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Russian-Turkish Rivalry over the Balkan and Caucasus Areas

(JTM 317)

Associate Professor Adrian Brisku, PhD

Doctoral Student, Lamiya Panahova

Department of Russian & East European Studies, Charles University

https://cuni.academia.edu/adrianBrisku

adrian.brisku@fsv.cuni.cz; lamiya.panahova@fsv.cuni.cz

Annotation

Contemporary Russia-Turkey relations are marred by rivalry and occasional rapprochements in their traditional areas of influence of the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Middle East and Central Asia. Focusing on the former two areas, more particularly those of the Western Balkans and the South Caucasus – where their rivalry appears more intensive – this course considers the historical relations between the two states and examines their exercise of ‘soft power’ and ‘hybrid power’ in their foreign policies with the individual states of Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Drawing on a multi-disciplinary scholarship that deals with questions of ‘neo-imperialism’, geo-economics, geopolitics and cultural and historical relations on this rivalry and cooperation, the course aims at understanding the rationales (realism, constructivism) and the driving forces (security and national economic interests) behind their rivalry. This course also offers a great opportunity for comparisons to students to go deeper in their analysis of the modes of cooperation and tensions in each of these countries vis-à-vis Russia and Turkey.

A. COURSE DESIGN

1. Historical Relations I (1500-1918): Ottoman & Russian Empires & the Balkans and the Caucasus (Brisku)

2. Historical Relations II (1921-1991): the Soviet Union, the Turkish Republic, Communism (Panahova)

3. ‘Great Power’, ‘Soft Power’ and ‘Hybrid Power’ in Foreign Policies (Brisku)

4. Post-Cold War Rivalry: Eurasianism and Regionalism (Brisku)

5. Turkey in the Western Balkans: ‘Neo Ottomanism’? (Brisku)

6. The Cases of Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina & Serbia (Brisku)

7. Russia in the Western Balkans: ‘Meddling’ & ‘Destabilising’ (Brisku)

8. The Cases of Serbia & Bosnia-Herzegovina (Panahova)

9. Turkey in the South Caucasus: Decline of Its ‘Soft Power’? (Panahova)

10. The Cases of Azerbaijan, Armenia & Georgia (Panahova)

11. Russia in the South Caucasus: Controlling the ‘Near Abroad’ & Countering Western Soft Power (Panahova)

12. The Cases of Armenia, Azerbaijan & Georgia (Panahova)