Juliet Johnson

Post‐totalitarian national identity: public memory in Germany and Russia

Through a comparative analysis of Germany and Russia, this paper explores how participation in the memorialization process affects and reflects national identity formation in post‐totalitarian societies. These post‐totalitarian societies face the common problem of re‐presenting their national character as civic and democratic, in great part because their national identities were closely bound to oppressive regimes. Through a comparison of three memorial sites—Sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial in Germany, and Lubianka Square and the Park of Arts in Russia—we argue that even where dramatic reductions in state power and the opening of civil society have occurred, a simple elite–public dichotomy cannot adequately capture the nature of participation in the process of memory re‐formation. Rather, mutual interactions among multiple publics and elites, differing in kind and intensity across contexts, combine to form a complex pastiche of public memory that both interprets a nations past and suggests desirable models for its future. The domination of a ‘Western’ style of memorialization in former East Germany illustrates how even relatively open debates can lead to the exclusion of certain representations of the nation. Nonetheless, Germany has had comparatively vigorous public debates about memorializing its totalitarian periods. In contrast, Russian elite groups have typically circumvented or manipulated participation in the memorialization process, reflecting both a reluctance to deal with Russias totalitarian past and a emerging national identity less civic and democratic than in Germany.

Financial nationalism and its international enablers: The Hungarian experience

ABSTRACT Viktor Orbán and his centre-right Fidesz party won Hungarys April 2010 parliamentary elections in a landslide, running on a nationalist-populist platform of economic self-rule. This paper explores Hungarys financial nationalist turn and its surprisingly successful resistance to IMF and EU pressures to change course. We open by theorizing financial nationalism, and then trace its ideational roots and contemporary character in Hungary. We subsequently argue that two international factors ironically enabled Orbán to take his financial nationalist ideas from theory to practice: 1) IMF and EU policies that first contributed to Fideszs electoral victory and then made it difficult to counter Orbán once in power; and 2) the tolerant behavior of international bond markets. In particular, Orbáns willingness and ability to use unorthodox, financial nationalist policies to control government deficits and debt both reduced EU and IMF leverage over Hungary and encouraged bond markets to overlook the unsavory politics that produced those numbers.

Forbidden fruit: Russia's uneasy relationship with the US dollar

ABSTRACT At the turn of the twenty-first century, Russia entered into a unique relationship with the US dollar: it became the only major country with both a highly dollarized economy and extensive dollar reserves. Russia also played a pivotal role in the international gas and oil markets, where resources are priced in and sold for US dollars. This paper argues, however, that three trends had converged by 2006 to challenge the US dollars pre-eminence in Russia. First, President Vladimir Putins efforts to strengthen the state required reasserting Russias monetary sovereignty. Second, opposition to US foreign policy and a re-emergent Russian nationalism prompted many politicians to denounce Russias dependence on the dollar. Finally, the dollars increasing weakness internationally led Russian economic officials to worry that over-reliance on the dollar threatens Russias economic stability. This relative weakness also encouraged ordinary Russians to rethink their relationship with the dollar. Together, these three trends led to a political anti-dollar campaign, gradual reserve diversification away from the dollar, and moves to substitute rubles or euros for dollars in domestic pricing, sales, and savings. This paper explores these trends and discusses their potential ramifications for the international dollar regime.

The Future of International Political Economy: Introduction to the 20th Anniversary Issue of RIPE

An anniversary issue provides an inescapably inviting opportunity to reflect on the past, evaluate the present, and contemplate the future. Eschewing the self-congratulatory rhetoric of traditional anniversary celebrations, we have devoted this 20th anniversary issue of RIPE to contributions that critically examine the academic discipline of international political economy, focusing on our collective challenges and limitations as much as on our achievements. As every author knows, it is the thoughtful, constructive, and above all critical review that ultimately pushes us to produce better scholarly work. The global financial crisis mandates such a reassessment, as did the fall of communism that birthed this journal. [First paragraph] (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Frustrated Leadership: Russia's Economic Alternative to the West

The Russian government saw the 2008 global financial crisis as both a repudiation of western neoliberalism and as an ideal opportunity to promote its own international economic leadership. Russias alternative vision encompasses multipolarity, financial nationalism and political illiberalism. These policies are symbiotic. The state uses its control over financial flows to build and maintain political and economic power at home as well as to project its influence abroad, all justified with a strong dose of great power nationalism positioning Russia as the Eurasian pole in an emerging multipolar world order. However, the Kremlin is doomed to frustration in its quest to assert international economic leadership. The Russian government has the ability to shake up the existing international order but lacks the credibility, stability, or economic clout to lead the creation of a new one. This has troubling implications for the future of international economic cooperation and reform, as Russias frustrations have increasingly turned it in reactive and confrontational directions.

Confederate monuments and the problem of forgetting

Those advocating the removal of US Confederate monuments have generally relied on the claim that because the ideas these monuments represent (i.e. White supremacy) have no legitimate place in political discourse, the monuments should be removed from public space. While we share this normative position, experiences while teaching our interdisciplinary undergraduate course on Memory, Place, and Power forced us to interrogate our reflexive desire to ‘take ’em down’. We learned that as scholars and practitioners, we must not only better explain and defend the nature of the ‘forgetting’ that happens when we remove Confederate monuments but also put our discussion of their fate into a broader international context, one that embraces a range of alternatives beyond the stark choice of removal versus retention.

Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America, by Peter Andreas

Smuggler Nation reveals the implicit hypocrisy of contemporary US crackdowns on the illicit movement of goods and people across its borders, putting ‘a strong dose of historical perspective into to...

Security and atonement: controlling access to the World Trade Center memorial

Visitors are subject to extensive access-control procedures at the open but as-yet unfinished World Trade Center (WTC) memorial site. This is in sharp contrast to the open plaza envisioned in Michael Arad’s finished design. We argue that rather than being merely a pragmatic security measure or a distraction from the memorial, such access-control can be best understood as a public ritual of atonement for the security failures that led to the 9/11 attacks.