap between the territories they separate, political differences between countries, memory politics, and other factors (Kolosov, 2017).

Russian researchers have often studied the mutual influence of formal borders and identities with case studies of the borders between Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltics (Krylov and Gritsenko, 2015; Vendina et al., 2014b, 2021)—territories that for a long time existed within the borders matching the current Russian Federation and with a mixed ethnic composition, now included in different economic and political unions and security systems. These factors have led to the formation of complex, mixed, or transitional models of identity. A case study of Pskov oblast was focused on the role of the media and regular cross-border contacts in the formation of models of good neighborly or oppositional identity (Manakov, 2010).

In the world literature, studies of the impact of borders on identity, social concepts, and daily life of society usually focus on the adaptation of local communities to different types of borders, their role in shaping the differences between people and social systems, and the specific border culture; they are associated with the uniqueness of border crossing practices, ambivalence of identities, and tolerance for otherness (Anzaldua, 1999). Similar processes were considered in the Russian borderland with Poland and Finland (before the COVID-19 pandemic). In these areas, everyday cross-border contacts expanded people’s life plans, gave them the opportunity to accumulate and put into practice the experience of acting in a different social environment, contributed to the growth in interest and trust of citizens in neighboring countries in each other, and, as a result, the formation of the identity of a “cross-border resident” who feels comfortable on both sides of the border (Brednikova, 2008; Zotova et al., 2018a). At the same time, in the Russian–Ukrainian and Russian–Estonian borderlands, citizens perceive that, instead of a conditional line on the map, it has become an important border felt in everyday life. According to O. Martinez’s typology (1994), the border has turned from integration to “coexisting,” and then alienating, and the borderland from a largely unified territory into border strips (Zotova and Gritsenko, 2021).

Borders simultaneously reflect local, interstate, and global consequences of economic and political processes and identity battles. They are an extremely dynamic social institution: their functions and regimes are constantly changing depending on bilateral relations between neighboring countries, the global political situation, global and regional economic conditions, and exchange rates and world prices. Therefore, the third leading direction in Russian border studies is now study of the dynamics of borders under the impact of the dialectical combination of globalization and regionalization processes (fragmentation of the political space).

Foreign studies of this type examine the contradictions between growing international and cross-border interactions, the objective need for highly permeable borders, on the one hand, and the interests of national and regional security, on the other. Back in the early 2010s, researchers noted trends towards “enclosing” of state territory from the negative and unforeseen consequences of globalization, including the erection of thousands of kilometers of physical barriers along borders, based on the desire to more fully control commodity, financial, and sometimes information flows, to protect the national economic space from excessive competition (Ghorra-Gobin, 2012; Jones, 2012; Rosière and Jones, 2012; Vallet, 2019). These processes became especially acute with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the inconsistency of the ideas of the 1990s about the gradual increase in contact functions of borders at the expense of barriers finally became apparent (Böhm, 2021; Chaulagain et al., 2021; Rothmüller, 2021).

New work has shown that the pandemic has partially refuted the concept of weakening of the state as a result of globalization processes (Golunov, 2021; Golunov and Smirnova, 2021). The most obvious geopolitical consequence of the pandemic was further fragmentation of the political and socioeconomic space, the instrument of which was not only state, but also internal administrative borders. Border closures occurred asynchronously and asymmetrically, were not coordinated even between EU countries, and affected the mobility and daily interests of more than 90% of the world’s population (Gossling et al., 2020). As a result, the pandemic contributed to further division of the world into “us” and “them.” Invisible borders of regions with different levels of morbidity have divided territories with different levels of urbanization, age structures, incomes, and mobility of the population, and ultimately, different cultural characteristics and lifestyles (Kolosov et al., 2021).

At the intersection of political and physical geography and other sciences are studies of sustainable development and management of cross-border natural systems—international river basins, mountain ridges, inland seas, protected natural areas, etc. Their economic use gives rise to contradictions between the countries in which these objects are located. However, well-thought-out institutional mechanisms make it possible to smooth out disagreements and contribute to stabilization of the cross-border natural systems even in the face of tense interstate relations (Seliverstova, 2009). Although the necessary level of coordination has not been achieved in any of the main cross-border basins of the Russian Federation, a positive experience of interaction has been accumulated in some areas (Frolova, Samokhin, 2018). Works by the joint Russian–Azerbaijani commission for the distribution of water resources of the Samur River, development of a comprehensive program of Russian–Kazakh cooperation to preserve the ecosystem of Ural River (Chibilev, 2018; Sokolov et al., 2020), and joint (until 2014) efforts of Ukrainian and Russian specialists in the use and protection of the Seversky Donets River demonstrate that effective and coordinated management of a cross-border natural object can be successful (Demin and Shatalova, 2015).

New areas of border studies emerging in Russia are associated with assessment of the role of borders in international tourism. Border problems are reflected in “high” and popular culture—literature, cinema, painting, architecture. In publications by Russian authors, the development of tourism is considered as one of the important areas of cross-border cooperation (Sebentsov and Zotova, 2018) in relation with the dynamics of the functions and regimes of borders, the cross-border price gradient, and the attractiveness of borders for tourists (Katrovsky et al., 2017 ). An important contribution to the development of this direction has been made by A. Alexandrova and co-authors, who consider borders as a mean for regulating international tourist flows and, at the same time, a factor in the development of tourism in border areas. Much attention is given to the transformation of borders from a barrier hindering international tourist exchange into a resource giving an important competitive advantage to border areas (Aleksandrova and Shipugina, 2020; Aleksandrova and Stupina, 2014).

REGIONALIZATION AT DIFFERENT SPATIAL LEVELS

An important factor in the redistribution of functions between political boundaries of different levels was the formation of international regions of different levels (regionalization) as a response to the challenges of international competition, which requires the expansion of markets, cross-border cooperation and new approaches to territorial organization of the economy (Fedorov and Korneevets, 2010; Korneevets, 2010).

Modern approaches to regionalization are based on the combination of constructivist and functional understanding of this process. In other words, cross-border regions can be formed both “from below,” on the basis of an increasingly dense network of production, marketing, migration, and other interactions, sociocultural commonality, and increased interdependence between territories, and “from above,” by the efforts of interested states, business and public organizations. The principles of “new regionalism” developed in Europe provide the most flexible approach to regionalization. It is based on depoliticization, multilevel governance, a combination of different models, optional reliance on existing norms, a multilateral nature, that is, the use of not only economic, but also social, cultural, and environmental factors of cooperation, the participation of regions and municipalities of countries with different state structures and legal systems, and the ability to agree upon only those issues on which a compromise has been reached, without trying to immediately solve the most difficult problems (Fawcett, 1995; Kolosov and Sebentsov, 2019).

Analysis of regionalization has acquired high importance for Russian political geographers, including the fact that at the interstate level, the Russian Federation is involved in the activities of many regional organizations, and at the substate level, in the formation of cross-border regions, primarily on borders with the EU (Kolosov and Sebentsov, 2019). The central place in research on this topic belongs to the studies devoted to cross-border regionalization in the Baltic Sea basin, authored mainly to Kaliningrad scholars (Fedorov and Korneevets, 2010; Korneevets, 2010). These studies were supplemented and often carried out with the participation of European authors (Palmowski and Fedorov 2020; Sagan et al., 2018). The course and results of regionalization were assessed based on analysis of the intensity and structure of relations between various actors: foreign trade, investment, and agreements between various partners (Korneevets, 2010; Fedorov et al., 2013). The specifics and implementation of EU projects aimed at supporting cross-border cooperation and integration processes on external borders have been studied, e.g. the prospects for creating cross-border region Gdansk/Sopot/Gdynia–Kaliningrad–Klaipeda (Palmovski and Fedorov, 2019).

Despite some successes in cooperation with European partners, some Russian authors have emphasized that Russia’s interests have not always been taken into account. Interactions across different platforms, e.g., the Council of Baltic Sea States (CBSS), the Northern Dimension Initiative, the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR), the Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM), the Union of Baltic Cities (BCU), the Baltic Development Forum (BDF), Euroregion “Baltic,” etc., have faced a lack of necessary funding and limited opportunities for the Russian side to influence decision-making (Bolotnikova and Mezhevich, 2012). Overbureaucratization and, since 2014, blocking of cooperation channels at the interstate level by the Baltic countries and other partners, prevented implementation of many promising initiatives at the regional and local levels (Euroregions, “twin cities”) and rapprochement of the Baltic strategies of the Russian Federation and the EU during the Russian presidency in the CBSS in 2012–2013 (Sergunin, 2013). The assessment of the Northern Dimension initiative as one of the model areas of cross-border cooperation in federal and regional discourse revealed a certain discrepancy between the expectations and results of cooperation, including the lack of unified mechanisms for financing and administering the program (Kolosov and Sebentsov, 2019).

ENPI’s cross-border cooperation programs have been the real mechanism for interaction between Russia and the EU at the regional and local level, making it possible to attract investments and promote the development of the economy and social infrastructure of border regions. Analysis of the projects in different areas (Gritsenko et al., 2013; Kropinova, 2013; Kuznetsova and Gapanovich, 2012) showed that in the regions bordering the EU (Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Pskov oblasts, the Republic of Karelia), an institutional model of cooperation was gradually constructed, which led to the formation of real network partnerships, both intersectoral and in individual sectors of activity (environmental protection, tourism, etc.) (Sebentsov and Zotova, 2018). The establishment of simplified (virtually visa free) regime for local border traffic (LBT) was considered an effective tool for intensification of cross-border coopration in the Russian–Polish, Russian–Latvian and Russian–Norwegian border areas (Gumenyuk et al., 2019; Sagan et al., 2018). The LBT regime had a positive effect on contacts between countries and contributed to an increase in cross-border mobility and the socioeconomic development of border areas.

Since 2016–2018, the topics of publications on cross-border cooperation between Russia and the EU have changed significantly. When it became obvious that no improvement in relations should be expected in the near future, a significant number of studies appeared on the security agenda—economic, political, military, and societal (Fedorov, 2020; Mezhevich and Zverev, 2018; Sergunin, 2021; Volovoy and Batorshina, 2017). Researchers focused on the place of the Baltic region in the modern strategies of its member states. Current processes were examined in terms of Karl Deutsch’s concept of security community and Barry Buzan’s regional security complex. Important topics were increased risks of local conflicts and political instability, ensuring military security and militarization of the region, including analysis of the military spending of the Baltic countries, which in 2015-2016 alone increased by 45%—almost 6% of budget incomes (Mezhevich and Zverev, 2018). An important area of confrontation between Russia and the West, including in the Baltic Sea region, was the economy. As a result, due to the curtailment of economic ties with Russia, the GDPs of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania decreased in 2015–2016 by 8–12% (Mezhevich, 2016). As a result of sanctions and countersanctions, Russia’s trade with countries of the Baltic Sea region has significantly decreased.

Studies of societal security in accordance with the concepts of the Copenhagen School of International Studies have shown that despite the existing contradictions, the Baltic region managed to develop a common approach to understanding the threats and challenges to public security, including uneven regional development, social and gender inequality, unemployment, poverty, intolerance, religious and political extremism, climate change, natural and man-made disasters, epidemics, cybercrime, international terrorism, etc. (Sergunin, 2021). Russia was involved in the development of the Baltic 2030 Sustainable Development Strategy, which gave grounds for cautious optimism in assessing the prospects for cooperation.

Relations in the spheres of culture, education, and science were hardly affected at all, and interactions within the framework of cross-border cooperation programs were also preserved (Kondratieva, 2021; Mironyuk and Zhengota, 2017). This confirms the thesis that, thanks to implementation of joint programs since the early 2000s, a network of contacts has been created at the regional and local levels, which played a key role in strengthening trust between parties, based on rational choice, sociocultural community, and personal relations (Kolosov and Sebentsov, 2019).

SEPARATISM, TERRITORIAL CONFLICTS, AND PROBLEMS OF UNRECOGNIZED STATES

The topic of territorial conflicts got relevant in Russia during the collapse of the USSR, when a number of pioneering studies were published on the claims of various political forces and potential territorial claims of the union republics and territorial autonomies to each other and their causes. In the 1990s, this field, geoconflictology, was developed by O. Glezer, V. Kolosov, N. Mironenko, N. Petrov, A. Treivish, and R. Turovsky. Later, as a result of state building in the post-Soviet countries, the situation stabilized, and political scientists and ethnologists began to study in depth the remaining territorial conflicts. The number of geographical studies on geoconflictology has decreased. It is worth notings the studies by I. Suprunchuk on the geography of terrorism (Suprunchuk et al., 2017). Several studies on territorial conflicts in foreign countries were published in the 2010s (Brazhalovich et al., 2016; Skachkov, 2019; Zakharov et al., 2020).

One of the main topics of geoconflictology is the conflict between a secessionist movement operating in a certain territory and a mother state (Popov, 2012). Most political geographers (Krotov, 2016; Zayats, 2022) examine separatism in the conflictological paradigm. Related studies by political scientists can be divided into two groups. The first includes geographical and political research on individual countries and regions (Catalonia, Azavad, etc.). The second group focuses on separatism as a social phenomenon, either by explaining the reasons why the separatist movement arose, or by considering the factors of its success or failure. Since there are many research institutes in Russia dealing with the problems of certain regions (Europe, Latin America, etc.), most of the studies are devoted to global experience, especially the European (Prokhorenko, 2018; Semenenko, 2018).

Another characteristic feature of Russian research is the predominant emphasis on the ethnic genesis of separatism (Kuznetsov, 2015; Oskolkov, 2021). Thus, A. Wimmer et al. (2009) indicate that 57 of the 60 considered separatist conflicts in the world were of an ethnocultural nature. F. Popov (2012), like many Western researchers, calls them pseudo-ethnic, believing that the causes of separatism lie in the conflict of identities. Their markers are very different. In many Russian geographical studies on separatism, the center–periphery model is used to analyze conflicts between the dominant identity, the culture of the “center” and the periphery opposing it. (D. Zayats’ “separatism centers,” R. Turovsky’s “areas of conflicts,” and F. Popov’s “proliferation zones of separatism”).

Next hallmark of Russian studies of separatism (Popov, 2012; Turov, 2021) is attention to its diffusion, based on the hypothesis that the success of a separatist movement in one territory prompts that similar demands be made in another. Such a domino effect was observed during the collapse of the USSR, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia in the 1980s–1990s. Britain’s exit from the EU, which can be seen as a form of separatism, has intensified “Eurosceptic” sentiments in other EU countries, such as Hungary, France, and Poland.

Separatism is closely related to growth in the number, total area, and population of uncontrolled territories. Dozens of states in the world have not fully controlled their territory for many years. Power over vast regions is wielded by the leaders of partisan movements, warlords, drug lords, and local leaders. The de facto secession most affected vast areas of problematic statehood in Asia and Africa, which are home to about 45 mln and 138 mln people, respectively. An adequate assessment of this phenomenon, which has become an integral feature of the political map of the world, can only be given if a rigorous definition of the concept of “control over a territory” is worked out. Like state sovereignty, this concept is “divisible.” For various reasons, it is proposed to distinguish several kinds of control. They differ in type (power, political, ideological, economic), temporal (permanent, temporary, including seasonal, daily) and territorial pattern (solid, focal, network). The types of territories not controlled by legitimate governments have been identified. In stateless zones, the mother state is unwilling or unable to exercise control, and neither the state nor the rebels perform most state functions. Rebel states are territories over which opposition forces exercise continuous or patchy control and where rebel authorities perform some state functions. Lastly, unrecognized republics, or de facto states, possess all or most of the attributes of a state and rely on high internal sovereignty (Kolosov et al., 2021; Sebentsov and Kolosov 2012).

There is no generally accepted terminology in studies of uncontrolled territories (Popov, 2011), and there is no consensus on the number of unrecognized states. However, most authors include six states in the former USSR (Dembinska and Campana, 2017; Popov, 2015; Zayats, 2020): Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh, and in recent years, the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. Russia is deeply involved in the conflicts around these states; four of them are its immediate neighbors. Naturally, factors of their viability, correlation and dynamics of internal and external sovereignty attract considerable attention of Russian scholars, primarily political scientists and geographers.

There has been growing foreign interest also in the fate of the unrecognized (partially recognized) states in the post-Soviet space. Interesting reviews of their studies are contained in papers by S. Pegg (2017) and M. Dembinska and A. Campana (2017). In the 2010s, foreign publications have increasingly gone beyond long-established topics: the role of unrecognized republics in international relations, the negotiation process, and possible ways to resolve conflicts. The problems and features of state building, the consequences and benefits of the lack of international legitimacy, the state of the economy, and political life are highlighted. The unrecognized states are no longer regarded as Russian puppets, but as independent polities. Russian authors have focused on these topics from the very beginning, considering conflicts between the unrecognized republics and their mother states as multidimensional phenomena associated with events not only during the collapse of the Soviet Union, but also in the much more distant past: internal differences, complex composition, the formation and identity of the population, and influence on the neighboring regions of Russia and other countries. In the foreground, therefore, are the factors of internal sovereignty: the ability of the state to retain population, providing it with jobs, a decent income level, and public services as the most important criterion for the legitimacy of political regimes in power and the success of claims for independence (Bratersky et al., 2021; Kazantsev et al., 2020; Markedonov 2015; Tokarev et al., 2020; Kolosov and Crivenco, 2021 Yagya and Antonova, 2020).

John O’Loughlin (2018) bittrely pointed that, unlike most other branches of geography, fieldwork is not used as much in political geography. Studies of post-Soviet unrecognized states compare favorably with this. Polls in breakaway regions, in most cases the first after declaration of de facto independence, analyzed jointly with “objective” indicators (population and its composition dynamics, the state of the economy, etc.), made it possible to determine the degree of their internal sovereignty in accordance with modern ideas about its “divisibility.” The trust of various ethnic and social groups in political regimes, their assessment of the prospects of their republic, their attitudes towards Russia and other leading world political actors, and their opinions on ways to resolve conflicts have been explained. According to statistical models, in the multinational republics of Transnistria and Abkhazia, ethnicity was the main predictor of citizens’ sentiments (see, for instance, O’Loughlin et al., 2015).

The role of iconography (J. Gottmann’s concept) in strengthening or building a common identity of the unrecognized post-Soviet republics and their mother states was studied through the example of symbolic figures: outstanding political leaders and figures of culture and art from different countries and eras, whom the respondents admired. It turned out that the set of such figures among Russians and Ukrainians of Transnistria and Moldova have almost nothing in common, which reflects both the influence of the media on mass consciousness and differences in socialization (O’Loughlin and Kolosov, 2017). The functions and regimes of the borders of unrecognized states, including during the pandemic (Brazhalovich et al., 2017; Galkina and Popov, 2016; Golunov, 2021; Kolosov and Zotova, 2021a), as well as the tourism industry, which occupies a prominent place in the economy of some of them, have also been examined (Golunov and Zotova, 2021), etc.

CONCLUSIONS

Russian political geography and geopolitics preserved the pluralism of approaches inherited from the 1990s. Using the typology of A. Elatskov, we can say that all three “levels” of geopolitical thought are represented in Russian literature: “ordinary,” stereotyped and highly ideological, “applied,” and “conceptual.” Neoclassical concepts still occupy a central place, but critical geopolitics has also gained prominence, and there have been relatively more “conceptual” studies. In publications on geopolitics, studies carried out by geographers occupy a modest place due to the comparatively small size of the geographical community, but at the same time, they are very visible and cited frequently.

Geopolitical and political–geographical research is characterized by a high ability to respond quickly to sometimes kaleidoscopically changing challenges, new urgent problems, and the demands of political practice. An example is the response of the geographical community to the coronavirus pandemic and analysis of measures taken to combat it in Russia and abroad, the emergence of the Greater Eurasia concept, or shifts in border studies to studying security issues and reflecting the desire to preserve the positive experience of cross-border cooperation between Russian, European, and other partners in a deteriorating environment.

Russian political geography and, to a much lesser extent, geopolitics are developing on the basis of a wide range of concepts known in the world literature, and sometimes creatively reworking these concepts in accordance with Russian specifics and national interests understood differently by supporters of distinct ideological trends. It is often impossible to distinguish between the studies on geopolitics and political geography carried out by scholars from different countries and disciplines: geography, political science, sociology, etc. Deeper integration into the global process of accumulating scientific knowledge has become possible due to the sharp increase in the mobility of researchers (at least before the pandemic), their participation in the activities of the International Geographical Union and other associations, and involvement in joint projects.

The study was carried out within the state task of the Institute of Geography RAS no. AAAA-A19-119022190170-1 (FMGE-2019-0008).

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Contributor Information

V. A. Kolosov, Email: ur.sargi@vosolok .

M. V. Zotova, Email: ur.sargi@avotoz .

N. L. Turov, Email: ur.sargi@vorut .

Frontiers in Political Science
Comparative Governance
Research Topics

Decoding the Indo-Pacific: The Region, Issues and Challenges

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About this Research Topic

Regions in world politics have attracted a vast amount of scholarly attention for their geopolitical, economic, cultural, and strategic significance. The Indo-Pacific region, a pivotal arena for global geopolitics, serves as a dynamic nexus where strategic interests, economic ambitions, and environmental challenges intersect. The region represents a vast and diverse geospatial expanse, including a variety of actors, processes, and institutions emerging in the region. Home to two-thirds of the world's economic production and 60% of the world's population, and a preferred source and destination of global FDI, the region is a crucial part of the major and vital global supply chains. The region's crucial sea lanes, essential for global trade and energy security, increase its significance. Additionally, the region has complex and intertwined historical legacies, with diverse cultures, religions, ethnicities, social norms, and values shaping interactions and perceptions. Technology and innovation play a crucial role in shaping the future of the Indo-Pacific. Advancements in areas such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and space exploration offer immense opportunities for economic growth and development. While the terminology and dimensions of the region open it up for larger cooperation, simultaneously challenges abound. While territorial disputes, maritime tensions, strategic competition, regional stability, and a delicate balance of power are some of the geopolitical security concerns, there are also non-traditional threats like disaster management (most recently, COVID-19), climate change, pollution, natural resource depletion, resilience of global supply chains, regional connectivity issues, terrorism, piracy, and cyber security. There are ethical and security challenges, including concerns over data privacy, technological dominance, and the militarization of outer space. The complex political economy and the push for global governance further complicate regional dynamics. This backdrop sets the stage for examining the expansion of the region's scope, the unraveling of intricate processes, and the exploration of emerging institutional frameworks aimed at fostering regional cooperation and competition. Decoding the Indo-Pacific involves delving into its multifaceted dimensions and exploring the myriad issues and challenges of this region. The overarching goal of this research is to dissect the intricate landscape of the Indo-Pacific region, characterized by its burgeoning security concerns, governance challenges, and strategic competitions amidst environmental vulnerabilities. This endeavor seeks to navigate the confluence of traditional and non-traditional security threats, geopolitical frictions, and economic interdependencies that collectively influence regional and global stability. By employing a multidisciplinary approach, our objective is to unravel the complexities of the Indo-Pacific, emphasizing the synergy and contention among regional actors, processes, and institutional frameworks. The research aims to offer nuanced insights into the dynamics of cooperation and competition within this primarily maritime expanse, highlighting the potential for regional collaboration to foster stability and prosperity. Contributions are expected to be original, exploring niche areas of expertise within the geopolitical, economic, environmental, cultural, and technological spheres of the Indo-Pacific, requiring a comprehensive analysis of the region's multifaceted dimensions. The initiative aspires to guide policy formulation, promote sustainable development, and enhance resilience, ultimately contributing to a cohesive strategy for addressing shared challenges and advancing global peace and prosperity. The scope of the theme, ' Decoding the Indo-Pacific: The Region, Issues, and Challenges,' encompasses a broad spectrum of subthemes—geopolitics, security, political economy, environmental issues, technological innovations and advancements, diverse cultural and social fabric, emerging institutional mechanisms—to understand the contemporary dynamics of the Indo-Pacific region. Thus, we invite contributions that explore traditional and non-traditional security challenges, including maritime security, cyber threats, and terrorism, alongside strategic competition among major powers. Analyses on the governance of global commons, regional connectivity, and the political economy are particularly welcome, as are insights into the impacts of climate change on regional stability.We encourage submissions that examine the prospects for regional alliances and cooperation, the role of emerging institutional mechanisms, and the geopolitical and economic competition shaping the region's future. Contributions may also delve into the expansion of the region's scope, unraveling the roles of diverse actors, processes, and issues at play. We are interested in receiving a variety of original research articles. Authors are encouraged to adopt interdisciplinary approaches that combine insights from international relations, political science, economics, environmental studies, and security studies to enrich the discourse on the Indo-Pacific region.

Keywords : Indo-Pacific, diverse players, geopolitics, security, traditional security, non-traditional security, regional cooperation, institutional processes, institutional mechanisms, issues, challenges

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6 facts about americans and tiktok.

A photo of TikTok in the Apple App store. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Increasing shares of U.S. adults are turning to the short-form video sharing platform TikTok in general and for news .

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to better understand Americans’ use and perceptions of TikTok. The data for this analysis comes from several Center surveys conducted in 2023.

More information about the surveys and their methodologies, including the sample sizes and field dates, can be found at the links in the text.

Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. This is the latest analysis in Pew Research Center’s ongoing investigation of the state of news, information and journalism in the digital age, a research program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

This analysis draws from several Pew Research Center reports on Americans’ use of and attitudes about social media, based on surveys conducted in 2023. For more information, read:

Americans’ Social Media Use

How u.s. adults use tiktok.

Social Media and News Fact Sheet
Teens, Social Media and Technology 2023

At the same time, some Americans have concerns about the Chinese-owned platform’s approach to data privacy and its potential impact on national security. Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a bill that, if passed in the Senate and signed into law, would restrict TikTok’s ability to operate in the United States.

Here are six key facts about Americans and TikTok, drawn from Pew Research Center surveys.

A third of U.S. adults – including a majority of adults under 30 – use TikTok. Around six-in-ten U.S. adults under 30 (62%) say they use TikTok, compared with 39% of those ages 30 to 49, 24% of those 50 to 64, and 10% of those 65 and older.

In a 2023 Center survey , TikTok stood out from other platforms we asked about for the rapid growth of its user base. Just two years earlier, 21% of U.S. adults used the platform.

A bar chart showing that a majority of U.S. adults under 30 say they use TikTok.

A majority of U.S. teens use TikTok. About six-in-ten teens ages 13 to 17 (63%) say they use the platform. More than half of teens (58%) use it daily, including 17% who say they’re on it “almost constantly.”

A higher share of teen girls than teen boys say they use TikTok almost constantly (22% vs. 12%). Hispanic teens also stand out: Around a third (32%) say they’re on TikTok almost constantly, compared with 20% of Black teens and 10% of White teens.

In fall 2023, support for a U.S. TikTok ban had declined. Around four-in-ten Americans (38%) said that they would support the U.S. government banning TikTok, down from 50% in March 2023. A slightly smaller share (27%) said they would oppose a ban, while 35% were not sure. This question was asked before the House of Representatives passed the bill that could ban the app.

Republicans and Republican-leaning independents were far more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners to support a TikTok ban (50% vs. 29%), but support had declined across both parties since earlier in the year.

Adults under 30 were less likely to support a ban than their older counterparts. About three-in-ten adults under 30 (29%) supported a ban, compared with 36% of those ages 30 to 49, 39% of those ages 50 to 64, and 49% of those ages 65 and older.

In a separate fall 2023 survey, only 18% of U.S. teens said they supported a ban.

A line chart showing that support for a U.S. TikTok ban has dropped since March 2023.

A relatively small share of users produce most of TikTok’s content. About half of U.S. adult TikTok users (52%) have ever posted a video on the platform. In fact, of all the TikTok content posted by American adults, 98% of publicly accessible videos come from the most active 25% of users .

Those who have posted TikTok content are more active on the site overall. These users follow more accounts, have more followers and are more likely to have filled out an account bio.

Although younger U.S. adults are more likely to use TikTok, their posting behaviors don’t look much different from those of older age groups.

A chart showing that The most active 25% of U.S. adult TikTok users produce 98% of public content

About four-in-ten U.S. TikTok users (43%) say they regularly get news there. While news consumption on other social media sites has declined or remained stagnant in recent years, the share of U.S. TikTok users who get news on the site has doubled since 2020, when 22% got news there.

Related: Social Media and News Fact Sheet

TikTok news consumers are especially likely to be:

Young. The vast majority of U.S. adults who regularly get news on TikTok are under 50: 44% are ages 18 to 29 and 38% are 30 to 49. Just 4% of TikTok news consumers are ages 65 and older.
Women. A majority of regular TikTok news consumers in the U.S. are women (58%), while 39% are men. These gender differences are similar to those among news consumers on Instagram and Facebook.
Democrats. Six-in-ten regular news consumers on TikTok are Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents, while a third are Republicans or GOP leaners.
Hispanic or Black. Three-in-ten regular TikTok news users in the U.S. are Hispanic, while 19% are Black. Both shares are higher than these groups’ share of the adult population. Around four-in-ten (39%) TikTok news consumers are White, although this group makes up 59% of U.S. adults overall .

Charts that show the share of TikTok users who regularly get news there has nearly doubled since 2020.

A majority of Americans (59%) see TikTok as a major or minor threat to U.S. national security, including 29% who see the app as a major threat. Our May 2023 survey also found that opinions vary across several groups:

About four-in-ten Republicans (41%) see TikTok as a major threat to national security, compared with 19% of Democrats.
Older adults are more likely to see TikTok as a major threat: 46% of Americans ages 65 and older say this, compared with 13% of those ages 18 to 29.
U.S. adults who do not use TikTok are far more likely than TikTok users to believe TikTok is a major threat (36% vs. 9%).

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Geopolitics and Political Geography in Russia: Global Context and National Characteristics

RUSSIAN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY OF THE EARLY 21st CENTURY: STUDYING NEW PROCESSES AND USING NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Published: 25 June 2022
Volume 12 , pages 80–95, ( 2022 )

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V. A. Kolosov 1 ,
M. V. Zotova 1 &
N. L. Turov 1

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The Issues of Changing Geopolitical Challenges—The Case of Poland

Twenty-five years of progress in geopolitics research: Efforts from China’s geographers

Debin Du, Dezhong Duan, … Yahua Ma

Geoeconomics in a Changing Global Order

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INTRODUCTION

GEOPOLITICS: THE BOOM CONTINUES

PIVOT TO THE EAST AND THE GREATER EURASIA CONCEPT

BORDER STUDIES: CHALLENGES OF RUSSIA’S MULTINEIGHBOR POSITION

REGIONALIZATION AT DIFFERENT SPATIAL LEVELS

SEPARATISM, TERRITORIAL CONFLICTS, AND PROBLEMS OF UNRECOGNIZED STATES

CONCLUSIONS

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The study was carried out within the state task of the Institute of Geography RAS no. AAAA-A19-119022190170-1 (FMGE-2019-0008).

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Kolosov, V.A., Zotova, M.V. & Turov, N.L. Geopolitics and Political Geography in Russia: Global Context and National Characteristics. Reg. Res. Russ. 12 , 80–95 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079970522020046

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Received : 12 December 2021

Revised : 15 January 2022

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Published : 25 June 2022

Issue Date : March 2022

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079970522020046

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New research offers insight into the future understanding of MS and its treatments

The test that was developed using an existing diagnostic procedure as its basis and has the potential to be applied in clinical trials that target the Epstein Barr Virus

A team of research scientists at Trinity College Dublin have developed a new and unique blood test to measure the immune response to the Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) which is the leading risk factor for developing multiple sclerosis (MS). Their findings are published in the journal Neurology Neuroimmunology and Neuroinflammation and have implications for future basic research in further understanding the biology of EBV in MS, but also has the potential to be applied in clinical trials that target the virus.

MS is a chronic neurological disease with no known cure. It affects approximately three million people worldwide and is the second leading cause of disability in young adults. There is a pressing need for better treatments.

A range of viruses relating to MS have been studied in the past but none have had such compelling evidence as EBV. The question the team considered was why do some people have known MS have a rogue immune response to EBV, a common viral infection that is generally asymptomatic?

To answer this, scientists measured the cellular response of MS patients to EBNA-1, a part of the EBV that can mimic the myelin coating of nerves which are the principal site of attack of the immune system in MS. The team found that the immune response is higher to EBNA-1 in people with MS compared to those with epilepsy, or the healthy control group. The team also showed that this cellular response is impacted by currently approved medications for MS which target the immune system, but not the virus. The immune response to EBNA-1 was found to be lower in people who are taking B cell depleting medications compared to people with MS not taking medication and the level recorded was equivalent to healthy controls.

B cell depleting medications are effective for reducing MS disease activity. It is not known however, how exactly they work. Many people believe that reducing B cells reduces EBV levels, as EBV can lie dormant within B cells. The scientists do not prove this theory, but do show that the immune response to EBV in MS is equal to healthy controls when these medications are used. The team believe that this supports the need for more selective reduction in EBV rather than targeting all B cells. This is of importance as B cells play an important role in fighting infection and an unselective approach can lead to unwanted side effects.

The Trinity researchers are the first team of scientists to capture the immune response to EBNA-1 using whole blood samples carried out exclusively with equipment that is used in the hospital laboratory day to day. This builds on previous research that used extensive pre-processing in research laboratories. We believe this is of importance as it shows the ability for the test to be run elsewhere and at scale without a need for new equipment or personnel.

This research is important because a standard blood test that was processed in a hospital laboratory provides important information on the immune system's response to EBNA-1. This response appears to be at the heart of the pathogenesis of MS. The ability to measure this in a scalable test, that was developed using an existing diagnostic test as its basis, has implications for future basic research in further understanding the biology of EBV in MS. But the test also has the potential to be applied in clinical trials that target the virus. This would mean that there is the potential to directly measure the immune response to any potential antiviral treatments, rather than measuring MS outcome measures alone.

Speaking on the potential benefits of this research, Dr Hugh Kearney, Neurologist, School of Medicine, Trinity College and lead author said:

"In the short term the benefit of this research is likely to be for the research community in MS. We believe the approach adopted in this test that uses whole blood samples on a robust hospital-based platform will facilitate adoption in other centres and also replication of the results with a view towards validation. In the medium term, if validated, then this would be of benefit to researchers involved in clinical trials in MS. Long term benefits will be for people with MS, who live with a chronic neurological illness as new treatments tested in clinical trials have the potential to reduce the burden of this potentially disabling disease.

The next step for our team is to develop a longitudinal study. We aim to do this by recruiting newly diagnosed people with MS and measuring this blood test before treatment has started and then repeating the blood test at an interval to show that B cell depletion directly impacts on the cellular response to EBNA-1 in MS."

Immune System
Medical Topics
Multiple Sclerosis
Alzheimer's
Developmental Biology
Epstein-Barr virus
Infectious mononucleosis
Natural killer cell
West Nile virus

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Materials provided by Trinity College Dublin . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

Lara Dungan, Jean Dunne, Michael Savio, Marianna Kalaszi, Matt McElheron, Yvonne Lynagh, Kate O'Driscoll, Carmel Roche, Ammara Qureshi, Brendan Crowley, Niall Conlon, Hugh Kearney. Disease-Modifying Treatments for Multiple Sclerosis Affect Measures of Cellular Immune Responses to EBNA-1 Peptides . Neurology Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation , 2024; 11 (3) DOI: 10.1212/NXI.0000000000200217

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