Russian and Eurasian civilization has become one of the most active CCR themes in the 2010s and 2020s. Andrei Tsygankov’s The “Russian Idea” in International Relations: Civilization and National Distinctiveness (Routledge, 2023) is reviewed in v91 as one of the most current engagements. Lubomír Dunaj et al.’s Civilization, Modernity, and Critique: Engaging Jóhann P. Árnason’s Macro-Social Theory (Routledge, 2023) is also reviewed in v91.

In v81, “The Twisted Mirror of Perception: Social Science in Service of Political/Ideological Expediency — The Case of Russian Eurasianism” treats the work of Aleksandr Dugin as a political and philosophical creed, documenting his rise and decline in Russia, his role as the man of extreme danger to the West, and his Eurasianism as a case of political expediency in knowledge production. The article reads Dugin as illustrative of the corruption of comparative civilizational thinking in the service of Russian state ideology.

In v92, “Tectonic Geopolitical Transformation, Russia’s Place as a ‘1,000-Year Eurasian Civilization State’” engages Russia as a civilization state and “Limits of Traditional Realism: Geopolitical Civilizational Narratives and Contemporary World Geopolitics.” In v85, Jack Weatherford’s Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World is reviewed by Ashok Kumar Malhotra, contributing to the Central Eurasian framing of Russian and Mongol civilization.

The Pahlavis and the Other Side of the Coins: A letter to the editor in v85 by Ardavan Khoshnood engages the Iranian civilizational tradition. In v91, Andrei Tsygankov’s The “Russian Idea” in International Relations is reviewed.

Source summaries:

  • v81 (Fall 2019) — “The Twisted Mirror of Perception: Social Science in Service of Political/Ideological Expediency — The Case of Russian Eurasianism” treats Dugin’s Eurasianism. (v81)
  • v85 (Fall 2021) — Ardavan Khoshnood, “The Pahlavis and the Other Side of the Coins”; Jack Weatherford’s Genghis Khan is reviewed by Ashok Kumar Malhotra. (v85)
  • v88 (Spring 2023) — “The Soul of Russia and the Soul of Ukraine” uses Spengler’s concept of soul to read the Russia-Ukraine conflict through Toynbee’s “schism in the soul.” (v88)
  • v89 (Fall 2023) — “Russia and Ukraine: Civilizational Security and Geopolitics” treats civilizational security as a dimension of the conflict. (v89)
  • v91 (Fall 2024) — Reviews of Andrei Tsygankov’s The “Russian Idea” and Dunaj et al.’s Civilization, Modernity, and Critique. (v91)
  • v92 (Spring 2025) — “Tectonic Geopolitical Transformation, Russia’s Place as a ‘1,000-Year Eurasian Civilization State’” and “Limits of Traditional Realism: Geopolitical Civilizational Narratives and Contemporary World Geopolitics.” (v92)
  • v94 (Spring 2026) — Nicholas Morieson, “Civilizational Nationalism and the Rise of the Civilization State: A Response to Stephen Satkiewicz.” (v94)