Collective ontological security refers to the psychological human need to be part of a stable collective identity. Populations expect leaders to help meet these ontological needs and support those that do. In the Eurasian region, and in addition to other objectives, Russian and Kazakh presidents have used regional cooperation efforts as an elite-led strategy of ontological security building and reinforcement-especially important as national identities were contested and weak after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Focusing on ontological security presents a novel research perspective on Eurasian regionalism and offers a new (but complementary) explanation of both autocratic regional cooperation and conflict.
The respective politico-military characters of the competing factions within the Boko Haram insurgency have not received as much academic attention as other features of the Boko Haram phenomenon. This article uses the concept of 'revolutionary warfare' to examine and compare the two main factions. Traditionally applied to Marxist movements, this conceptualization is increasingly associated with violent Jihadist groups who combine a revolutionary ideology with a strategy based on winning popular support and a growing ability to militarily beat conventional forces. It argues that the 'Islamic State West Africa Province' faction has adopted a revolutionary warfare approach based on increasingly sophisticated semi-conventional warfare and a simultaneous drive to win popular support. The Jama'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihad faction, while equally revolutionary in its goals, appears for doctrinal reasons and due to pressure from the military, to be operating in contrast to key revolutionary warfare precepts.
Focusing on the strategically important Caspian region, this article demonstrates how commercial energy diplomacy -political support for foreign-investing businesses -is increasingly conducted at the European Union (EU) level. It explains why member states have delegated this role, despite a general hesitancy to co-operate in foreign energy policy and perceptions of a strong division between diplomacy-based and (EU-favoured) governance-based approaches to external energy policy. To explain this new role (and its limits), this article employs a functional-rationalist framework focusing on the structural demands of a more challenging international energy environment and EU-level supply factors (economies of scale, increased leverage and more neutral/less politicized position of the EU) that help respond to it. Overall, the article examines an important area of increasing EU foreign energy cooperation and demonstrates how energy governance and diplomacy are not necessarily competing approaches, but rather different tools for achieving a more secure investment climate for European companies.
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