Course Catalogue

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This course outlines the main issues and processes in the political economy of post-Soviet Eurasia. It intends to provide students with a detailed snapshot of the principal economic trends that characterised the foreign economic relations in the former Soviet space.

One 2 hour class per week

This course may not be running this year. For further information please check the CEES Moodle page or contact the subject directly.

Mandatory entry requirements

Entry to CEES Honours normally requires a grade point average of 12 (Grade C) over CEES 2A and CEES 2B as a first attempt.

None

■ A 2500 - 3000 words essay (50 %) (Students will be provided with essay questions during the subject's opening seminar)

■ An unseen written exam (50 %) 

This course aims to provide students with an advanced introduction to the political economy of post-Soviet Eurasia, intended here as the ensemble of the former Soviet republics located in the Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia), Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan), and the Russian Federation.

The course is articulated around the analysis of a series of specific issues and processes, holding, in this sense, a strongly comparative approach. To provide students with an accurate description of the specific politico-economic settings of post-Soviet Eurasia, the two opening seminars relate post-1992 economic transitions to the economic system that governed the region in Soviet times.

The course's module 1 (Seminars 3-6) outlines four critical processes that shaped the Eurasian economic landscape in the post-Soviet era. Specifically, students' attention will be directed to the implementation of independent macro-economic policies in the states in question, the establishment of commercial linkages in Eurasia, the region's attempts at economic integration, and the individual/concerted responses to the different crises that hit post-Soviet Eurasia in 1998 and, more recently, 2008-09.

In turn, module 2 (Seminars 7-10) looks at four critical issues (capital, foreign direct investment, resources, migration and remittances) that are currently defining the political economy strategies devised by the states part of the Eurasian region and affecting the economic development of the wider population.

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

■ demonstrate coherent knowledge of the most salient features in the economic landscape of post-Soviet Eurasia;

■ identify the principal connections between post-Soviet economic developments and the region's economic configuration as consolidated in the pre-independence era;

■ critically evaluate the different state approaches to post-Soviet economic transformation;

■ identify with clarity the key interactive patterns through which the region's main power (the Russian Federation) shaped the economic relations in the former Soviet space; and

■ elaborate the knowledge acquired during the course in coherent, well-structured and sophisticated written essays and oral presentations.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.