This essay compares the two major Western-centric efforts at “Europeanizing” Eastern Europe: attempts to establish institutions, policies, and practices associated with the modern nation-state concept, and then with the European Union. The extended length of time it took for national identity to gain substantial indigenous appeal suggests the need for a similarly lengthy period for the norms and values associated with the European Union to gain broader and deeper traction.

On the basis of archival sources and materials taken from periodical press, the authors investigate the history of the Persian diaspora in Ossetia. The article discusses the causes of Persian migration to Ossetia, which began in the second half of the 19th century; their settlement and adaptation processes; and mechanisms of intra-ethnic consolidation. The authors identify the means Persians used to adapt to the economy of the host society, in particular by fi nding economic niches in industry, craft, trade, and domestic services, and analyze their integration into new economic forms of urban lifestyle. Ethnic entrepreneurship emerges as the foundation of Persian community life. The article investigates the diaspora’s infrastructure, including the Persian Consulate, a Shiite mosque, the Persian school Navruz , the charitable society Himmat , and several other institutions. In general, for most minority communities the place of worship becomes the focus point of intraethnic consolidation and preservation of national identity, especially when the community is not simply ethnic but rather ethno-confessional. In the Persian community, however, the main regulatory and communicative functions were performed by the Consulate. The authors argue that the prominence of the Consulate resulted from the uncertain status of the mosque, from the fact that Shiite worshippers came from various nationalities, and from the conflicts among them. The authors examine the degree of preservation of traditional Persian culture in festive and ceremonial life, community behavior, and relations with the motherland. They identify how the Persian community integrated into the socio-cultural environment of poly-ethnic Vladikavkaz through trade relations, everyday contacts, and other means.

This article examines how the transfer of ethnic traditions among Belorussian peasant settlers in Asian Russia to their descendants has evolved since 1850. Based on field data collected from different generations of Belorussian settlers born during the 20th century, the study indicates that the mechanism of this transfer went through three very distinct phases. From the second half of the 19 th century until the 1920's, the children of Belorussian settlers adopted the ethnic identity and traditions of their parents, much like their forefathers back home. During the Soviet era, i.e., from the early 1920's until the late 1980's, the state sought to replace Belorussian customs and conventions among the settlers' children with its own homogenous, socialist modernity. After the USSR's collapse in 1991, the growing influence of mass media and more contemporary socio-cultural processes began to influence how ethnic traditions were transferred to the young. All three periods left their imprint on the outlook of the descendants of Belorussian settlers today. This is largely the result of the fact that practical knowledge and skills change more rapidly than deeper values and beliefs.

This Handbook is the first volume to comprehensively analyse and problem-solve how to manage the decline of fossil fuels as the world tackles climate change and shifts towards a low-carbon energy transition. The overall findings are straight-forward and unsurprising: although fossil fuels have powered the industrialisation of many nations and improved the lives of hundreds of millions of people, another century dominated by fossil fuels would be disastrous. Fossil fuels and associated greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced to a level that avoids rising temperatures and rising risks in support of a just and sustainable energy transition. Divided into four sections and 25 contributions from global leading experts, the chapters span a wide range of energy technologies and sources including fossil fuels, carbon mitigation options, renewables, low carbon energy, energy storage, electric vehicles and energy sectors (electricity, heat and transport). They cover varied legal jurisdictions and multiple governance approaches encompassing multi- and inter-disciplinary technological, environmental, social, economic, political, legal and policy perspectives with timely case studies from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America and the Pacific. Providing an insightful contribution to the literature and a much-needed synthesis of the field as a whole, this book will have great appeal to decision makers, practitioners, students and scholars in the field of energy transition studies seeking a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities and challenges in managing the decline of fossil fuels.

This preliminary report aims to provide basic background information on impacts of study abroad in Cambodia with a specific attention to the higher education sector. It focuses on both the national and institutional levels. At the national level, it examines the activities and achievements of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) and the Ministry of Civil Service (MoCS). At the institutional level, it covers the following four prominent public higher education institutions (HEIs) – the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), the Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC), the Royal University of Agriculture (RUA), and the Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE).

I tell you what I will and don’t ask me why... I think life is a dream and what you dream I live.

Nation-states and international organizations widely use educational programs to foster students' mobility abroad. The majority of scientific literature agrees in considering exchange programs as soft power instruments used by countries to promote their values in geopolitically and economically crucial regions. However, a more in-depth analysis of the reasons motivating nation-states to adopt such initiatives is needed to understand their political goals better. The current study consists of analysing the main formulations proposed by scholars, who delved into the topic of international academic mobility as a tool to promote values. The rationales of nation-states and international organizations to develop such programs of academic mobility can be very diverse (geopolitical, economic, and civic). The author described the main principles of each rationale (or logic), providing examples of existing educational programs adopted by countries or international organizations and how political values are promoted according to each logic. The boundaries between the four rationales described in the paper are not distinct and rigid. An educational program can respond at the same time to different logics, and the nation-states decide how to allocate resources to achieve specific results ascribable to a particular rationale. Although different rationales push nation-states and international organizations in promoting international programs of academic mobility, in all cases, such programs are instruments to promote political values.