The Center for Regional and Transboundary Studies specializes mainly in actual social, political and ethno-cultural space. The geographic area of the Center's studies includes primarily the post-Soviet space and contiguous Middle Eastern countries.

Volgograd region in which the Center is located is a part of the Lower Volga Area that has the unique strategic situation as cross-roads of key communication routes connecting Central and Northern Russia, other European countries to Caucasus and Central Asia, as well as Caspian system to Black Sea And Baltic ones. The region itself is a zone of intensive contacts between Orthodox, Muslim, Buddhist civilizations and ethnic groups. Volgograd region has also a part of Russian-Kazakhstan,s border which is the sole example of “transparent” border between European and Asian, Christian and Muslim civilizations. These contacts provide broad prospects for international and interregional cooperation, but some issues can create serious problems for regional, national and even international security, including illegal migration, drugs and arms smuggling, exacerbation of ethnic tensions, extremism etc. So, Volgograd region can have importance both for case studies and broader research of the above-mentioned problems.

The prior research interests of the Center include:

1. social, economic, political, cultural processes in new borderlands of the new independent states, including transboundary interaction between them;
2. international relations in the Post-Soviet space (especially in Central Asia and in the zone contiguous to South-Western Russia (Lower Volga and Don regions, Northern Caucasus);
3. regional and national security issues in the Post-Soviet space;
4. ethno-cultural issues of the Post-Soviet space including the role of ethnic and religious factors in modern social and political processes.

The main research projects where the Center or its research fellows participated were:

1. In 2004-2005 an international research project "Transboundary Drug-Trafficking through Russia's Borders with Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kazakhstan", supported by the Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (American University, Washington, D.C., USA), was held on the basis of the Center for Regional Stuides (the head was Dr. Serghei Golunov). 10 scholars from Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan participated in this project. The outcome will be published as a collective report (in Russian) in spring of 2006.

2. In 2004 an international research project "Drug-Trafficking as a Challenge for Russia-Kazakhstan Border Security", supported by the Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (American University, Washington, D.C., USA), was held on the basis of the Center for Regional Stuides (the head was Dr. Serghei Golunov). 6 scholars from Russia and Kazakhstan participated in this project. The outcome was published as a collective research report (in Russian).

3. From 2004 to the present time the project “’The Number Game:’ Sources of Public Support for Anti-Migrant Exclusionism in Post-Soviet Russia”, supported by John and Catherine MacArthur Foundation is held. The project is carried out by the Director of CRTS Dr. Sergey Golunov and a Professor of San Diego State University (USA) Mikhail Alexseev. The outcome will be published as a monograph and a series of articles in English and Russian.

4. "Security Issues of the New Russian Borderlands". The project was carried out in 2001-2002 with support of the Academic Educational Forum on International Relations (Moscow, Russia). The outcome of the project will be a collective monograph "Security Issues and International Cooperation in the New Russian Borderlands" that is planned to be issued in autumn of 2002. For more detailed information (in Russian) click here.

5. "Russia-Kazakhstan Borderland: conflict and cooperation". It was an individual research project of Dr. Sergey Golunov was carried out from 2000 to 2002 with support of the Research Support Scheme program of George Soros Foundation.

New! 3. Research project The “'Number Game': Sources of Public Support for Anti-Migrant Exclusionism in Post-Soviet Russia". The project was carried out in 2005-2007. It made possible with major funding of the grant for Research and Writing of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Program on Global Security and Sustainability.







Copyright © 2002-2005 Center for Regional and Transboundary Studies at Volgograd State University

Copyright © 2002-2005 Sergey Golunov