#11 - JRL 8056
From: "Mischa Gabowitsch" <mishupsik@mail.ru>
Subject: Regime change in Russia and the USA
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2004
CfP: regime change in Russia and the USA
The Moscow-based journal Neprikosnovenny Zapas/Debaty o politike i kulture (NZ) is URGENTLY looking for an author prepared to write a comparative essay about this year’s presidential elections in Russia and the USA.
Our forthcoming issue will feature a selection of articles about peaceful regime change in post-communist countries, reflecting on the examples of Serbia and Georgia, and discussing the prospects for change in Ukraine and Belarus. To round this off, we are looking for an incisive piece (of up to 20,000 characters, including spaces and any notes) about the upcoming presidential elections in Russia and the USA.
We need the article by the 17th of February, i.e. next Tuesday. If it is written in English we will have it translated, and have the edited translation authorized. NW pays a fee that is modest by US standards though decent enough for Moscow.
The author should display detailed knowledge of, and a healthy critical attitude towards, both the Putin and Bush regimes, as well as an awareness of the question of human and civic rights.
Questions to be answered include, but are not limited to:
- Are there any similarities between the two elections, and what are the decisive differences? (concerning both procedural aspects and the elections’ potential for changing the respective countries’ political systems)
- Do cronyism, populism, securitarianism, national interest talk, contempt for international law, and attacks on civic rights under Bush mean that there is, on certain issues, a convergence with authoritarian practice under Putin? Or, put differently: Regardless of the nature of the Bush administration, what is it that still allows us to characterise the United States as a functioning liberal democracy?
- By supporting Putin on Chechnya and by its own example, has the Bush administration, or have Russian perceptions of it, contributed to the drift away from democracy and the rule of law in the Russian Federation? Conversely, are examples of peaceful regime change in the post-Communist world (especially if repeated in Ukraine and Belarus) likely to have any effect on Russia?
(We are NOT, for the purposes of this issue, specifically interested in the future of US-Russian relations, investment climate etc.)
Anyone interested in writing such a piece should write to Mischa Gabowitsch at nz@nlo.magazine.ru, including a summary of the proposed article.
NZ is a bi-monthly journal aimed at a highly educated readership with a good knowledge of international affairs and the social sciences, though it is an interdisciplinary debating journal rather than a forum for political or social scientists only. For more information about NZ, sample articles in English, and full contents in Russian, please consult www.nz-online.ru, or go to www.eurozine.com/partner/nz.html.