Some states, like Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Kazakhstan, are firmly aligned with Russia though in different ways. Other states, like Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova, are the subject of intense geopolitical competition and have divided territories.

The research project comprises a simultaneous common survey of 12 different states, and de facto states, that seeks to chart sentiment about the Soviet Union, the Great Patriotic War, Russia, the EU and the US. Media consumption habits, affective dispositions and conspiracy thinking is also examined. Expectations and early results will be presented and discussed.

Gearóid Ó Tuathail received a Ph. D. in Geography from Syracuse University in 1989. Dr Toal is an author of over a hundred peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters on territorial conflicts, US foreign policy, de facto states, popular culture, media and critical geopolitics.

He is the recipient of multiple research grants from the US National Science Foundation (NSF). His co-authored book Bosnia Remade: Ethnic Cleansing and Its Reversal (Oxford University Press, 2011) won the Julian Minghi Distinguished Book Award in 2012.

His latest book Near Abroad: Putin, the West and the Contest for Ukraine and the Caucasus (Oxford University Press, 2017) won the International Studies Association’s ENMIA Distinguished Book Award for 2019.

Dr Toal is currently working on a NSF research project that examines the geopolitical orientations of the populations of fifteen different states (recognized and unrecognized) on the borders of the Russian Federation.

This event is jointly sponsored by The Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security & Justice and Geography @ The School of Natural & Built Environment.

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