Project description
Russia’s rising appeal in the Middle East and Africa
While Western influence wanes, Russia’s assertive participation in Middle Eastern and African wars is gaining attention. Unlike liberal international norms, Russia presents a model of hard power, economic prudence, and a policy of non-interference (often reaching out to authoritarian dictators). So why is this model gaining traction? Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the RuMEA project will analyse both Russian practice and its reception in the discipline. Through elite interviews, media analysis, and archival investigation, RuMEA uncovers the historical etymology and modern dynamics of Russian engagement. The project aims to recast knowledge of Russia’s global strategy, and its rising salience outside Europe.
Objective
RuMEA aims to analyse Russia’s interventions in recent conflicts of the Middle East and Africa (MEA), exploring their interaction with local political contexts. Russia approaches these crises through a mix of hard power, coercive diplomacy, and economic activism, guided by the principle of non-interference with these regions’ authoritarian regressions. As such, it provides local leaders with a model of conflict management that differs radically from liberal-oriented approaches that dominated international customs in the post-Cold War era. But what explains local preferences for ‘the Russian model’? This project adopts a dual perspective to analyse (1) the Russian model’s distinctive features and (2) explain its appeal to countries on the ‘receiving end’ of Russia’s political intervention, advancing debates in Russian and Middle Eastern/African studies. It utilises a diverse set of methodologies to deepen specific aspects of Russia’s engagement in the MEA, including elite interviews (to assess local preferences), media content analysis (to understand public discourse), and archival investigation (to document Russia’s long-dated experiences of dealing with regional crises – Cold War and the 1990s – which may offer insights into contemporary practices). These are the gaps I intend to address with this research project, which lies at the intersection of Area Studies, International Relations (IR), and International History. RuMEA builds upon methodological skills I gained during my previous experiences as a historian working on Soviet-Arab relations while taking my research trajectory into new directions. The Fellowship will be based at Harvard University (Kennedy School, HKS) and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (UNIVE), and includes secondments at the University of Oxford and Carnegie Beirut office.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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30123 Venezia
Italy
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