Self-Positioning of Eastern Europe in a New World Order

Coordination:
Frank Hadler / Marek Mikuš / Lela Rekhviashvili

The collapse of state socialism in Eastern Europe marked an ending of the global Cold War and ushered in a new world order. This initially rather unipolar (US-led) order has been challenged by the rise of China’s power, waning US hegemony, renewed tensions between Russia and the North Atlantic bloc, and is being confronted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research Area 2 focuses on the positioning of Eastern European (EU member and nonmember) states and societies in the context of the evolving geopolitical conditions. It encourages a dialogue between post-socialist and post-colonial approaches and looks specifically at changing geostrategical imaginations and spatial reconfigurations at multiple scales as well as the roles of finance, social movements and academia in these processes.