Bøger udgivet af Ibidem-Verlag

Several consecutive global crises, including the collapse of the Socialist bloc, the global economic crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the current war in Ukraine have put the lives of citizens of former Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union under threat. How do the most affected amongst them manage to survive global crises? How do their experiences from previous crises influence their behavior when a new global crisis emerges? Through a unique comparison of life paths of post-Yugoslav and post-Soviet migrants and their communities across Europe, the Americas, and Africa, Sanja Tepavcevic offers a novel theoretical approach revealing a relationship between loyalty to communities and resilience to global crises. For many post-Yugoslav and post-Soviet migrants, the (perception of) exclusion from communities that they belonged to prior to a crisis tends to reshape their sense of belonging and modifies their loyalty to and identification with a community or collective identity. These processes represent psychological and cultural (or ¿soft¿) forms of resilience. Similarly, as Tepavcevic demonstrates, greater physical (or ¿tangible¿) resilience shows itself in emigration and the formation of alternative communities. By combining and analyzing narratives, participant observations, and theories of resilience and loyalty borrowed from social, behavioral, and the natural sciences, Tepavcevic demonstrates that global crises challenge existing communities and generate various forms of migrant communities, loyalty, and resilience. Among others, social scientists, migration policy-makers, and migrants will benefit from reading this book.

In the ever-evolving landscape of startups, risks and opportunities draw in creative and entrepreneurial individuals who strive to realise their visions. While much of this occurs concealed from the gaze of the public, innovation has transformed from an enigmatic black box into a predictable and manageable process¿provided one possesses the right tools and knows where to look and what actions to take. The method presented here for evaluating and managing startup risks is geared towards the uncertain world of innovative startups and enables entrepreneurs and investors to navigate it more confidently. The book focuses on the initial stages of startup creation all the way through to implementation and marketing. It adopts an incremental delivery perspective, underscoring the importance of understanding the intricate processes of bringing an innovative idea to fruition. The book also explores broader applications of the proposed Hypothesis Testing Method for the systemic development of innovation-promoting ecosystems and startups in the context of post-war economic recovery. This guide will be invaluable to practitioners seeking to navigate the complexities of innovation, harnessing the potential of cutting-edge startups, and contributing to the resurgence of economies emerging from the aftermath of armed conflict.

This collection introduces Activity Theory to the current generation of theorists and researchers. Originating in early Soviet psychology, suppressed by Stalin, and later rediscovered, this rich theoretical tradition and intellectual movement proliferated globally and developed in different directions across a variety of disciplines. However, until recently it remained ¿the best-held secret of academiä (Engeström 2009).Activity Theory presents a unique approach to studying the nature, origin, and development of human subjectivity. Its core proposition is that the mind cannot be reduced to individual brain or body functions, nor can be understood as a discursive or cultural phenomenon. Instead, Activity Theory posits that the mind emerges and develops inter-subjectively, and is internalized by individuals always embedded, along with their culture and language, in the context of object-oriented social practices. By refocusing the lens of inquiry from the individual onto the patterns of activity in which they move, this method illuminates a special reality¿the materiality of human practice, which shapes the subject in ways that biological and cultural explanations cannot fully capture. This volume assembles current scholarship from prominent figures across diverse fields who share the Activity Theory approach. It presents their findings and reflects on Activity Theory¿s history, significance, and prospects. With contributions by David Bakhurst, Andy Blunden, Mikael Brunila, Juliano Camillo, Seth Chaiklin, Michael Cole, Brecht De Smet, Yrjö Engeström, Cathrine Hasse, Alex Levant, Miriam McSweeney, Cristiano Mattos, Kyoko Murakami, Bonnie Nardi, Vesa Oittinen, Juhana Rantavuori, André Machado Rodriguez, Annalisa Sannino, Anna Stetsenko, Katsuhiro Yamazumi.

Village is not just a place, but an idea. Likewise, a city is not just a place, but a metaphor. Human imagination has conceived both village and city as opposite to one another. When we were tired of living in villages, we invented cities; when we no-longer wanted to stay in the cities, we went back to villages. Village life is conventionally perceived as idyllic with clean air, water, food and helpful neighbors; whereas life in the city is often regarded as complicated, isolated, expensive and dwelling of crime. This collected volume critically discusses the literary representation of the village and the city. Its contributors argue that villages are also capable of crime, violence, and punishment along with cities, and cities can also be a place of deep love, friendship, and compassion just like villages. Many contributors also bring home the environmental implications of both village and city with reference to the contemporary model of development. The volume has a global approach¿the contributors examine literary representation of village and city from such diverse locations as India, England, America, Nigeria, Algeria, Island, Turkey, Greece, South Asia, and many more.

¿The publication of the 2nd edition of Chris Webb¿s book on Sobibor is an important addition to the literature on the Aktion Reinhardt camps, which are still under researched in relation to their significance in terms of the Final Solution. The published literature on the Aktion Reinhardt camps is scant indeed in comparison with for example Auschwitz-Birkenau. Of note is the new chapter on the post war testimonies of SS personnel many published here for the first time in English. The focus on perpetrators be it SS or Trawniki men is important given they have been significantly under researched to date. I have known Chris for twenty years and met him for the first time in 2003 when we visited the sites of the Aktion Reinhardt camps in person. Chris has been researching the Aktion Reinhardt camps for more than 50 years and his knowledge is unequalled. I would highly recommend the revised edition of his book on Sobibor to all serious scholars of the Holocaust.¿¿Cameron A Munro, Chairman Tiergarten4Association e.V.¿Chris Webb¿s book is a thought-provoking, well written piece on a still sadly under-researched topic: The Sobibor death camp. The book is the result of decades of research and multiple trips to the original site. Its strength lies in the close examination of the smallest details; its emotional power is derived from a thorough analysis of the fates of the perpetrators and the victims.¿¿Robert Parzer, Historian, Berlin

The authors take an in-depth look at an accepted practice of classifying ALL animals held in a business of primary product in Australia as revenue assets regardless of the function they perform in that business. This practice denies retiring farmers tax concessions granted to other businesses. They describe the practice as unfair, and after a deep examination of the circumstances that gave rise to the generally accepted accounting and tax interpretation, they find that it is not true. They report their story and point their fingers at a glaring tax injustice.

The inscription on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Gnothi seauton (Know thyself), is taken up by Socrates and pursued as the center of philosophy. Self-knowledge is the theme that endures throughout the history of philosophy. It is a theme that philosophy shares with literature. We know ourselves to be human, but the question remains as to what it means to be human. What we are is a metaphysical and ethical problem. Satire shows us how others see us. Memory, the mother of the Muses, gives us access to see ourselves as we have been, are now, and may be in the future. This work considers the idea of satire through the writings of Aristophanes, Lucian, Erasmus, Rabelais, Swift, Voltaire, and Joyce. It examines the nature of memory in terms of the views of Hesiod, Plato, Aristotle, Camillo, Vico, Hegel, and Joyce. Attention to Joyce in both instances is to Finnegans Wake. The author invites readers to take up the question of self-knowledge, to pursue it further in their own terms and sources.

This book has come out of the art project "Icons on Lids of Ammunition Boxes" initiated and led by Sofiia (Sonya) Atlantova and Oleksandr Klymenko. Painted on fragments of empty cartridge containers brought back from the front, the icons are silent witnesses to Russia's covert war against Ukraine in the Donets Basin in 2014-2021. At the same time, they are testimony to the victory of life over death - not only in symbolic but also in real terms. Since the spring of 2015, the project was a volunteer initiative whose revenues support the Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital. This unit provided medical assistance to military personnel and civilians in the Anti-Terrorist Operation / Joint Forces Operation zone.The contributors to the book include Volodymyr Rafeyenko, Hennadiy Druzenko, Archimandrite Kyrylo Hovorun, George Weigel, and Zoya Chegusova.

Based on a rich collection of primary and secondary sources, Leonid Ushkalov presents his biography of the famous Ukrainian philosopher and theologian Hryhorii (Gregorius) Skovoroda (1722-1794). However, this book not only a biography of a prominent person, but also a vivid presentation of the life and culture of eighteenth-century Ukraine. The eleven chapters of the book describing Skovoroda's development are framed by two separate stories, a Prelude and a Finale. They are intended to give Skovoroda's biography as much depth as possible and to show his paramount role in the Ukrainian spiritual tradition.

Alexander Strashny examinines what defines Ukrainians as a people and makes them tick. Based on an analysis of Ukraine¿s history, everyday life, economy, military affairs, gender, religion, art, music, and other cultural aspects, the Strashny, a trained psychoanlyst and prolific author, outlines those psychological features of Ukrainians that define them as a distinctive nation. Upon examining similarities and differences between Ukrainians and Europeans, on the one hand, and Russians, on the other, the author singles out the fifty most salient features of the Ukrainian outlook, whose combination constitutes the essence of the Ukrainian mentality. The book explains how the population of a relatively small country successfully resists a more powerful and ruthless aggressor.

Looking for a gripping and thought-provoking read? Look no further than this captivating book about two journalists, a Tanzanian, Agnes and Jon, an Englishman, who embark on a dangerous journey to report on the trafficking of West African migrants. As they travel from Senegal and Mali through Mauritania, Morocco, Spain, France and eventually to England, Agnes and Jon encounter heart-wrenching tales of hardship and loss. But their own lives are also at risk, as Agnes is kidnapped by traffickers and Jon sets out to rescue her. Along the way, they meet Ana, a journalist from Spain, and later a daring romance develops involving the three of them. Their journey takes them to the slums of Paris and London, where they inspire the BBC to film their story. But their quest for truth comes at a high price, as they are captured by a guerrilla movement in Morocco and ultimately meet a disastrous end in Libya. This fast-paced and gripping story sheds light on the harsh realities of trafficking and the bravery of journalists who risk everything to uncover the truth. Full of danger, excitement, and humanity, this is a book you won¿t be able to put down.

The Ukrainian response to the 2022 Russian invasion has inspired a new appreciation for their country both within and beyond Ukraine. The steadfastness of Ukrainians in the defense of their country has surprised many. The stories presented here highlight the ways in which Ukrainians have long explored the meaning of their country and culture through the arts; and the manner in which the arts and their creators have empowered Ukrainians to confront the Russian invaders. These developments also offer intriguing clues about the culture, society, and politics of a post-war Ukraine.

This fascinating autobiography offers not a success story; nor a paean to the resilience of the human spirit; nor a search for identity constrained by class, race, and gender or the other usual suspects; nor a tearjerker that engenders in the Western reader a sense of superiority or schadenfreude. Rather, it is a tale of the joys and hardships of simple living, of an enduring curiosity about the world, of teachers and friends, of marriage and divorce, of Chinese and American societies, of tofu and jalapeños, of character flaws and personality quirks, of humbug and folly.

Ukraine is a misfit among post-communist states, being neither a respectable, stable democracy nor an autocracy. Nor does it sit well as a patronal political system, like other post-Soviet regimes, since the Euromaidan Revolution. This study examines the presidencies of Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelenskyy focusing on their common tendency to subordinate the legal system and use it as a political instrument. It finds that this pattern of power struggle concentrated in the president¿s office was, contrary to the theory of patronal politics, more dominant than clientelism. The second theme of this book is each president¿s handling of relations¿largely meaning the war¿with Russia, in the wake of the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and culminating in the invasion of 2022, as the key challenge to the nation¿s survival. One way or another, unable to reform itself or to withstand the Russian assault, post-Euromaidan Ukraine will have come to an end."An important contribution to the literature!  There is a lot of interest in Ukraine, and the focus . . . on the past decade or so is so important.¿¿Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Professor of Political Science, University of Alberta

The 2013¿2014 Euromaidan Revolution¿s call for justice, dignity, and liberty brought Ukraine, which had ¿disappeared ¿ behind the Iron Curtain for decades after the horrors of World War II, into the world¿s public consciousness. Yet, the country was soon almost forgotten again. In early 2022, the rapid escalation of Putin¿s war on Ukraine has put the country back into the spotlight. Without knowing the country¿s past, one cannot understand its present. This anthology tackles the complex history of terror and violence in Ukraine ¿ from the millionfold starvation of the Holodomor to the changing occupation regimes, from the ¿Shoah by Bullets¿ to the Chornobyl disaster. Those ready to delve deeper into the checkered, painful history of the country will better understand Ukraine¿s current quest for independence, freedom, and democracy. The volume¿s contributors are Serhii Plokhii, Timothy D. Snyder, Anna Veronika Wendland, Anne Applebaum, Eduard Klein, Gelinada Grinchenko, Gerhard Simon, Irina Scherbakowa, Jan Claas Behrends, Karel C. Berkhoff, Kateryna Mishchenko, Klaus Wolschner, Nikolai Klimeniouk, Nikolaus von Twickel, Oksana Grytsenko, Ottmar Träc¿, Rebecca Harms, Sebastian Christ, Sébastien Gobert, Viktoria Savchuk, Volodymyr Yermolenko, Wilfried Jilge, Christoph Brumme, and Yevhen Hlibovytsky.

In Noche Triste (¿Sad Night¿), Robert Radin explores his struggles with anorexia in the 1980s. He also examines the history of self-starvation ¿ its roots in rituals of religious purification, its development into an entertainment craze, its use as a tool of resistance ¿ and, in the process, forces us to reconsider what it means to have anorexia. As his starving becomes an increasingly political act and he ventures to Mexico, alone, alienated from loved ones, we realize he¿s in the grip of something dangerous that neither he, nor we, fully understand. Written in exquisite prose, Noche Triste is a devastating, revelatory chronicle of a complex illness.In this unflinching memoir, Robert Radin describes a painful struggle with anorexia that begins with the diagnosis of a friend¿s sister. Interweaving his personal recollections with historical accounts of fasts, holy visions, hunger strikes, and force-feeding, he turns a lens on the role that hunger has played both in public and in private, not only in the realms of medicine and psychology but in art, culture, and religion. Ultimately, though, this is a strikingly intense and personal story framed within the larger context of an illness that continues to defy generalizations. ¿Leah Browning, author of Orchard City and In the Chair MuseumRobert Radin¿s Noche Triste goes straight to the heart of anorexia and refuses to look away. It¿s a heartfelt, fast-paced, often startling study of the disorder¿s paradoxes, and Radin¿s own passage through them. By disappearing you appear, he writes, and by appearing you disappear. I found it riveting.¿Rosecrans Baldwin, author of Everything Now¿Robert Radin¿s poignant, beautiful memoir tells the story of his quiet descent into anorexia with grace and sensitivity. Noche Triste is every bit as informative as Hilde Bruch¿s classic The Golden Cage. When Radin reveals the traumatic antecedents of his eating disorder, his voice is clear and brave.¿Robert Brandt, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and co-founder of The FACE Program

This book comprises a collection of essays that shed light on some of the key humanitarian issues that have emerged in independent Ukraine since the fall of the Soviet Union. With a strong empirical focus, the chapters explore pivotal events such as the 1990 Student Revolution on Granite (referring to the stone of Kyiv¿s Independence Square), the 2004 Orange Revolution (named after Viktor Yushchenkös campaign color), and the 2013¿2014 Revolution of Dignity (also known as »Euromaidan«). The book examines the evolution of a robust civil society, the emergence of a Ukrainian political nation, and the ultimate achievement of national unity among Ukrainians.These developments are not only analyzed in the context of Ukraine¿s recent state-building successes but are also viewed as a continuation of the country¿s longstanding national liberation struggle for independence from Russia. Of particular note, the book highlights the ongoing re-evaluation of established stereotypes surrounding the roots of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, which the author, Kvit, presents as a clash of civilizational values.These thought-provoking essays by one of Ukraine¿s most prominent political intellectuals will prove valuable not only to those with an interest in Ukraine but also to scholars across a range of disciplines, including mass communications, political science, philosophical hermeneutics, history, and higher education.

Western academics, experts, and journalists specializing in Eastern Europe, Russia and Eurasia have grappled with two fundamental analytical crises in connection with the 1991 disintegration of the USSR and Russiäs 2014 invasion of Ukraine. Both crises were brought about by a similar lack of understanding of Moscow¿s inability to view its neighbors, in particular Ukraine, as not possessing sovereignty and not treating them as independent states. Typically, they downplayed the historic and current role of Russian imperialism and nationalism.The book¿s contributors investigate how the Kremlin¿s recent turbo-charging of Russiäs information warfare, 24-hour TV, and social media activity has expanded on traditional pro-Russian sentiments among Western academics, experts, and journalists. The authors analyze the downplaying of Russian nationalism, misinterpretations of the 2014 crisis, sympathetic portrayals of Crimeäs occupation, and the use of the term ¿civil war¿ rather than ¿Russian-Ukrainian war¿ for the Donbas conflict in academia as well as the think tank world and media in the UK, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Japan, USA, and Canada.

This book presents a collection of reportages from Ukraine spanning roughly one year, from February 2022 to February 2023. Its focus is on the experiences of women in the context of war, whether they are soldiers, volunteers, refugees, or do not fit into any of these categories. Through their stories, the book sheds light on how women are trying to make sense of the conflict and the unique struggles they face.The reportages vary in their content and perspective. One follows the story of a woman-soldier who had to combat invading troops while dealing with the deportation of her child to Russia. Another tells of a woman who passed through a filtration process and managed to rescue her handicapped mother from Russia. There is also the tale of a woman whose partner died in battle and who joined the army in his memory, and that of a journalist who faced personal challenges while identifying Russian soldiers.Other stories feature women who represent different backgrounds and challenges, such as a grandmother who tries to maintain a sense of normalcy and tend to her garden despite the bombing, an African Ukrainian aspiring to be a dancer while facing prejudices, and a disabled activist who rescues other people with disabilities who are stranded under occupation.Despite their different experiences, these women share commonalities such as being Ukrainian, female, and having been touched by war, loss, and heroism in different ways. Through their stories, the book offers a diverse and nuanced portrayal of the impact of war on women¿s lives.

The war in Ukraine did not start on 24 February 2022. It began eight years earlier in eastern Ukraine¿s Donbas region. In his new book, Jakob Hauter investigates the escalation of violence in the spring and summer of 2014. He demonstrates that, contrary to popular belief, the pre-2022 conflict was not a civil war. Ukraine has been fighting a Russian invasion since the armed conflict¿s very beginning. Hauter arrives at this conclusion based on a thorough review of the digital open source information (DOSI) available on the Internet. He argues that social science research needs theoretical and methodological innovation to operate in the abundant but murky information environment surrounding the Donbas War and other conflicts of the social media age. To address this challenge, he develops an escalation sequence model which divides the formative phase of the Donbas War into six critical junctures. He then combines the social science methodology of process tracing with DOSI analysis to investigate the causes of these critical junctures. For each juncture, Hauter assesses the available evidence of domestic causes and Russian interference, reaching the conclusion that, in most cases, there is convincing evidence that Russian involvement was the primary cause of armed escalation.¿This excellent, meticulously researched book is important. Not only does it provide fresh insights based on forensic analysis into the escalation of violence in Ukraine¿s Donbas region in 2014, it breaks new methodological ground: It shows how process tracing and the use of digital open source information can be combined in a rigorous way to deal with the informational challenges associated with conflict. Russiäs Overlooked Invasion brings much-needed transparency to an opaque but vital subject.¿¿Ben Noble, Associate Professor of Russian Politics, UCL SSEES¿Most previous accounts of the war in Eastern Ukraine have not gone beyond generalities. Hauter uses open source Intelligence for a forensic analysis, breaking down the events leading to war into six critical junctures, in four of which Russia is shown to have been the primary actor. Without Russia, moreover, there would have been no necessary progression through the six phases, and a containable conflict would not have become a hot war.¿¿Andrew Wilson, Professor of Ukrainian Studies, UCL SSEES

The past is an ever-flowing and never-dying river in human consciousness. Any single piece of our memories is a constituent part of this river. By our remembering acts, we continuously and intermittently become connected to our stream of consciousness. Therefore, remembering is an integrated part of our mind. Similarly, it is a salient property of fictional minds, too. The past is a defining element for the characters¿ sense of identity in narrative fiction. This is the case in the three narratives analysed in the present book. The Sea (2005) by John Banville, The Gathering (2007) by Anne Enright, and Milkman (2018) by Anna Burns are post-millennial Irish narratives in which remembrance of the things past is indexed to the first-person narrators¿ sense of identity. In its three parts and by drawing on the theories of memory and remembering, this book explores how the storytellers¿ acts of recollecting, retrieving, recalling, as well as retelling eventful episodes from the past bring about constructive emotional and cognitive outputs for them.

This book tells us about how Russia fought against journalists and the freedom of speech during the occupation of Crimea and thereafter. Yuriy Lukanov, a journalist who covered these events, describes not only his own impressions, but present us also many interviews he conducted with journalists who worked in Crimea at that time. The book shows that how Russia systematically fought against free press and free reporting¿from simple restriction of access to information to physical beatings and criminal prosecution of journalist. The volume is illustrated with photos by the author and his colleagues.With a foreword by Taras Kuzio.

In her new book, Catarina Belo explores central issues pertaining to virtue ethics from both a classical and a contemporary perspective. She examines classical theories of virtue as developed by Aristotle, Aquinas, and Shaftesbury, while highlighting central topics within ethical theory and virtue ethics, such as voluntariness, the notion of the good, happiness, and the need to understand human nature and the emotions in developing an ethical theory.Written as a dialogue between a student and a teacher, following the structure and some of the themes of a previous dialogue, Spirit in Philosophy: A Metaphysical Inquiry (Stuttgart, WiSa, 2019), this work also aims to reconcile the notions of virtue and duty.

In this book we shall be arguing, among other things, for a belief or set of beliefs that neither requires God or is necessarily incompatible with such a spiritual presupposition. It is our view that modern belief does not require God, but may, nevertheless let Him in if so desired. What is most important though is that belief be viewed as a metaphysical-existential category of being that precedes every other category. Thus, for a human to be a human at all he or she must first believe.Therefore I primarily write for those who are neither convinced by traditional religions or who have not yet been soundly converted by the New Atheists. I also write for those who in their hearts and minds waver between the practice and theories of modern science and the traditional contents and moral prejudices of ancient belief.Religion has not died. God is still with us. And faith continues to be a power in the world. And although there are many who believe they can do without all three of these things, there are, I suppose, many more who would welcome at least a convincing modern substitute for them.

Gödel Forever takes a critical look at several foundation claims on Gödelian incompleteness that have appeared in the literature over the years, strictly adhering to mathematical details. Rephrasing the words from Torkel Franzén: Ken Williams presents a new book on Gödel's incompleteness theorem for a general audience since no existing book both explains the theorem from a mathematical point of view and reflects his experiences over the years of reading and commenting on references to the incompleteness theorem on the Internet.The range of critical review on the one hand and its elementary, if detailed, derivation of Gödel's Result (on which it is based) on the other makes Gödel Forever a must read for the serious study of the meaning and consequences of Gödel's Incompleteness.

This book is a contribution to European comparative history involving Portugal and Slovakia, but also the larger geographic units of Iberia and Slavic Central Europe. While developments in Portugal and Slovakia predominate, Spain, the Czech lands, and other regions are discussed as well. The subjects investigated include the position of women and the activities of messianic thinkers in the seventeenth century as well as semi-fascist Catholic political movements in the twentieth century. The authors look at the subject matter from the viewpoint of politics, social phenomena, and culture. The cultural dimension includes religion and ideology, both of which have clearly been of critical importance in Portuguese and Slovak history. It also includes problems of ethno-linguistic and national identity and the more recent phenomenon of multiculturalism, whose social promotion is controversial and uncertain."This comparative study by Zuzana Polá¿ková and Peter C. van Duin, a collection of essays, is a revelation, especially for students of European authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, and, furthermore, anybody interested in European history."¿Josette Baer, Professor, UZH University of Zurich"This book gives proof to Cicerös dictum: "Historia magistra vitae est"¿without knowledge of the past we cannot build a sustainable future. Thanks to the authors for this great contribution to knowledge!"¿Lucia Mokrá, Professor of International Law, Comenius University, Bratislava"This collection of essays provides not only fascinating insights into the political workings of these two small states, but of the workings of politics in the larger Iberian / Slavic context. Highly recommended."¿Dr. David Reichardt, International Relations, Webster University, Saint-Louis, Missouri "A very important contribution to the study of the comparative history of Europe, and therefore I fully recommend its publication."¿Mgr. Juraj Marüiak, PhD. Institute of Political Science, public research institution, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Western academics, experts, and journalists specializing in Eastern Europe and Eurasia have grappled with two fundamental analytical crises in connection with the 1991 disintegration of the USSR and Russiäs 2014 invasion of Ukraine. Both crises were brought about by similar lack of understanding by scholars, think tank experts, and journalists of Moscow¿s relations with its neighbors. Typically, they were characterized by a downplaying of the historic and current role of Russian great power nationalism. The authors of this issue of JSPPS investigate how the Kremlin¿s recent turbo-charging of Russiäs information warfare, 24-hour TV, and social media activity has expanded on traditional pro-Russian sentiments among Western academics, experts, and journalists. The contributors analyze the downplaying of Russian nationalism, misinterpretations of the 2014 crisis, sympathetic portrayals of Crimeäs occupation, and the use of the term ¿civil war¿ rather than ¿Russian¿Ukrainian war¿ for the Donbas conflict in academia as well as the think tank world and media in the UK, Germany, Poland, Japan, USA, and Canada. The list of contributors includes: Olga Bertelsen (Tiffin University, Ohio), Paul D¿Anieri (University of California at Riverside), Sanshiro Hosaka (University of Tartu), Andrei Znamenski (University of Memphis, Tennessee), and Sergei I. Zhuk (Ball State University, Indiana).

This collection is a multi-author volume of essays examining the work of over twenty poets from South Western Ireland, who write in both English and Irish. Offering overviews of each of the poets¿ work, the chapters also focus on significant features of their respective oeuvres. Among the poets studied are Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Seán Ó Tuama, John Montague, Gerry Murphy, Thomas McCarthy, Trevor Joyce, and Doireann Ní Ghríofa. The multifaceted volume addresses the different currents that are significant in the work of these poets, from the Modernism of MacGreevy to the politico-historical approach adopted by Thomas McCarthy. It places poetry in English and Irish side by side and creates a system of echoes that become apparent when the poets¿ work is read in conjunction with that of their fellow writers. The contributors to the volume come from Ireland, the US, and Europe and include confirmed and emerging academics."The volume greatly enhances our knowledge of Irish poetry. It offers a comprehensive vision of poetic writing from the South-West of Ireland, both in Irish and in English."¿Munira Hamud Mutran, professor of Irish Studies, University of São Paulo, Brazil¿The south of Ireland has been blessed with several excellent, albeit underestimated poets. While readers who are aware of the accomplishments with figures such as John Montague, Elaine Ní Chuillianáin, Thomas McGreevy, and Seán Dunne will welcome Poets of Munster with pleasure, readers unfamiliar with these writers will be grateful to learn of the hidden riches revealed in this book.¿¿Charles Armstrong, professor of English literature, University of Agder, Norway