Professor Elena Korosteleva presents her newly published book, in discussion with Professor Trine Flockhart and Dr. Liv Nielsen
Book abstract
This book offers a unique IR perspective on resilience-nurturing with a focus on Central Eurasia, using the lens of complexity-thinking and community of relations. Central Eurasia - spanning Belarus and Ukraine in the west, South Caucasus in the south, and Kazakhstan in the east, faces multiple challenges today, from poverty, climate emergency, democratic struggles, and a devastating war in Ukraine, resulting in global consequences for the planet.
Yet, this region demonstrates remarkable resilience, being stubbornly affirmative about their better (alternative) futures, and visions of the good life, in the context of the Anthropocene. Central Eurasia avidly showcases a particular kind of resilience, one that is deeply ideational, spiritual, and communal.
This book will guide the reader towards discovering the real meaning of resilience, reclaimed from neoliberal thinking, and instead immersed into complex life, using Central Eurasia as a case study.
The book discussion will focus more specifically on the following questions:
- Why do we need to start thinking differently in the VUCA-world, and what is complexity-thinking?
- Why resilience in the age of complexity, and what makes it so special?
- How can resilience help us design alternative and more sustainable worlds?
About the speakers:
Elena Korosteleva is a professor of international politics and the director of the Institute for Global Sustainable Development at the University of Warwick. She is the author/editor of over 100 publications, including 14 books, and her research interests lie at the intersection of Complex IR and Development Studies. She regularly advises the UK Foreign Office, Parliament and EU institutions. Her GCRF COMPASS project received higher commendation by the Times Higher Education as the Best International Collaboration of 2021. She was a co-founder of Oxford Belarus Observatory (2021) and a founder of the Warwick Ukraine-Belarus Hub (2023). She is a COI of the AGMOW project led by Prof. Trine Flockhart.
Trine Flockhart is a full-time professor, holding the Chair in security studies at the Florence School of Transnational Governance. Professor Flockhart’s current research focuses on global (dis)order and processes of change and transformation, the crisis in the liberal international order, NATO and transatlantic relations, ontological security, constructivism, English School theory, and resilience. She has more than 100 publications, with her main academic articles having appeared in journals such as Review of International Studies, Contemporary Security Policy, Journal of Common Market Studies, European Journal of International Relations, and International Relations.
Liv Nielsen is a PhD Research Fellow at the Centre for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark. Her research examines environmental governance and transnational cooperation, with a particular focus on the politics and security of critical minerals in the context of the green transition and shifting global order. She is a Visiting Fellow at the Florence School of Transnational Governance, where she contributes to the international research project AGMOW, led by Prof. Trine Flockhart, while also advancing her own research on the governance and cooperation of critical minerals. Beyond academia, Liv serves as Chair of ‘Women in International Security Denmark’, the Danish affiliate of WIIS Global, where she works to promote gender equality and leadership opportunities in international peace and security.