New Books in European Politics - New Books Network

Latest Episodes:

Andrew Wilson, “Belarus: The Last European Dictatorship” (Yale UP, 2011) Dec 02, 2011

Show notes

A couple of weeks ago I took a bus from Warsaw and travelled east across the River Bug. The border took a long time to cross, but then this was no ordinary border – it was the border between the Europe of the modern world, of the EU (with all of its problems) and liberal democracy, and the Europe of the Soviet era and authoritarian rulers. I crossed the border into Belarus.

Belarus has been getting a bad press since the middle of the last decade, when Condoleeza Rice famously labelled President Lukashenka ‘Europe’s last dictator’. Every so often news squeaks out about repression aimed at opposition figures, of currency devaluations and of curiosities like secret pipelines in stream beds that are used for smuggling vodka out into EU neighbours. This is clearly a country with some serious explaining to do.

Andrew Wilson‘s book, Belarus: The Last European Dictatorship (Yale University Press, 2011), is timely. Some are predicting that Lukashenka’s time is finally coming to an end, and eyes in Minsk and Brest are nervously following economic troubles within the EU and the fallout of Vladimir Putin’s comeback over in Moscow. The economy of Belarus is clearly feeling the strain – the $5 in roubles that I took out of a cash point paid for dinner and beers, with enough left over to visit the museum in the staggering Brest Fortress. It feels like some sort of change may be in the air.

Andrew’s book is very complete, starting with an entertaining run through of the country’s history, from Viking raids and werewolves through to the horrors of the Second World War and the fall of the USSR. At its heart are two questions: Is Belarus a real country? Why Lukashenka?

I might have been less keen to read a book on Belarus if I hadn’t just thoroughly enjoyed a visit there. But that would have been a mistake, and my loss. Andrew’s book deserves a wider audience, and Belarus deserves more interest from the outside world. I hope you enjoy the interview.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gale Stokes, “The Walls Came Tumbling Down” (2nd Edition, Oxford UP, 2011) Nov 09, 2011

Show notes

Europe may currently be in crisis and riven with divisions, but at least it’s a Europe of independent states. It was not always so. The Soviets dominated Eastern Europe for nearly half a century following the defeat of the Nazis. And for most of that time it seemed Soviet domination would never end. Then, unexpectedly, the Berlin Wall was no more. Eastern European states that had limited experience with democracy and open society began feeling their way forward and aspiring to become full fledged members of Europe. Many now are.

Gale Stokes first wrote about how this monumental transformation happened in the first edition of The Walls Came Tumbling Down in 1993. He has now updated that story (The Walls Came Tumbling Down: Collapse and Rebirth in Eastern Europe, Second Edition (Oxford University Press, 2011) to provide thorough and readable accounts of the brutal collapse of Yugoslavia and the coming of age of the former Soviet satellites and their accession to the European Union. By its nature, it is a complex story with many different perspectives, and Stokes tells it in a fashion that novices to the region can understand, but with insights that experts in the field will find stimulating.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Treisman, “The Return: Russia’s Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev” (Free Press, 2011) Jul 05, 2011

Show notes

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, journalists, academics, and policymakers have sought to make sense of post-Soviet Russia. Is Russia an emerging or retrograde democracy? A free-market or crony capitalism? Adopting Western values or forever steeped in Asiatic mores? Is Russia in transition, and if so, transition to what?...

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices