After the collapse of the Soviet Union a geopolitical boom overtook new Russia. Discussions touched upon questions such as Russia?s position and role in the world, for example, whether Russia was part of the 'Wes'/Europe, or the 'East'/Asia, or something unique, Eurasia. There were also debates on with whom Russia should have cooperated, who its partners were, and who its adversaries. New Russia was compared both with the pre-revolutionary Russian Empire and the Soviet Russia.

In the course "Geopolitics in Contemporary Russia" we will focus on how different (political) actors in Russia in the 1990s and 2000s have

1) understood the position and role of Russia in the world,
2) defined the concept of geopolitics.

The approach of the course is that we can study geopolitics from the texts in which Russian actors construct Russia?s place in the world in relation to other actors. Geopolitics can thus be understood as arguments, stories or discourses built by these actors.

Lectures will be based on analyses of the texts produced by the political leadership of Russia, political parties and scholars/teachers. The texts that they have produced include official documents and programmes, speeches, interviews, university textbooks and lectures. As an introduction we will also touch upon the history of geopolitics as a field of study in the 'West'.

The course "Geopolitics in Contemporary Russia" will consist of two parts: lectures and seminars. There will be eight lectures (16 hours). Those who will attend the lectures only will write a lecture diary as their assessment (2 ECTS). After the lectures students may continue participating in the seminars, which will elaborate the themes of the lectures. In addition, each student participating in the seminar will write an essay on the topic of the course, that is, on geopolitics and/or Russian politics. Essays will be discussed and commented during the seminar (altogether four seminars = 8 hours). The maximum number of students in the seminar is 10. Those having Political Science or IR as their major and having already completed most of the intermediate studies will be given preference. Participating in the seminars and writing an essay will give an extra 3 ECTS.

Compensations:

Political Science
VALTA7, 2-5 cr or VALTS2f, 2-5 cr  or VALTS2g, 2-5 cr

or

International Relations
KVPOA2, 2-5 cr or KVPOA6, 2-5 cr or KVPOS3, 2-5 cr.