13/11/2023
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: BORDERS AND BOUNDARIES
As a neighbourhood of countries, the geopolitical entity of Central and Eastern Europe bears a deceptively simple name for a region historically marked by flux. The map of Central and Eastern Europe, from a long durée approach, seems to be continually morphing into entirely new structures – featuring states that seem to burst into existence and, just as quickly, melt away. Bounded by both the imaginary and tangible political borders of both Western Europe and Russia, the CEE countries compose a region that is internally characterised by complexity and division in its own right. Constantly redefining, transgressing, and redrawing its own cultural, political and historical limits – the region’s boundaries are today, as they have always been, a subject of fervent debate.
With our second issue, we seek to answer the question of where these borders and boundaries lie, how they have been and are disputed and disrupted, and what this might mean for the future of the region. We are looking for articles that are broad in scope and – ideally – that look to answer this question from the different angles of political science, international relations, history, material history, sociology, literature, and/or economics.
“Borders and Boundaries” seeks to invite contemplation and re-evaluation of the lines and distinctions that traditionally define the CEE region. We welcome articles that praise and critique the structure of the region, that examine how these lines have been transgressed, and discuss how global and regional influences have dictated how these boundaries have been formed.
While we welcome all pieces that fall under the broad topic of “Central and Eastern European Affairs”, for this issue we are particularly looking for articles that examine the relationship of “Borders and Boundaries” from one of the following angles:
- Politics and International Relations: military expansionism, human rights transgressions and defense, EU expansion and candidature, NATO aspirations and membership, nationhood and sovereignty, migration and border control, the resurgence of national and ethnic tensions in the region, CEE and the Belt and Road Initiative.
- Culture, History, and Society: the Soviet and post-Soviet space, cultural legacy of the Warsaw Pact, material culture as geopolitically significant, literature that thematizes boundaries and borders, religion as a historical point of delineation between peoples, the role of language in border definition, urbanisation and rural identity.
- Economy: the role of economic policy in CEE statehood, the relationship between trade structures and geopolitical strategy, energy policy and security concerns in the region (gas pipelines, etc.), the influence of foreign direct investment in regional growth.
We are looking for submissions of up to 2000 words, in line with our general submission guidelines and our style guide.
We welcome both completed pieces and idea pitches. To submit please email us at [email protected]. The deadline for submission is December 13th 2023. In the subject line, please put a concise topic of the submission and the section(s) it is intended for, e.g. ‘Submission_Serbia’s EU Future_Politics & International Relations’. In the body of the email, please indicate the section you are submitting to, as well as your name and affiliated academic institution. If you are pitching an idea for a prospective piece, please also include a short overview of what your piece is intended to be about, including the issues covered and the specific perspective taken.
