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Global programmes (GPs) are crucial actors in transnational policy transfer but understudied in literature. The paper explores GP policy transfer in terms of instruments, space, and time from a comparative perspective. Employing a thematic analysis of policy/programme files and using the GP to prevent gender-biased sex selection as a case study, the paper compares implementation across diverse countries and regions. It finds similar policies and ideas are transferred, across scales, sectors, and actors throughout the policy cycle. Yet short programme cycles contradict longer timeframes needed to assess sex-selection policies and interventions to change social norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NEW AND DISTINCT CERAMIC TYPES emerged from the cultural centres of the Islamic Caliphate in Western Asia beginning in the eighth century AD. Islamic potters carefully added colour, glaze, and finishes to their vessels, which became luxury items throughout the Caliphate. People within the sphere of influence of the Islamic Caliphate slowly adopted objects, such as unique styles of glazed pottery, which symbolised status and power. The Byzantine Empire and Islamic Caliphate both influenced the material culture of the Southern Caucasus, which ebbed and flowed between them both. In particular, the emerging Caucasian polities in medieval Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan began to produce splashed sgraffito ceramics in the 9th and 10th centuries AD that were very similar to those created by Islamic potters in centres such as Baghdad, Samarra, and Nishapur. Scholars have explained such changes in Caucasian consumption patterns as the result of influence and trade between the Islamic Empire and the Caucasus; however, they have not considered the cultural implications of such a change. My paper discusses how Caucasian elites and eventually even the peasantry used splashed sgraffito to construct their individual and group identities. I examine three sites from the Caucasus where local potters produced and used splashed sgraffito ceramics. I assess Ani in Armenia, Shamkir in Azerbaijan, and Tbilisi in Georgia. My analysis suggests that ceramics played a larger role in the construction of political and individual identity at a time when independent kingdoms were emerging in the Caucasus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea for this collection of papers emerged from a desire to showcase queer scholarship in and on the region, following a panel discussion about the visibility of queer communities in the post-Soviet space at the ASEEES virtual convention in December 2021. The panellists' discussions highlighted the ongoing challenges of queer knowledge production and the tendency for scholarship produced by and on queer people in the region to be regarded as either 'anomalous' and/or 'exotic' and therefore treated as marginal. The contributions here challenge the latter argument by demonstrating that there are lessons to be learned from the experiences of queer people in the Caucasus and Central Asia. In this introduction, the guest editors explore the dominant themes that emerged from the articles in this issue. They also reflect on the politics of representation, reflexivity and research, and how they have sought to engage with them in editing this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sb was frequently used as a raw material, both in ancient glass-making (as an opacifier and decolouriser) and metallurgy (either as an alloying element or as a pure metal). Despite this ubiquity, antimony production has only occasionally been studied and questions concerning its provenance are still not satisfactorily answered. This study evaluates the suitability of Sb isotope analysis for provenance determination purposes, as experiments under lab conditions have revealed fractionation occurring during redox processes in oxidising stibnites and in making opacified glasses. The results of this paper help to evaluate the possible influence of the pyrotechnological processes on the antimony isotope composition of glass artefacts. This paper focuses on the Caucasus as case study by applying mineralogical, geochemical and isotopic analysis to Georgian ores (mainly from the Racha-Lechkumi district) and Late Bronze Age (LBA; 15th–10th century BCE) metallic Sb objects found at the sites of Brili and Chalpiragorebi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sb was frequently used as a raw material, both in ancient glass-making (as an opacifier and decolouriser) and metallurgy (either as an alloying element or as a pure metal). Despite this ubiquity, antimony production has only occasionally been studied and questions concerning its provenance are still not satisfactorily answered. This study evaluates the suitability of Sb isotope analysis for provenance determination purposes, as experiments under lab conditions have revealed fractionation occurring during redox processes in oxidising stibnites and in making opacified glasses. The results of this paper help to evaluate the possible influence of the pyrotechnological processes on the antimony isotope composition of glass artefacts. This paper focuses on the Caucasus as case study by applying mineralogical, geochemical and isotopic analysis to Georgian ores (mainly from the Racha-Lechkumi district) and Late Bronze Age (LBA; 15th–10th century BCE) metallic Sb objects found at the sites of Brili and Chalpiragorebi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores disappearing vernacular architecture in the Karachay region (Karachay-Cherkessk Republic, Russian Federation). Recent research at the University of West Bohemia in cooperation with Karachay-Cherkessk University focused on the last preserved examples of block buildings in the mountain villages of Greater Karachay in the central Caucasus. Such buildings mostly disappeared in the late twentieth century due to both the Stalinist deportation of the Karachay people and modern development. Dendrochronological evidence has helped to date the surviving vernacular buildings to the late eighteenth to early twentieth centuries. Interviews with local inhabitants revealed the cultural context of the traditional housing and attitudes towards it. Possibilities for tracing cultural links and elucidating the historical context of this neglected building culture are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before the late eighth century, with a few exceptions (epigraphy, the languages of the Caucasus and the North-Western Isles), little had been written in Europe in languages other than Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The long ninth century saw this monopoly of the 'three sacred languages' shaken and challenged: several vernacular languages (Celtic, Germanic and Slavonic, but also, if to a lesser extent, Romance) appeared in writing for the first time and others developed in significant ways. This paper, introducing this special issue on Vernacular Languages in the Long Ninth Century, starts with an assessment of the linguistic situation of Europe before the changes began; it goes on with a summary of the main developments known to have taken place in the long ninth century; it then addresses their possible connections and observable entanglements and identifies the conditions that allowed the emergence and the sustained flourishing of written vernaculars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the growth of the Muslim press in Russia, its consolidation, and its survival during the Soviet Period, followed by its revival in the early 1990s. Although by no means comprehensive in scope, it is a necessary step in beginning to shed light on this under-researched topic. These unique publishing cultures represent outlets for freedom of expression, even in controlled cultural spaces, and document the intellectual protest among Muslim communities in Russia. Understanding the contributions of various Muslim publishing centres is critical to gaining a broader view of Russian and Soviet Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many developing countries are constantly seeking to reform their public services as part of a wider agenda which supports moves to a market economy and better governance arrangements. Some have embraced public management reforms as the template for their activities with limited success. This paper considers existing research on the impact of public sector reform in developing countries and offers an alternative approach, through case studies of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan, based on two keys elements: an agenda which attempts to shift developing countries to an outcomes based accountability approach operationalized through a "quality of life" framework; and, peer‐to‐peer learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A spatial analysis of the geography of insurgency in the North Caucasus of Russia from 1999 through the end of 2016, focused on the period since 2010, corroborates other work on the incidence of violence in the region. A sharp drop in the absolute number of conflict events over the past half-decade occurred as violence diffused from Chechnya in the mid-2000s and is attributable to a range of domestic and international factors. Domestically, the decline is broadly linked to the securitization of the region around the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the return to the use of the Kremlin power vertical as a system of political management after an interlude focused on economic development as a mitigation strategy, and the wider adoption of harsh management tactics at the regional and republic scales. Internationally, potential insurgents have left Russia to fight in the Middle East and Ukraine. Using a conflict-event data-set (N = 18,960) from August 1999 through the end of 2016 and focusing on the period since the creation of the North Caucasus Federal District in January 2010, the paper identifies a set of notable trends within the decline and shift in violence. Key findings include a percentage increase in arrests carried out by Russian security services, a decline in retaliation across conflict actors, and the failure of federal subsidies to contribute to declines in violence in the region. The long-term prospects for continued insurgency in the North Caucasus, specifically in light of the collapse of the Islamic State and Russia’s domestic challenges, remain uncertain and should acknowledge the recent decline in violence in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the role of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) to social policy development particularly in Central Asia and Caucasus. PRSP, approved by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, is designed as a framework document for concessional lending to countries with low income. It includes an analytical framework focused on macroeconomic, structural, sectoral as well as social considerations. Specifically, PRSP features a set of poverty reduction measures and policies within an initial three-year time frame. It also discusses the four core principles used for the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF), another instrument by World Bank. Details about the PRS process and social policy and their implementation in both countries are also presented.

There is growing recognition that diversity and representation matter to the intellectual health of fields and disciplines. This article takes stock of knowledge production on the Caucasus region, paying particular attention to the question of who has "voice" in academic debates on the North and South Caucasus. Through analysis of publications in, and the editorial boards of, "leading" International Relations (IR) and Area Studies journals, we examine the biographies of scholars, the topics covered, and citation levels. We demonstrate the marginality of the Caucasus within IR and limited representation for scholars educated and employed in the region within Area Studies, as well as distinct differences according to background in the topics covered. This research provides a foundation for further exploring disciplinary inequalities and their consequences in relation to the Caucasus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a systematic revision and a molecular phylogenetic analysis of the Caucasian land snail genusFruticocampylaea. The genus is newly delimited based on the reduction of the cavities adjoining the seminal duct in the penial papilla. Shell and genitalia of all five species (F. narzanensis,F. kobensis,F. tusheticasp. nov.,F. christophori,F. daghestana) are described and figures provided. All synonyms and all locality records are listed. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences (fragments ofcox1, 16S rDNA, ITS2 and 28S rDNA) confirm the monophyly ofFruticocampylaea. The reduction of the dart apparatus and the conical plug, via which the dart apparatus inserts into the vagina, as well as the molecular phylogenetic analyses, suggests a sister group relationship betweenFruticocampylaeaandCircassina(withoutAbchasohela). Furthermore, the molecular phylogenetic analyses indicate that theFruticocampylaeaspecies originated in a rapid radiation. The uplift of the Greater Caucasus in the Late Miocene or Pliocene or climatic changes at the end of the Pliocene or in the early Pleistocene may have caused the radiation ofFruticocampylaea. Low intraspecific variability can be explained by population bottlenecks during Pleistocene glacial periods followed by postglacial population increase. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:AB15158D-21A3-4945-8D49-F7DE8E406E2B [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The perception of Central Asia and its place in the world has come to be shaped by its large oil and gas reserves. Literature on energy in the region has thus largely focused on related geopolitical issues and national policies. However, little is known about citizens’ needs within this broader context of commodities that connect the energy networks of China, Russia and the West. This multidisciplinary special issue brings together anthropologists, economists, geographers and political scientists to examine the role of all forms of energy (here: oil, gas, hydropower and solar power) and their products (especially electricity) in people's daily lives throughout Central Asia and the Caucasus. The papers in this issue ask how energy is understood as an everyday resource, as a necessity and a source of opportunity, a challenge or even as an indicator of exclusionary practices. We enquire into the role and views of energy sector workers, rural consumers and urban communities, and their experiences of energy companies’ and national policies. We further examine the legacy of Soviet and more recent domestic energy policies, the environmental of energy use as well as the political impact of citizens’ energy grievances. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Chechen Conflict is the most fatal and protracted conflict in the post-Soviet space. While it is the most discussed conflict there, it is also the least understood. Many contradicting accounts of it exist, and still many questions remain unanswered. One reason is that the nature of this conflict has changed over time. Unlike what many - particularly Western - analysts think, it is not a religious conflict. It began as an ethno-nationalist separatist conflict but only later was it infiltrated by extremist Salafis/Wahhabis. At this moment a war is going on between the local Chechen and the central Russian governments against the Salafi/Wahhabi Emirate of the Caucasus. Chechnya is the only autonomous region in Russia in which a separatist movement had been successful. The possible reasons are the peculiarities of the Caucasus; especially its mosaic type of ethnogeographic configuration and the traumatic past of many of its peoples. Another important factor in the explanation of such a separatist conflict in Chechnya - and nowhere else in the North Caucasus - is the fact that only in Chechnya has a titular minority enjoyed a dominant demographic position. This paper also discusses issues such as the nature of Islam in Chechnya and the Russian geopolitical codes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We recorded the following parasitic macronyssid mite species (Mesostigmata: Gamasina: Macronyssidae) from Northern Caucasus: Macronyssus leislerianus associated with the Leisler's bat Nyctalus leisleri (this mite species was known previously from a single record from Germany); Macronyssus diversipilis from Myotis tschuliensis (the southernmost locality for this mite species and a new host record); Steatonyssus noctulus from the common noctule Nyctalus noctula; and Cryptonyssus flexus from the Nathusius' pipistrelle Pipistrellus nathusii (new host record). We give diagnostic illustrations, measurements of the above mites and key to females of the genus Macronyssus of Russia and adjacent countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper details the characterization of 48 obsidian artifacts from Ein el-Jarba, an Early Chalcolithic site of the southern Levantine Wadi Rabah culture (6th millennium cal b.c.). By melding sourcing data from energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy with the artifacts' techno-typological specifics, we contrast Ein el-Jarba's obsidian consumption practices with those of broadly contemporary and earlier communities in the context of the period's emergent transregional character. The results attest to a major reconfiguration of long-term traditions, with well-known Cappadocian and Lake Van region source materials now supplemented by obsidian from the Caucasus, such material's most southerly distribution. These diverse resources are believed to have circulated within the same exchange networks, mediated by communities of the Halaf culture to the north. Most of Ein el-Jarba's obsidian was in the form of pressure blades from a common technical tradition, the implements likely procured ready-made from the well-connected site of Hagoshrim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue introduces new research on informal markets and trade in Central Asia and the Caucasus. The research presented here was conducted in Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as Beijing, Guangzhou, Yiwu and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. The following eight articles illustrate how informal markets and trade in Central Asia and the Caucasus provided spaces for people across the region to negotiate state and society in the last three decades; the articles also suggest that informality should be seen as constitutive of a normative order for polities in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Informal markets and trade in Central Asia rest on three factors: the inability of the state to measure commercial transactions; markets and trade becoming places from which citizens built personalized networks that required individualized networking and oral agreements based on social relations, particularly trust; and markets being embedded within states in which clientelism frequently thrives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a new record for the Caucasus and Georgian fauna,Cenopalpus(Cenopalpoides)wainsteiniLivschitz & Mitrofanov, 1967, is reported from three new host plants:Ficus caricaL.,Philadelphus caucasicusKoehne andStyphnolobium japonicum(L) Schott (Syn.Sophora japonicaL.) in addition toPinus silvestrisL. The species is re-described and figured. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Indirect rule is one of the means that central authorities have long employed in hopes of defusing communal conflict and civil war in multicultural societies. Yet very little is known about the appeal of indirect rale among the ruled themselves. Why do people in some places demand more indirect rale and local autonomy, whereas others seem content to be governed directly by rulers of an alien culture? This is a crucial question with important implications for determining the form of governance that is most likely to provide social order in culturally heterogeneous societies. Although much attention has been given to consider the relative costs and benefits of direct versus indirect rale for the central authorities, the other side of the coin - namely, the variable demand for indirect rale among the members of distinctive cultural groups - has hardly been examined with systematic empirical data. This paper presents a theory of the differential demand for indirect rule and offers an initial test of its principal empirical implications using original micro-level data from the North Caucasus region of Russia. The theory's core claim is that the middle class should express the greatest demand for indirect rule, while both the upper and lower classes should prefer more direct rale. The theory therefore predicts that there will be an inverse parabolic relationship between the demand for indirect rule and economic class. The findings are largely consistent with these theoretical expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discussion of Iranian relations with other Caucasus states ranges from claims about Tehran's ambition for exporting its revolution to suggestions as to whether it plays a positive role in stabilizing the region. How may one identify Iran's main policy goals? What are Tehran's major means in implementing these goals? How should one explain the bilateral ties between Iran and each Caucasus state? This paper will seek to examine the foreign policy philosophy adopted by Iran's contemporary leaders in light of the options that exist with regard to the country's resource needs and ideological goals and the resulting policy directions that are chosen, especially as far as the Caucasus states are concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The unresolved dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh is one of the most worrying unresolved conflicts in the Caucasus region, both because it involves two sovereign states and because the three principal regional powers—Russia, Turkey and Iran—all have a differing stance towards the issue. The ongoing conflict undermines security across the Caucasus and wider Black Sea region: it has polarized countries and their allies, and has also created a security vacuum that encourages the proliferation of trans-national security challenges. This paper assesses the impact of the conflict on security across the Caucasus region. It examines the current defense postures of Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as the influence that the ongoing conflict has on their relations with other states throughout the region, demonstrating that the lack of a resolution not only undermines the security of those directly involved and of their neighbors, but also undermines the potential for regional co-operation, as well as economic development and stability, deterring vital investment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study summarizes the empirical results of school-level research done in Georgia, one of the post-Soviet, Caucasian states, in October 2009. The findings drawn from qualitative and quantitative data describe current policies regarding teacher salaries and incentives in Georgia and identify future possible policy strategies aimed at the country's teacher profession. The paper stresses the importance of introducing more centrally planned as well as school-level incentives in Georgia. Data analysis shows that teachers in Georgia have mixed feelings regarding merit-based pay reform. If implemented, this type of reform would arrive too early since Georgia does not yet have the centralized system of teacher evaluation. Instead, all teachers may be rewarded additionally to give them economic stimulus and motivation for better performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports evidence from surveys in 2007 which gathered life-history information since age 16 from samples totalling 1215 31-37-year-olds in the capital cities and regional centres of the three South Caucasus countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Following this quantitative survey in which all questions were closed, there were 20 in-depth follow-up interviews with between four and eight respondents per country. The evidence shows that there had been just one dominant and by implication normative family formation sequence, which was to marry, to become a parent (which usually followed marriage very quickly), and then to remain married. It is argued that the dominant family formation sequence was being held in place partly by the older generation's control of housing, and, indeed, the young adults' long-term chances of obtaining their own places. However, while in one sense a constraint, prolonged co-residence with the older generation was also a rational choice of young adults who needed family assistance in child-rearing, and in contexts where the viability of households depended on maintaining multiple income streams. Thus, having survived and, in some ways, having been consolidated during communism, traditional family patterns were proving resilient in the South Caucasus in the post-communist age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the international community focuses on major humanitarian and refugee emergencies, 60-70 per cent of the world's refugees displaced by conflict and human rights violations have been languishing in a state of neglect and insecurity in camps and urban slums - some for over twenty years. Protracted situations exist in the Caucasus, the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East and West Africa. This article will focus on protracted displacement in Asia. It begins by providing an overview of the scale of displacement in the region. It then examines some of the causes and consequences of long-term displacement and recent efforts of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian and development agencies to provide relief, protection, and durable solutions for over a million displaced people in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines social policy and development issues in Central Asia and the Caucasus. It presents a background of social policy, which was developed first in the London School of Economics in Western Europe as an academic discipline. In addition, various goals of social policy are discussed. Also included are the details on the status of social policy and development in both countries, wherein it was noted that many states on these areas already enjoy high rates of economic growth amid equally high rates of poverty, social exclusion, and others. Allegedly, rampant corruption, absence of rule of law, and power monopoly by the elites caused the scenario. Moreover, it examines the impact of social policies on health care and other social services.

The Soviet period of the command system left a legacy of under-funded multilevel bureaucratic structure of water administration and planning for the Central Asia and Caucasus countries. The existing administrative system of water management is unable to cope with inter-sector, dynamic, and versatile character of current water management problems. Therefore, the situation calls for principles of integrated water resources management (IWRM) in the region. This paper presents some ideas about institutional reforms in water sector started in Central Asia and Caucasus regions. It describes the key IWRM principles and how these principles are being implemented into practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Caucasian fauna of water bugs (Heteroptera: Gerromorpha, Nepomorpha) is reviewed based on data originating from literature survey, museum and private collections, and extensive field sampling. The diversity of Caucasus ecoregion is quite significant with 77 species and subspecies framed within 25 genera (17 in Nepomorpha, 8 in Gerromorpha), and 13 families (8 in Nepomorpha, 5 in Gerromorpha). Micronecta anatolica anatolica Lindberg, 1922, Sigara iranica Lindberg, 1964, S. samani tigranes Jansson, 1986, Velia kiritshenkoi Tamanini, 1958, and Gerris asper (Fieber, 1860) are reported for the first time from Georgia, M. anatolica anatolica, Notonecta maculata Fabricius, 1794, Mesovelia thermalis Horváth, 1915, and Gerris lacustris (Linnaeus, 1758) represent new records for Armenia, and Microvelia macani Brown, 1953 is new for Azerbaijan. A chorological and similarity analysis highlighted the connections with and between adjacent countries, with Caucasus ecoregion having the highest similarity of the water bug fauna with Turkey, whereas Iran and Russia (European territory) have the lowest. The largest number of shared species/subspecies was found between the Caucasus and Turkey (64 taxa), while the lowest was between Iran and Russia (40 taxa). Our results indicate that the Caucasus represents a composite of various faunal elements of different origin, ranging from Caucasian endemics to Afrotropico-Indo-Mediterranean and Holarctic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how the deportation of the Dargin people in the Caucasus affects intergenerational fertility rates and assesses the results of the experiment. The authors paid attention to two Dargin settlements located in the foothills and Mid-Mountains areas of Dagestan, the first of which was subject to forced replacement, but the other was left intact. Inhabitants of both settlements have close kinship ties and are tied by commodity trade as well. The authors obtained data through municipal registers and an additional survey conducted in the studied localities. We used event history analysis as the main methodology. The main findings cover the following: the foothill settlers managed to keep the social norms along with handicrafts that existed before deportation which brought about the intergenerational continuity in procreative behaviour and higher childbirth rates in the foothill settlement that have persisted for a long time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detailed glacial geomorphological maps are valuable for identifying target sites for palaeoglaciological reconstructions and thus for palaeoclimate inferences. In this study, we present the first detailed glacial geomorphological mapping of the landform assemblages produced by the former glaciers in the Notsarula (42°45′ 44′′N 43°38′ 29′′E) and Chanchakhi (42°42′ 5′′N 43°40′ 42′′E) river valleys, Georgian Caucasus. Our goal is to create a high)resolution (1:33,000 scale) glacial geomorphological map of this area (237 km2 ) and provide a detailed and accurate distribution of glacier-related features (see Main Map). Several field investigations between 2010 and 2022 along with detailed remote sensing surveys have been conducted for this glacial geomorphological mapping. The mapped landforms indicate multiple readvance or stillstands of valley glaciers across the study area. The largest and complex glacier body likely existed in the Bubistskali River gorge (42°43′ 16′′N 43°43′ 32′′E). Well-preserved moraine landforms in this valley suggest at least five large and several relatively small glacier readvances or stillstands occurred during the Late Quaternary. The simple-valley-type (without branches) glaciers were also probably present in other tributary valleys of the Chanchakhi River basin at that time. This map can be used for further geomorphological investigation as well as to support future geochronological work in the Greater Caucasus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One class (Sphacelarietea cirrosae), one order (Sphacelarietalia cirrosae), two alliances (Phyllophoro crispae-Codion vermilarae, Gongolarion barbatae) and five associations (Phyllophoro crispae-Codietum vermilarae, Nereietum filiformisae, Rhodochorton purpureum-Apoglossetum ruscifolii, Gongolario barbatae-Sphacelarietum cirrosae, Ericarietum bosphoricae) of macroalgal communities within the North Caucasian shelf of the Black Sea oligosaprobic sublittoral vegetation are described for the first time, using the Braun-Blanquet approach. Detrended correspondence analysis corroborated the results of the syntaxonomic analysis and revealed two main factors influencing the floristic composition of the investigated communities: depth with associated light level and intensity of water movement. The diagnoses of described syntaxa are given. A comparison of Mediterranean and Black Sea syntaxa is made, and the specificity of the vegetation of the North Caucasian shelf of the Black Sea is shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of the aquatic and semi-aquatic beetles collected from the 'Sarykumskie Barkhany' section of the Dagestan Nature Reserve is provided. Altogether, 61 water-associated and terrestrial (Helophorus nubilus Fabricius, 1777 and three species of Cercyon Leach, 1817) beetle species are recorded from this territory, of which 44 species are recorded for the first time from the studied area, 18 species are newly reported from the Dagestan Republic, and eight species are newly recorded from the North Caucasus Region. Ochthebius lividipennis Peyron, 1858 (Hydraenidae) is reported for the first time from Russia. Also, because of possible discovery of Dryops caspius (Ménétries, 1832) (Dryopidae) in the territory considered, the lectotype of this species is designated in the current work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article estimates the extent and speed of exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) in seven Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) countries using monthly data over the January 1995–May 2020 period. The estimations are performed using the local projections method. We find that the average pass-through in the CCA is about 10% on impact and about 25% after 12 months. There is no evidence of asymmetric ERPT with respect to the size and the sign of exchange rate changes. The pass-through is broadly unchanged in fixed versus floating exchange rate regimes. There has been a downward shift in the speed of ERPT in the aftermath of the global financial crisis as CCA countries have entered a relatively low inflation environment. The pass-through estimates could be used by the CCA monetary authorities for inflation projections. The absence of nonlinearities in the pass-through with respect to the exchange rate regime suggests that transition from fixed to floating exchange rate regimes in the region is not likely to impose additional inflationary costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to stabilise the post-Soviet region, the European Union seeks to transform the domestic structures of the Newly Independent States. In light of high adaptation costs, the lack of a membership perspective, and low levels of democracy, the prospects of Europeanisation appear to be limited. The Southern Caucasus belongs to the most corrupt countries in the world. While being least likely cases, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia have responded to the EU's demands for good governance introducing formal institutional changes. Moreover, despite their differences in statehood, democracy, and power (a)symmetries with the EU, domestic institutional changes look very similar. This double puzzle is explained by differential empowerment. Instead of liberal reform coalitions, which are largely absent in the Southern Caucasus, the incumbent regimes have instrumentalised the EU, selectively implementing anti-corruption policies to gain and consolidate political power. As a result, the EU stabilises rather than transforms its neighbourhood. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The lack of any "official" boundaries between peace and war or obvious differences between "subjugated" mountaineers and those who were "recalcitrant" in practice meant that every soldier and officer had the right to act "in accordance with their own assessment of the situation." By contrast, the "barbarization" of the army in the Caucasus was spontaneous, and each soldier and officer had their own personal motivations for adopting the mountaineer methods and customs of war. It is no coincidence that commanders repeatedly issued orders prohibiting soldiers and Cossacks from taking the heads and hands of their defeated enemies as trophies.[42] 5 As soldiers took the prosecution of war into their own hands, it even led to the sale of ammunition to the enemy.[43] In 1846, two soldiers of the Tengin Regiment were arrested, one of whom had tried to sell seven pounds of gunpowder (for 150 rifle cartridges), and a whole I pud i of munitions was found during the search of another. One of the first historians of the Caucasian War of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and also a participant in the conflict, N. A. Volkonskii, drew attention to the fact that the soldiers who fought with the mountaineers were noticeably different from their brothers in gray overcoats, who served in other parts of the empire. [Extracted from the article]

A palynological study of 239 outcrop samples and their sedimentological context was undertaken on the Pliocene Productive Series in the Kirmaky and Yasamal valleys, eastern Azerbaijan. The Productive Series is primarily a representation of the palaeo-Volga and forms the main hydrocarbon-producing reservoirs in the South Caspian Basin. Most sands are interpreted as fluvial, based on sedimentary characteristics. Mudstone and siltstones often contain freshwater and brackish assemblages interpreted as 'Caspian lake' transgressions, indicative of rapid Caspian Sea level change during the Pliocene. Most samples contain rich assemblages including pollen, spores, dinoflagellate cysts, algae and fungal bodies. Common tree pollen elements include Pinus, Alnus, Betula, Carya, Juglans, Pterocarya, Quercus and Ulmus, which all occur in present-day vegetation or pollen records from the Caucasus or Urals. Herbaceous pollen includes Amaranthaceae, Asteraceae (including Artemisia), Ephedra and Poaceae, commonly found in the drier Caspian regions. The dinoflagellate cysts include 'Peri-paratethyan endemic' taxa such as Caspidinium rugosum and Spiniferites cruciformis. 'Pannonian' species such as Thalassiphora balcanica, Romanodinium areolatum and Spiniferites oblongus confirm the persistence of these taxa into the early Pliocene in Eastern Paratethys, around five million years later than their first documented presence in Central Paratethys. 'Caspian lake' influences diminish up-section, as indicated by a progression from brackish to freshwater and sub-aerial conditions. Productive Series deposition was mainly driven by the combined effects of lake level and catchment climate. The principal hydrocarbon reservoir sands were deposited as a result of increased catchment humidity, whereas drying conditions led to reduced coarse clastic input and deposition of alluvial plain mudstones. Productive Series deposition terminated with the onset of the marine-influenced Akchagyl Series, which spans the Plio-Pleistocene boundary. The lowermost sediments of the Akchagyl Series are freshwater in origin and grade up-section into marine beds containing dinoflagellate cysts of Arctic affinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new species of the genus Typhlodromus Scheuten, Typhlodromus (Typhlodromus) dombayensis Khaustov and Döker sp. nov. and Typhlodromus (Typhlodromus) kurganensis Khaustov and Döker sp. nov. are described and illustrated based on material collected in Caucasus and Kurgan provinces, Russia, respectively. In addition, a little known species, Typhlodromus (Typhlodromus) olympicus Papadoulis and Emmanouel, is re-described and discovered for the first time after its original description. Moreover, an identification key to the Russian species of the subgenus is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the course of a long taxonomic history, Quedius umbrinus Erichson, a common West Palaearctic rove beetle, was gradually split into a dozen species before all of them, except Q. sigwalti Coiffait from Crete, were lumped back into a single species again. All these shifts were based on the intuitive evaluation of morphological variation only. We sequenced the barcoding fragment of the CO1 gene across specimens of Q. umbrinus-complex broadly covering its geographic range and performed several DNA barcode species delimitation analyses on this dataset: tree-based Bayesian inference and Maximum likelihood, as well as tree-independent character-based (PTP, GMYC) and distance-based (ABGD). Molecular clades were largely congruent among all analyses and revealed four candidate species lineages. Of them, only Q. sigwalti is easy to distinguish by morphology alone. Morphological differences between other candidate species are present, but they are weak and do not hold for all specimens. To reflect new data in the classification we reinstated Q. pseudoumbrinus Lohse (stat. res.) as a species even though it is not always distinct from Q. umbrinus Er. (stat. rev.) morphologically. Also, we described a new species Q. volkeri (sp. nov.) from the north-western Caucasus. Finally, we placed Q. angaricus Coiffat in synonymy with Q. pseudoumbrinus Lohse (syn. nov.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Soviet historiography of Shamil, the third and most famous and successful imam (leader) of the Muslim resistance to the Russian occupation of the North-eastern Caucasus. It talks about the developments in the Soviet Union since 1956 and analyzes the nationality policies towards other nations and towards the Muslims of the Caucasus. The Soviet's foreign policy towards the Third World, the periphery-center relationships between the Caucasus and Moscow, and the national problems and relations between the Russians and the Caucasians are discussed.

This article asks the question whether the Arab Spring protests have had a transformative impact on the political regimes of the countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA). Unlike in the Middle East and North Africa, the protests that took place in the CCA region after 2011 did not result in regime changes. By analysing the political developments in the CCA region between the period of 2011 and 2014, this article argues that rather than encouraging democratic changes, the Arab Spring protests stimulated the learning process of authoritarian rulers in the CCA region by showing the impact of the social media for political mobilization and consequently regime survival. As such, they incentivized the regimes to increase repression, targeting not only the protestors, but also media and the Internet freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrorism connected to the North Caucasus has been pervasive in Russia between 1992 and 2018. Based on an original dataset, this article presents statistics on rates of terrorist attacks outside of the North Caucasus, their geography and targets, and the tactics used. It argues that terrorism by North Caucasian insurgents has long retained a strategic logic despite their conversion to radical Islamism. Accordingly, the end of North Caucasian terrorism was determined by the erosion of its strategic character as an increasingly vague ideological project replaced concrete political goals among the insurgents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a discourse analysis of ideas of international brotherhood in Central and Eastern Europe. Taking the example of brotherly ideas centred on the Caucasus in Polish and Serbian media, it examines structures and dynamics of the imagined brotherly connections between these nations. Using the sociology of knowledge approach to discourse (SKAD) and critical geopolitics as a theoretical framework, a three-tier model of circulation of geopolitical imaginations is developed. The analysis interprets the emergence of brotherly ideas as resulting from the elite search for new geopolitical certainties after 1989. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I argue that the imperial legacy is one of the underpinnings for the ROC's approach to the state's security today. The imperial past also shows in the nature of the relationship between the Church and the state, which, contrary to the popular belief, is not just about the state instrumentalizing the Church or vice versa. I would argue that it is the shared views of the two parties which provide the fertile ground for their cooperation. As my case study I have chosen the North Caucasus. I trace the "imperial mark" in the ROC's views and actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflicts in the management of renewable natural resources are situations in which actors have diverging opinions on issues of natural resource use. In the literature, among the causal factors for conflicts discussed are resource wealth or scarcity and the role of governance. The evidence, however, is contradictory. In order to analyze the role of governance in more detail, we propose a combined analysis of property rights and conflicts. In this way, an improved understanding of the causes of local conflicts over renewable natural resources can be achieved. We use comparative case study data from pasture management in the Caucasus region, first, to classify conflicts according to the bundle of property rights approach and, second, to explore how the causal factors resource scarcity and current governance contribute to those conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the establishment of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) in 1890, the practice of honoring the revolutionary acts of its fedayis has been an important means through which to both recruit the next generation of members and to maintain its claim to be the defender of the Armenian nation. It is, therefore, surprising that the decision to form Armenian volunteer units to fight alongside the Russian army between the fall of 1914 and the spring of 1916, is barely mentioned in ARF publications, and given relatively little attention in the historiography of the period. Given the ARF's tendency to glorify the acts of its fedayis it is puzzling why the organization would not promote and honor its members who took up arms in a more conventional manner against the Ottoman Empire. Three possible reasons can be gleaned from the literature. The first two involve the problems the Legions pose to the historiography on World War I in eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus. The third reason involves the legacy of the ARF and the decision of the Armenian Volunteer Legions to retreat from Van and not relieve the Armenians trapped in Muş in the summer of 1915. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the advent of printing in the Turkic languages of the North Caucasus in 1806, the Kumyks, Karachais, Balkars, Nogais, Daghestani Azeris, and Trukhmen have created a rich body of published materials, one that is well worth the attention of Western scholars and librarians. Along with publications by other numerically small peoples, however, these materials suffer from serious neglect. What is lost when research library collections focus only on "major" languages (and/or only on those languages their own current faculty and students can read)? Do librarians at large research libraries have a responsibility to redress imbalances of this type, and what are the practical obstacles to doing so? This article (Part III of three) discusses steps that libraries and scholars can take to improve this situation, surveys the North Caucasus Turkic Web environment, considers the problematic role of the Russian language, and emphasizes the urgency of collecting and preserving this category of material and encouraging its use in contemporary scholarship. Part I of this article appeared in volume 18, nos. 3–4 of Slavic & East European Information Resources and Part II appeared in volume 19, nos. 1–2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes Ursula Biemann’s video essay Black Sea Files as an experiment in training the viewer to perceive large-scale, transnational networks of capital, human displacement, and ecological destruction. Reacting against the norms of Western media, Biemann constructs a regime of pity that motivates the viewer to act on the suffering of distant others by shifting the mode of presentation between the local and the global, exposing and interrogating Western space-time mediations of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline project, and figuring agency within the project as diffuse. These mediation techniques train the viewer to engage more deeply with the content being presented, expose transnational networks of agency and responsibility within human displacement and ecological destruction, and render visible new participatory positions within those systems that offer more potential for meaningful action and resistance. The subject of a transnational oil pipeline proves fertile ground for the interrogation of the transnational networks that impact the planet and its various ecologies, and the video essay proves a powerful tool in rendering those networks visible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article primarily examines the work conducted by the intelligence service of the German Army known as Fremde Heere Ost [Foreign Armies East, FHO] and the influence it had on the strategic and operational decision making of Adolf Hitler in the southern sector of the Eastern Front in 1942. Using mainly archival material, FHO estimates of Soviet formations in terms of their deployment areas and strengths during Operations Blau and Edelweiβ are discussed. The FHO organization and Hitler’s own thoughts on military intelligence are also outlined in brief. The article shows that a persistently and excessively optimistic depiction of the supposedly wretched state of the Soviet armed forces by German military intelligence convinced Hitler of the correctness of his decision to resume the offensive in summer 1942 and later to attempt to capture simultaneously his objectives of Stalingrad and the Caucasus oilfields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an in-depth analysis of local governance in the North Caucasus, by example of land tenure conflicts in Kabardino-Balkaria. We follow an iterative analytical strategy, systematically combining qualitative case studies to develop grounded hypotheses, with subsequent statistical hypothesis testing. Based on fieldwork conducted in Kabardino-Balkaria, we identify the most relevant patterns and dynamics of natural resource governance. Our research shows that there are three dominant patterns. The first pattern is formed in areas where land is of little value and communities are left to themselves to solve issues. In the second case, larger businesses with state backing manage to monopolize land resources and sideline local communities. In the third case, local communities are strong enough to defend their control over external attempts to take hold of land resources. Finally, we use original survey data to further investigate plausible causes for stronger and weaker local self-governance and its consequences for state-society relations. We show that local self-government (LSG) lacks independence, and its functional quality depends on the degree of state interference via patronage. Despite this challenging environment, we find that higher perceptions of LSG quality predict more trust in the state at central and subnational level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]