Borderland Russians

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Geir Hønneland

   Pages 1-19

3. The Kola Peninsula: Politics, Society, International Networks

   • Geir Hønneland

   Pages 20-50

4. How to Be a Northerner: Distinguishing North from South

   • Geir Hønneland

   Pages 51-79

5. How to Be a Russian: Distinguishing East from West

   • Geir Hønneland

   Pages 80-104

6. Living in the Northern Environment

   • Geir Hønneland

   Pages 105-122

7. Narrative, Identity and International Relations

   • Geir Hønneland

   Pages 123-138

8. Back Matter

   Pages 139-174

   PDF

Geir Hønneland discusses some of the big questions in social science: What is identity? What is the role of identity and narrative in the study of international relations? The location is the Kola Peninsula, the most heavily militarized area of the world during the Cold War, now set to become Europe's next big oil playground.

• cold war
• environment
• Europe
• identity
• international relations
• Nation
• politics
• social science
• russian and post-soviet politics
• european union politics

​“I am fully convinced that this book provides a compelling case for the use of fieldwork and ethnographic methods in the study of foreign policy and international security.”  (Southeast European and Black Sea Studies)

'What a great snapshot of everyday identity in a Russian province! Local knowledge has arrived in International Relations'

Iver B. Neumann, Professorof Russian Studies, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and author of Uses of the Other: 'the East' in European Identity Formation

'The book treats one of the hottest and coolest issues in IR, the question of identity, in a well-informed, earnest, lively, humorous and entertaining manner. It solves the "big issues"' and yet makes pertinent observations on what it means to be a Russian, a Notherner, and most interesting, a Borderlander.'

Sergei Medvedev, Professor, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

'This book is very worth reading, because it gives a good insight into the way of thinking of the Kola Peninsula's ordinary population and, moreover, in a very easily understandable way.'

Polar Record

'Borderland Russians is a good read, and its added value stretches from the local level to the bigger questions dealing with identity-formation and everyday narratives.'

The Russian Review

'This highly readable and engaging work sheds new light on the region of Russia above the Arctic Circle, a neglected area of work in Russian politics, geography, and area studies... The work contributes to debates in international relations about how identities are assigned, how they evolve, and how they are made.'

- CHOICE

'Hønneland introduces very interesting, big themes for the wide public.'

- Nordisk Østforum - Nordic Journal of Russian and East European Affairs

'This is a highly readable book, which thanks to its clear style and absorbing content can be addressed also to readers from outside academia.'

- Studia Polityczne, Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Science

'Borderland Russians is informative, insightful and well written. It brings to the table fresh data and good analysis, and is in addition a genuine joy to read [...] No reader who seeks to understand how Russian Northerners view themselves, the South and their Western neighbors should miss out on this book.'

- Arctic Review on Law and Politics: Mikkel Berg-Nordlie, Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research

'This book is a valuable source for readers interested in identity constructions'

- Europe-Asia Studies, 64:4

• Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway

  Geir Hønneland

GEIR HØNNELAND is Research Director at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute and Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Tromsø, Norway. He has published widely on Russian environmental politics and international relations in the European North.

Policies and ethics