http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12323/5104 2026-04-15T05:39:14Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12323/5971 Title: NATO and its partnerships in the Asia-Pacific vs. China’s “marching West”: a new international system in the making? Authors: Vernygora, Vlad 2017-09-17T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12323/5970 Title: A Modern Empire and Its Public Diplomacy: On Russia’s Communication With Estonia Authors: Vernygora, Vlad; Belonosova, Elizaveta Abstract: Defining the Russian Federation as one of the four contemporary empires (Zielonka 2012), this article links the imperial paradigm (Parker 2010; Zielonka 2012, 2013, 2015; Colomer 2017), social constructs building (Wendt 1992), strategic narrative theory (Miskimmon et al. 2013), and soft power-associated public diplomacy instrumentarium (Melissen 2005; Nye 2008; Cull 2008, 2009; Cowan and Arsenault 2008) into a single conceptual framework to examine public diplomacy by the Russian Federation towards the Republic of Estonia. This analysis assumes that Russia understands Estonia as its own periphery in imperial terms. However, since Estonia already is an integral part of yet another modern empire (the European Union), our article notifies that Russia is left with a limited range of effective mechanisms of strategic communication with its Baltic neighbours, and Estonia in particular. Respectively, we test the following claim: in order to effectively project its strategic identity, system and policy narratives to Estonia, Russia prefers using a range of public diplomacy mechanisms rather than other types of communicational strategies. Empirically, we engage with eight annual reviews of the Estonian Internal Security Service (2012-2019/20). 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12323/5969 Title: The unbearable lightness of permanent integration: why does the EU need to answer its Ukrainian question? Authors: Vernygora, Vlad Abstract: The process of European integration has long ceased to be a ‘know-how’ of political science. Nowadays, it is the discipline’s daily routine, the prose of life and the sublimation of Milan Kundera’s “unbearable lightness of being.” There is a cost to bear, of course, but it is worth it. For example, the Estonian understanding of integration is that the country is never again to be in another version of the Soviet Union; the small Baltic/Nordic country is now heading to its centennial in 2018 being called Eesti Vabariik or, if translated literally from Estonian into English, the ‘Estonian Free State.’ Spain is integrating to keep Catalonia and the Basque Country – after all, both Futbol Club Barcelona and Bilboko Athletic Kluba are still playing in the Spanish La Liga, aren’t they? Apart from the rather beneficial financial side of integration for the EU’s strongest economy, Germany is very much favouring the idea to ensure that it is not to forget how and why the process commenced. There is also a very original ‘Greek way’ of integration, but let’s be quiet about it for now. 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12323/5963 Title: Ukraine-New Zealand Relations: Promise of a Date? Authors: Chaban, Natalia; Vernygora, Vlad Abstract: Newly independent Ukraine has a growing international presence and an increasing ambition to be a member of affluent international associations and alliances. Since regaining its sovereignty in 1991, Ukraine has been outspoken in its desire to eventually join the European Union (EU). This aspiration is more meaningful with the country’s current active involvement in the Council of Europe (CE).1 Ukraine’s image as an international actor is also shaped by its much debated intention of entering NATO, as well as its participation in the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (‘Nuclear Terrorism Convention’).2 Above all, Ukraine’s firm will to become a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) engages the country with a system of economic, political, and legal co-ordinates understood and followed around the world 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z