Unit HISTORY AND GEOPOLITICS OF THE RUSSIAN BALKAN AREA

Course
International relations
Study-unit Code
A001432
Curriculum
Cooperazione internazionale e state building
Teacher
Francesco Randazzo
Teachers
  • Francesco Randazzo
Hours
  • 63 ore - Francesco Randazzo
CFU
9
Course Regulation
Coorte 2021
Offered
2021/22
Learning activities
Caratterizzante
Area
Storico
Academic discipline
SPS/06
Type of study-unit
Obbligatorio (Required)
Type of learning activities
Attività formativa monodisciplinare
Language of instruction
italian language
Contents
Russia still appears to be the protagonist of the international scene in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia. In the new millennium too, it is destined to play a crucial role on which the fate of many peoples will depend.
Reference texts
L. Dell’Aguzzo, Conflitti separatisti. Caucaso Meridionale, Europa Orientale e Balcani (1991-2014), Roma, Carocci, 2020;
G. Bifolchi, Geopolitica del Caucaso russo. Gli interessi del Cremlino e degli attori stranieri nelle dinamiche locali nordcaucasiche, Roma, Teti Editore, 2020.
Educational objectives
Educational objectives In the final evaluation we expect the student to be able to elaborate logical and critical argumentations on the basis of what they learnt. Having to develop, in this way, an added ability to analyze the studied sources and correlations with other historic-scientific notions learnt in other courses. This level of maturity will allow to formulate rich and rigorously scientific argumentations in a logical and coherent manner in full autonomy (or through solicitations aimed at having such acquired

competence emerge). The aim of teaching activity, has always been, to "develop" the students of new culture, and, but not less important, to be able to foresee for him a competitive-cultural advance where competition stands for "acquisition of intellectual awareness" and cultural for "scientific knowledge".
Prerequisites
The course, for its specific theme, calls for a good general knowledge of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Not limited, however, to the mere knowledge of important dates but more integrated knowledge of historical, political and ideological processes at the base of two contrasting ways of interpreting life in the twentieth century: The capitalist-bourgeois and the Marxist-communist model. The analysis of factors at the base of contrasts between Russia and western countries, mutating their volatile character into political dialectics, must be a fundamental prerequisite that each student must have in order to better understand the concept that will be expressed during the course.
Teaching methods
The teaching method is the typical direct method and provides that: use of PowerPoint during lessons, also the projection of geographical maps; showing of thematic DVD’s; brainstorming related to “historical cases” of international relevance.
If the health emergency continues to require it, teaching will be delivered in mixed mode
Other information
The course can be attended by students who have a solid basic background in contemporary history and that of international relations. The course is not recommended for those who do not have this necessary
skills. Class attendance not is required.
Learning verification modality
The evaluation will take in consideration certain factors: capacity to tie events to each other through critical and comparative analysis of different political and cultural models; student’s capacity to synthesis in an appropriate manner the notions learnt during the studies; student’s ability to orient him/herself in the historic-geographic area during the analysis of international events. Know how to place historical events in the correct time and place represents the result of a good preparation. Reason for which the student’s preparation will be evaluated on this basis:
-up to 10 points for a synthesized response to a direct question (by synthesized, be aware, is not intended as “brevity” but at the EXHAUSTIVENESS of the answer without beating around the bush). Therefor it will be important to get the answer right away and complete the response promptly.
-up to 10 points for the capacity to place an event within its space-time dimension
-up to 10 points for the formal level of an oral presentation, capacity of making connections between historical events and to make additional analyses, even critical, if appropriate.
The oral test may be replaced by a written paper (short essay) in which the student will be able to undertake individual work on a topic of his or her choice from those identified with the lecturer.
Extended program
The programme includes the study of Russia (the Soviet Union) mainly in the 20th and 21st centuries and its relations with the states of the Caucasus and the Balkans. The aim of the programme is to show how Russian-Soviet policy has marked a decisive turning point in international affairs, from the Bolshevik Revolution to the Putin era. In outlining the characteristics of this long period of forced "ideologisation", the system of international relations that from the end of the 19th century onwards has conditioned alliances and created blackouts in bilateral relations between neighbouring peoples must be taken into account. On the basis of these premises, the course aims to trace clear coordinates of how these historical processes have revolutionised Caucasian, Balkan and Eurasian life in the last thirty years.
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