DIPL 4193 AA Eastern European and Post-Soviet Politics

This course provides a systematic introduction to the main issues in Soviet, post-Soviet and post Soviet-Bloc politics. Some of the topics to be considered are the following: (1) the legacy of Soviet nationality policies and the Soviet planned economy system on the creation and development of new political systems in the former Soviet republics; (2) the political and economic diversity which emerged within the ‘Soviet Bloc” starting in the 1950’s, and its effects on the development of new political systems after the fall of Communism; (3) the causes and consequences of ethnic conflicts in some of the countries of the area; and (5) the development of new political, social and economic institutions in the former Soviet and “Soviet Bloc” states after the fall of the Berlin Wall and these countries’ attempts to integrate themselves into the new international system