The determinants of public opinion on foreign policy  In the South Caucasus: factors affecting the perception of Russia

Simonyan, Sofya

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dc.contributor.advisor	Sargsyan, Vigen
dc.contributor.author	Simonyan, Sofya
dc.date.accessioned	2014-07-24T10:32:56Z
dc.date.available	2014-07-24T10:32:56Z
dc.date.created	2008-12
dc.date.issued	2014-07-24
dc.identifier.uri	https://dspace.aua.am/xmlui/handle/123456789/457
dc.description	Many scholars and political philosophers have recognized that political systems are products of socially transmitted ideas, habits of mind and traditions and that no analysis of policy making makes sense without a cultural or identity context (Inkeles and Bauer 1959: Almond and Verba 1963; Gray 1999; Jones 2003). With the end of the Cold War, extensive research has been conducted to identify the determinants of foreign policy orientations in the post-Soviet space, focusing on the competing images of Russia versus West. Studies have shown that that the cultural context embedded in the notion of identity is one of the most important factors shaping political attitude and behavior in the post-Soviet space, thus, reaffirming Huntington’s paradigm that in the post-Cold War world the most significant distinctions among peoples are neither ideological nor political but cultural. The notion of identity has become central in most studies that focus on Russia’s relations with its “Near Abroad” neighbors. The post-Soviet nations forming part of the Russian Federation, CIS or Europe are often perceived in terms of their cultural affinity with Russia and their political orientation towards or against Russia. In a way, this “pro” or “anti” Russian perception came to replace the classic Cold War division of nations into “socialist” or “capitalist” blocs forming a new, less explicit geopolitical identity. The purpose of this paper is to study and compare the determinants of public opinion on foreign policy in the South Caucasus focusing on either pro-Russian or pro-Western attitudes to their foreign policies. The paper begins with a literature review of studies conducted on post-communist foreign policies, sets the hypothesis and the research questions discussed in this study, and then provides a detailed description of the methodology used to test the hypothesis and the research questions. The findings section provides the data on the variables used in the study followed by the data analysis. The paper concludes with a set of policy recommendations.	en_US
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US
dc.subject	Public opinion	en_US
dc.subject	Foreign policy	en_US
dc.subject	South Caucasus	en_US
dc.subject	Russia	en_US
dc.subject	Ethnicity	en_US
dc.subject	Language	en_US
dc.subject	Migrants	en_US
dc.subject	NATO	en_US
dc.title	The determinants of public opinion on foreign policy In the South Caucasus: factors affecting the perception of Russia	en_US
dc.type	Thesis	en_US
dc.academic.department	Political Science and International Affairs Program (MPSIA)