Leonid Issaev

Congratulations to our colleague Miсah Zing on the successful completion of the Master's programme "Politics. Economics. Philosophy"! Mikah was one of the brightest and most active students in his graduation class. Micah Zing was awarded a diploma with distinction for his diligence and energy.

Leonid Issaev and Andrey Zakharov took part in the BRICS Academic Forum, which was held in Moscow from 22 to 24 May. The main goal of the forum was to develop academic exchanges, strengthen dialogue between the governments and expert community of the BRICS countries, and develop recommendations for the heads of state.

On 23 June, the Faculty of Social Sciences hosted a round table ‘Federalism in Russia and Ethiopia: Origins, Development and Prospects’ with the participation of scholars from the Ethiopian Policy Studies Institute. The Ethiopian delegation was led by Professor Petros Beyene, Director of the Institute. He shared his experience of working in Ethiopia's Transitional Government in the early 1990s, which drafted the country's current constitution, which provides for a transition to a federal model. On the FSN side, First Deputy Dean Mikhail Mironyuk took part in the roundtable, noting the stabilising role of federalism in Russia in recent years.

At the end of April 2024, HSE University hosted an international conference ‘Export of Russian Education to Africa: Challenges and Opportunities.’ The event was attended by leaders of universities from Mali, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Niger, and Guinea. Together with their Russian counterparts from government bodies, scientific and higher educational institutions, they outlined paths for the development of humanitarian relations and agreed on possible cooperation in the face of a changing world order.

The director and deputy director of CSRA Andrey V. Korotaev and Leonid M. Issaev, as well as Janos Besenyo from the University of Obuda (Hungary). The work clearly shows the organizational forms of terrorism in the MENA region and the Sahel. The authors reveal the motives and influence of big powers and external actors on the situation in this part of the globe.

The Russian Science Foundation announced the results of the competition, in which teams from the National Research University Higher School of Economics participated. In the field of humanities and social sciences, 8 applications were approved, 2 of which were submitted by the CSRA.

On March 1-3, the scholars of the Center for the Study of Stability and Risks Analysis (CSRA) and Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences HSE University took part in the international academic conference "The Place of Africa in the World: The Past and the Present" which was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, at the Russian Center for Science and Culture. This conference was devoted to a wide range of research topics and brought together experts from various fields. Beside scholars from Russia and Tanzania, researchers from India, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria and Holland presented their papers. The conference drew great attention of the Tanzanian academic community.

Researchers from the HSE Faculty of Social Sciences will study social processes in African countries, the issues and features of the continent’s demographic development, and problems related to the causes of separatism and decentralisation in particular African states during a multi-day scientific expedition that will be launched in June 2023.

The brochure contains basic information about the CSRA: history of origin, areas of activity, key achievements, publications, information about cooperation with educational programs, geography of expeditions and foreign partners.The brochure is of interest to both the HSE community and a wider audience.

The session was held on the basis on Yasin (April) Conference organized by HSE University annually.
During the session the speakers talked a lot about the challenges Africa is facing in the 21st century, as well as the opportunities that appear for this continent in a changing geopolitical context. The prospects for cooperation between Russia and African states were discussed in particular.

On March 11-12, 2023, the Al Jazeera Forum was held in Doha. The Al Jazeera Research Center organises the Forum annually. As a rule, well-known scientists and political figures from all over the world act as speakers of the event. The opening of the forum was attended by Sheikh Hamad Al Thani, the Chairman of the Directoral Board of Al Jazeera, and Majid Al Ansari, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar and the adviser to the Prime Minister.

An electronic version of the article "A Troubled Return to the Homeland: Syrian Circassians in Southern Russia" has been published on the Europe-Asia Studies journal website. The article covers issues related to the migration of Syrian Circassians (Adyghe) to the Russian regions of the North Caucasus. With the outbreak of conflict in Syria, hundreds of Syrian Circassians decided to move to the Caucasus, where their ancestors lived. Since the Caucasus is perceived by the Syrian Circassians as their historical homeland, they believe that this is not just migration, but repatriation. However, the institutionalization of repatriation took a long time, since there was a risk that supporters of Daesh (the terrorist organization is banned in the Russian Federation) could ifiltrate to Russia.

The South African Journal of International Relations (SAJIA) has published an article by laboratory scholars Leonid Issaev, Alisa Shishkina and Yakov Liokumovich entitled 'Perceptions of Russia's 'return' to Africa: Views from West Africa'. The article is included into the special issue covering the Russia's 'return' to Africa.

The Springer has published a new book edited by laboratory staff members Andrey Korotaev and Leonid Issaev, “New Wave of Revolutions in the MENA Region. A comparative Perspective". The book was written within the framework of a five-year project of the Russian Science Foundation "Quantitative analysis and forecasting of the risks of socio-political destabilization in the countries of the Afroasian macrozone of instability" and offers a comparative look at the new wave of revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa.

Leonid Issaev, Alisa Shishkina, Yevgeny Ivanov, and Yegor Fain, scholars of the Laboratory for Monitoring the Risks of Socio-Political Destabilization (HSE University) stayed in Tatarstan from 10 to 14 July 2022 to investigate the approach to Islamic education in the Republic.

From May 14 to May 21, 2022, the Laboratory staff and HSE students conducted an expedition in the Republic of Ingushetia.The activities of Islamic universities in Russian regions have been the focus of attention of the Laboratory staff for several years. A successful expedition to Dagestan in 2019 uncovered a great potential in this direction, but the COVID-19 pandemic did not allow field research. Finally, expedition opportunities have opened up again for HSE staff and students. This time we went to Ingushetia, one of the few regions where monoethnic nature of society is combined with the dominance of Islam. Our Laboratory became the first HSE unit to organize an expedition to Ingushetia, thereby opening up this region from a new perspective.

The laboratory's scholars Leonid Issaev and Evgeny Ivanov took part in the international workshop "Regionalism in the South Caucasus", which was held in Istanbul on the basis of the Institut français d'etudes anatoliennes (IFEA). The workshop was attended by researchers from Russia, Turkey, Iran, France, Sweden, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.

Springer published the book "Handbook of Revolutions in the 21st Century". The Lab's leading research fellows A.V. Korotaev and L.E. Grinin contributed as co-editors of J. Goldstone, one of the most famous researchers of revolutionary processes in modern political science.

On March 16, a meeting of the Lab's staff with students of the master's programs "Politics. Economics. Philosophy", "Applied Political Science" and "Russian Studies" was held.

From February 27 to March 7, Laboratory staff Leonid Isaev, Alice Shishkin and Yakov Lokumovich visited Tanzania.

The publication was based on the results of the expedition to Dagestan, organized by the laboratory, with the support of the HSE project "Discovering Russia again".

The special issue “Social and Political Transformations in the Middle East and Northern Africa Region” of the Ideology and Politics Journal was initiated to further research on the transformations in the MENA region. This issue presents interdisciplinary research that allows readers to look at the processes of socio-political development of the region from a different angle.

The Laboratory's researchers Leonid M. Issaev and Alisa R. Shishkina visited Cairo, Egypt. The trip was organized as a part of the project "Analysis and Modeling of African Development in the Context of Russia's Foreign Policy Interests". The visit lasted from 6th to 12th, November.