Maria Dembinska
Biographic Data
| ID | 304311 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Maria Dembinska |
| GIVEN NAMES | Maria |
| FAMILY NAME | Dembinska |
| SIGNATURE | DEMBINSKA M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Université de Montréal |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0214-0093 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 113 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1970 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Russia, Friend or Foe? Uneasy Memories of Nineteenth-Century Deportations in Abkhazia
The article investigates the use of history in political struggles over sovereignty. While most scholars focus on the conflictual Abkhaz–Georgian past, this study examines the ways in which Abkhazia navigates ‘troubled waters’ in its relations with Russia when commemorating nineteenth-century mass deportations. How does Abkhazia handle this founding historical myth, useful for nation/state-building, in the context of dependence on Russia for this…
Russia's Patronage Over Post-Soviet De Facto States: Protecting Compatriots or Geopolitical Interest in Transnistria
Most de facto states have patrons. In Eurasia, Russia serves as such to Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria, as it did to Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. What motivates patronal politics? While constructivists look for answers by studying Russia’s identity, representations and ‘compatriot’ policies and discourse, realists infer Russia’s motives looking at Moscow’s geopolitical interests. As a result, there is no unambiguous answer: …
Legitimizing the Separatist Cause: Nation-building in the Eurasian de facto States
This article compares the nation-building processes in four well-established Eurasian de facto states. Although all four pursue a set of identity politics that would legitimize the separatist cause, comparing them reveals important differences in boundary-making strategies. While maintaining the image of the enemy parent-state and of an imminent external threat is a common endeavor, they face different challenges and thus have pursued different s…
Navigating in-between the EU and Russia
This Special Issue examines the ways states, regions, de facto states and local actors situated in-between the EU and Russia cope with the competitive external pressure coming from the two regional powers. States, diverse groups and actors in this overlapping neighborhood navigate between varied economic and political integration projects and between different values, ideas and visions of society. This introductory article, first, contextualizes …
Between the West and Russia: Moldova’s international brokers in a two-level game
Moldova pursues a “dual alignment” strategy between two opposing political, economic and cultural blocs: the European Union (EU) and Russia. Why does Chișinău pursue such a strategy, and how (if) can it be sustained? While geopolitics and identity have their own explanatory power, this article brings in local actors – international brokers – playing in the two-level game. The “international broker” links the domestic and international fields by f…
Finding deliberative niches: A systemic approach to deliberation for conflict resolution
Conflict and cooperation between Europe and Russia: The Autonomy of the Local
This paper takes a bottom-up perspective on the "boundary issues" that emerged between the EU and Russia with and since the end of the Cold War: the mobility of people and goods, energy and natural resources, security, and protection of minorities. This paper compares three zones of contact: Estonia, Moldova and Kaliningrad. Our starting point is that there is not a European-Russian relationship, but Russian European relations that vary according…
Theorising cooperation and conflict in Euro-Russian relations
When thinking about Euro-Russian relations, IR scholars focus on why conflict has replaced cooperation. The "geostrategic debate" excludes the possible coexistence of cooperation and conflict. In this Introduction to the special issue, we track the evolution of conflict and cooperation patterns in three zones of contact (Estonia, Kaliningrad, Moldova) between 1991 and 2016. Our findings show that, although the standard narrative remains compellin…
Securitized Borderlands
Borders have recently attracted a lot of academic scrutiny. Two very distinct types of literature have attempted to capture the current evolution of borders. The first one, leaning more toward the field of security studies, puts the emphasis on the rampant securitization, the coercive dimension of borders, and their divisive consequences. The second, looks at the rich environment surrounding borders, where boundaries are seen as the meeting point…
Carving out the nation with the enemy's kin: Double strategy of boundary‐making in Transnistria and Abkhazia
The 1992–1993 civil wars in Moldova and in Georgia ended with a de facto separation of Transnistria and Abkhazia, respectively. These de facto states are both inhabited by the kin to the ‘enemy’ across the administrative border: Moldovans and Georgians/Mingrelians. How do the de facto authorities foster a collective identity in support of their claim for legitimacy and statehood? Engaging with Wimmer's taxonomy of boundary‐making, this article ar…
Frozen Conflicts and Internal Dynamics of De Facto States: Perspectives and Directions for Research
The complex architecture of fragmented authority in the international system remains under-theorized. Understanding the world of separatist regions that turn into de facto states is high on the research agenda. While patron states are said to be a necessary condition, we argue that it might not be a sufficient one to explain the varying degrees of survival/endurance of de facto states. This analytical essay is an effort to establish directions fo…
The imagined ‘other’ and its shifts: Politics and identifications in Turkish Cyprus
This article addresses the puzzling case of shifting identity constructions in northern Cyprus, from ethnic to civic–territorial in 2003 and back to ethnic in 2009. It is argued that these shifts occurred when external factors (EU and Turkey) opened/closed windows of opportunity for internal elites’ reconfigurations. It then explains societal responsiveness to these nation-building changes sustaining that, over time, a process transforming the pe…
Deliberation for Reconciliation in Divided Societies
Engaging with the literature on deliberative democracy, this article contends that in the context of ethnic group hostilities, deliberative processes where participants have a genuine opportunity to communicate and ‘hear the other side’ can be a way for inter-group dialogue and reconciliation. Separating the deliberative process into three distinct moments, it offers a framework for understanding how unequal and conflicting parties may be brought…
Introduction to the special section: Minority politics and the territoriality principle in Europe
Territorial arrangements for managing interethnic relations within states are far from consensual. Although self-governance for minorities is commonly advocated, international documents are ambiguously formulated. Conflicting pairs of principles, territoriality vs. personality, and self-determination vs. territorial integrity, along with diverging state interests account for this gap. Together, the articles in this special section address the ter…
Ethnopolitical Mobilization without Groups: Nation-Building in Upper Silesia
Ethnolinguistic political mobilization has spread throughout the post-communist area. However, it is unclear whether it has been accompanied by a strengthening of group boundaries. This paper examines the nation-building process of unrecognized Silesians in Poland. It explores the mobilization strategies used by Silesian ethnopolitical entrepreneurs in their quest for regional autonomy and recognition of their language and group. I argue that the…
The Making of an Empty Moldovan Category within a Multiethnic Transnistrian Nation
To legitimize separation from Moldova, Transnistrian elites have been constructing a civic Transnistrian nation, subsuming local ethnic Russian, Ukrainian, and Moldovan identities. This article first identifies changes to the Transnistrian nation-building strategy: from an emphasis on Moldovan nationhood in the early 1990s to oppose “Romanianization” in Chisinau, to Transnistrian nationhood mainly after Moldovanism was adopted in Chisinau in 2001…
(Re)framing identity claims: E uropean and state institutions as opportunity windows for group reinforcement
How do we account for the reinforcement of identity particularisms despite transnational integration? This paper addresses the question by comparing two ethnolinguistic groups, S ilesians and K ashubs in P oland. It is argued that in order to obtain state protection and tools to develop and survive, ethnic entrepreneurs adjust to institutions and discourses. Census politics, state laws' elaboration, transnational institutions represent openings t…
Building Trust: Managing Common Past and Symbolic Public Spaces in Divided Societies
State- and nation-building historical policies clash with the perspectives of minorities. Negative group stereotypes affect the trust required for multicultural societies to function. How do groups mediate differences and cope with hate-prone interpretations of history? Linking the often separate literature on social capital, identity, ethnic conflicts and resolution, and on symbolic politics and historical reconciliation, this article develops a…
Adapting to Changing Contexts of Choice: The Nation-Building Strategies of Unrecognized Silesians and Rusyns
The article explores the relationship between institutional constraints and nation-building. Non-recognized Rusyns in Ukraine and Silesians in Poland respond instrumentally to state definitions of “minority.” Moreover, both groups adjust their strategies to European structures and discourses which provide new ways to frame their identity claims. Institutions determine the constraints and incentives of group action. Identity is not only constructe…
Compared to What: Assessing Brazil’s Political Institutions
A rich and plausible academic literature has delineated reasons to believe Brazil's democratic political institutions-including electoral rules, the political party system, federalism, and the rules of legislative procedure-are suboptimal from the viewpoints of democratic representativeness and policy-making effectiveness. The authors concur that specific peculiarities of Brazilian political institutions likely complicate the process of solving s…
Historical Research on Food consumption in Poland
La paléobotanique, science auxiliaire de l'histoire
Les sources écrites et le matériel archéologique classique se révèlent aujourd'hui insuffisants pour l'historien. Les sciences humaines ne peuvent plus se passer de l'expérience et des méthodes des sciences exactes, techniques ou naturelles qu'elles doivent adapter aux besoins de l'atelier historique. Il est, par exemple, devenu tout à fait impossible d'étudier l'histoire de l'agriculture, et de bien interpréter son rôle économique et social, san…
Compared to What: Assessing Brazil’s Political Institutions
A rich and plausible academic literature has delineated reasons to believe Brazil's democratic political institutions-including electoral rules, the political party system, federalism, and the rules of legislative procedure-are suboptimal from the viewpoints of democratic representativeness and policy-making effectiveness. The authors concur that specific peculiarities of Brazilian political institutions likely complicate the process of solving s…
Frozen Conflicts and Internal Dynamics of De Facto States: Perspectives and Directions for Research
The complex architecture of fragmented authority in the international system remains under-theorized. Understanding the world of separatist regions that turn into de facto states is high on the research agenda. While patron states are said to be a necessary condition, we argue that it might not be a sufficient one to explain the varying degrees of survival/endurance of de facto states. This analytical essay is an effort to establish directions fo…
Securitized Borderlands
Borders have recently attracted a lot of academic scrutiny. Two very distinct types of literature have attempted to capture the current evolution of borders. The first one, leaning more toward the field of security studies, puts the emphasis on the rampant securitization, the coercive dimension of borders, and their divisive consequences. The second, looks at the rich environment surrounding borders, where boundaries are seen as the meeting point…
The Making of an Empty Moldovan Category within a Multiethnic Transnistrian Nation
To legitimize separation from Moldova, Transnistrian elites have been constructing a civic Transnistrian nation, subsuming local ethnic Russian, Ukrainian, and Moldovan identities. This article first identifies changes to the Transnistrian nation-building strategy: from an emphasis on Moldovan nationhood in the early 1990s to oppose “Romanianization” in Chisinau, to Transnistrian nationhood mainly after Moldovanism was adopted in Chisinau in 2001…
(Re)framing identity claims: E uropean and state institutions as opportunity windows for group reinforcement
How do we account for the reinforcement of identity particularisms despite transnational integration? This paper addresses the question by comparing two ethnolinguistic groups, S ilesians and K ashubs in P oland. It is argued that in order to obtain state protection and tools to develop and survive, ethnic entrepreneurs adjust to institutions and discourses. Census politics, state laws' elaboration, transnational institutions represent openings t…
Carving out the nation with the enemy's kin: Double strategy of boundary‐making in Transnistria and Abkhazia
The 1992–1993 civil wars in Moldova and in Georgia ended with a de facto separation of Transnistria and Abkhazia, respectively. These de facto states are both inhabited by the kin to the ‘enemy’ across the administrative border: Moldovans and Georgians/Mingrelians. How do the de facto authorities foster a collective identity in support of their claim for legitimacy and statehood? Engaging with Wimmer's taxonomy of boundary‐making, this article ar…
Conflict and cooperation between Europe and Russia: The Autonomy of the Local
This paper takes a bottom-up perspective on the "boundary issues" that emerged between the EU and Russia with and since the end of the Cold War: the mobility of people and goods, energy and natural resources, security, and protection of minorities. This paper compares three zones of contact: Estonia, Moldova and Kaliningrad. Our starting point is that there is not a European-Russian relationship, but Russian European relations that vary according…
Legitimizing the Separatist Cause: Nation-building in the Eurasian de facto States
This article compares the nation-building processes in four well-established Eurasian de facto states. Although all four pursue a set of identity politics that would legitimize the separatist cause, comparing them reveals important differences in boundary-making strategies. While maintaining the image of the enemy parent-state and of an imminent external threat is a common endeavor, they face different challenges and thus have pursued different s…
Navigating in-between the EU and Russia
This Special Issue examines the ways states, regions, de facto states and local actors situated in-between the EU and Russia cope with the competitive external pressure coming from the two regional powers. States, diverse groups and actors in this overlapping neighborhood navigate between varied economic and political integration projects and between different values, ideas and visions of society. This introductory article, first, contextualizes …
The imagined ‘other’ and its shifts: Politics and identifications in Turkish Cyprus
This article addresses the puzzling case of shifting identity constructions in northern Cyprus, from ethnic to civic–territorial in 2003 and back to ethnic in 2009. It is argued that these shifts occurred when external factors (EU and Turkey) opened/closed windows of opportunity for internal elites’ reconfigurations. It then explains societal responsiveness to these nation-building changes sustaining that, over time, a process transforming the pe…
Introduction to the special section: Minority politics and the territoriality principle in Europe
Territorial arrangements for managing interethnic relations within states are far from consensual. Although self-governance for minorities is commonly advocated, international documents are ambiguously formulated. Conflicting pairs of principles, territoriality vs. personality, and self-determination vs. territorial integrity, along with diverging state interests account for this gap. Together, the articles in this special section address the ter…
Building Trust: Managing Common Past and Symbolic Public Spaces in Divided Societies
State- and nation-building historical policies clash with the perspectives of minorities. Negative group stereotypes affect the trust required for multicultural societies to function. How do groups mediate differences and cope with hate-prone interpretations of history? Linking the often separate literature on social capital, identity, ethnic conflicts and resolution, and on symbolic politics and historical reconciliation, this article develops a…
Adapting to Changing Contexts of Choice: The Nation-Building Strategies of Unrecognized Silesians and Rusyns
The article explores the relationship between institutional constraints and nation-building. Non-recognized Rusyns in Ukraine and Silesians in Poland respond instrumentally to state definitions of “minority.” Moreover, both groups adjust their strategies to European structures and discourses which provide new ways to frame their identity claims. Institutions determine the constraints and incentives of group action. Identity is not only constructe…
Between the West and Russia: Moldova’s international brokers in a two-level game
Moldova pursues a “dual alignment” strategy between two opposing political, economic and cultural blocs: the European Union (EU) and Russia. Why does Chișinău pursue such a strategy, and how (if) can it be sustained? While geopolitics and identity have their own explanatory power, this article brings in local actors – international brokers – playing in the two-level game. The “international broker” links the domestic and international fields by f…
Finding deliberative niches: A systemic approach to deliberation for conflict resolution
Theorising cooperation and conflict in Euro-Russian relations
When thinking about Euro-Russian relations, IR scholars focus on why conflict has replaced cooperation. The "geostrategic debate" excludes the possible coexistence of cooperation and conflict. In this Introduction to the special issue, we track the evolution of conflict and cooperation patterns in three zones of contact (Estonia, Kaliningrad, Moldova) between 1991 and 2016. Our findings show that, although the standard narrative remains compellin…
La paléobotanique, science auxiliaire de l'histoire
Les sources écrites et le matériel archéologique classique se révèlent aujourd'hui insuffisants pour l'historien. Les sciences humaines ne peuvent plus se passer de l'expérience et des méthodes des sciences exactes, techniques ou naturelles qu'elles doivent adapter aux besoins de l'atelier historique. Il est, par exemple, devenu tout à fait impossible d'étudier l'histoire de l'agriculture, et de bien interpréter son rôle économique et social, san…
Historical Research on Food consumption in Poland
Compared to What: Assessing Brazil’s Political Institutions
A rich and plausible academic literature has delineated reasons to believe Brazil's democratic political institutions-including electoral rules, the political party system, federalism, and the rules of legislative procedure-are suboptimal from the viewpoints of democratic representativeness and policy-making effectiveness. The authors concur that specific peculiarities of Brazilian political institutions likely complicate the process of solving s…
Adapting to Changing Contexts of Choice: The Nation-Building Strategies of Unrecognized Silesians and Rusyns
The article explores the relationship between institutional constraints and nation-building. Non-recognized Rusyns in Ukraine and Silesians in Poland respond instrumentally to state definitions of “minority.” Moreover, both groups adjust their strategies to European structures and discourses which provide new ways to frame their identity claims. Institutions determine the constraints and incentives of group action. Identity is not only constructe…
Building Trust: Managing Common Past and Symbolic Public Spaces in Divided Societies
State- and nation-building historical policies clash with the perspectives of minorities. Negative group stereotypes affect the trust required for multicultural societies to function. How do groups mediate differences and cope with hate-prone interpretations of history? Linking the often separate literature on social capital, identity, ethnic conflicts and resolution, and on symbolic politics and historical reconciliation, this article develops a…
(Re)framing identity claims: E uropean and state institutions as opportunity windows for group reinforcement
How do we account for the reinforcement of identity particularisms despite transnational integration? This paper addresses the question by comparing two ethnolinguistic groups, S ilesians and K ashubs in P oland. It is argued that in order to obtain state protection and tools to develop and survive, ethnic entrepreneurs adjust to institutions and discourses. Census politics, state laws' elaboration, transnational institutions represent openings t…
Ethnopolitical Mobilization without Groups: Nation-Building in Upper Silesia
Ethnolinguistic political mobilization has spread throughout the post-communist area. However, it is unclear whether it has been accompanied by a strengthening of group boundaries. This paper examines the nation-building process of unrecognized Silesians in Poland. It explores the mobilization strategies used by Silesian ethnopolitical entrepreneurs in their quest for regional autonomy and recognition of their language and group. I argue that the…
The Making of an Empty Moldovan Category within a Multiethnic Transnistrian Nation
To legitimize separation from Moldova, Transnistrian elites have been constructing a civic Transnistrian nation, subsuming local ethnic Russian, Ukrainian, and Moldovan identities. This article first identifies changes to the Transnistrian nation-building strategy: from an emphasis on Moldovan nationhood in the early 1990s to oppose “Romanianization” in Chisinau, to Transnistrian nationhood mainly after Moldovanism was adopted in Chisinau in 2001…
Introduction to the special section: Minority politics and the territoriality principle in Europe
Territorial arrangements for managing interethnic relations within states are far from consensual. Although self-governance for minorities is commonly advocated, international documents are ambiguously formulated. Conflicting pairs of principles, territoriality vs. personality, and self-determination vs. territorial integrity, along with diverging state interests account for this gap. Together, the articles in this special section address the ter…
Deliberation for Reconciliation in Divided Societies
Engaging with the literature on deliberative democracy, this article contends that in the context of ethnic group hostilities, deliberative processes where participants have a genuine opportunity to communicate and ‘hear the other side’ can be a way for inter-group dialogue and reconciliation. Separating the deliberative process into three distinct moments, it offers a framework for understanding how unequal and conflicting parties may be brought…
The imagined ‘other’ and its shifts: Politics and identifications in Turkish Cyprus
This article addresses the puzzling case of shifting identity constructions in northern Cyprus, from ethnic to civic–territorial in 2003 and back to ethnic in 2009. It is argued that these shifts occurred when external factors (EU and Turkey) opened/closed windows of opportunity for internal elites’ reconfigurations. It then explains societal responsiveness to these nation-building changes sustaining that, over time, a process transforming the pe…
Frozen Conflicts and Internal Dynamics of De Facto States: Perspectives and Directions for Research
The complex architecture of fragmented authority in the international system remains under-theorized. Understanding the world of separatist regions that turn into de facto states is high on the research agenda. While patron states are said to be a necessary condition, we argue that it might not be a sufficient one to explain the varying degrees of survival/endurance of de facto states. This analytical essay is an effort to establish directions fo…
Securitized Borderlands
Borders have recently attracted a lot of academic scrutiny. Two very distinct types of literature have attempted to capture the current evolution of borders. The first one, leaning more toward the field of security studies, puts the emphasis on the rampant securitization, the coercive dimension of borders, and their divisive consequences. The second, looks at the rich environment surrounding borders, where boundaries are seen as the meeting point…
Carving out the nation with the enemy's kin: Double strategy of boundary‐making in Transnistria and Abkhazia
The 1992–1993 civil wars in Moldova and in Georgia ended with a de facto separation of Transnistria and Abkhazia, respectively. These de facto states are both inhabited by the kin to the ‘enemy’ across the administrative border: Moldovans and Georgians/Mingrelians. How do the de facto authorities foster a collective identity in support of their claim for legitimacy and statehood? Engaging with Wimmer's taxonomy of boundary‐making, this article ar…
Between the West and Russia: Moldova’s international brokers in a two-level game
Moldova pursues a “dual alignment” strategy between two opposing political, economic and cultural blocs: the European Union (EU) and Russia. Why does Chișinău pursue such a strategy, and how (if) can it be sustained? While geopolitics and identity have their own explanatory power, this article brings in local actors – international brokers – playing in the two-level game. The “international broker” links the domestic and international fields by f…
Finding deliberative niches: A systemic approach to deliberation for conflict resolution
Conflict and cooperation between Europe and Russia: The Autonomy of the Local
This paper takes a bottom-up perspective on the "boundary issues" that emerged between the EU and Russia with and since the end of the Cold War: the mobility of people and goods, energy and natural resources, security, and protection of minorities. This paper compares three zones of contact: Estonia, Moldova and Kaliningrad. Our starting point is that there is not a European-Russian relationship, but Russian European relations that vary according…
Theorising cooperation and conflict in Euro-Russian relations
When thinking about Euro-Russian relations, IR scholars focus on why conflict has replaced cooperation. The "geostrategic debate" excludes the possible coexistence of cooperation and conflict. In this Introduction to the special issue, we track the evolution of conflict and cooperation patterns in three zones of contact (Estonia, Kaliningrad, Moldova) between 1991 and 2016. Our findings show that, although the standard narrative remains compellin…
Navigating in-between the EU and Russia
This Special Issue examines the ways states, regions, de facto states and local actors situated in-between the EU and Russia cope with the competitive external pressure coming from the two regional powers. States, diverse groups and actors in this overlapping neighborhood navigate between varied economic and political integration projects and between different values, ideas and visions of society. This introductory article, first, contextualizes …
Legitimizing the Separatist Cause: Nation-building in the Eurasian de facto States
This article compares the nation-building processes in four well-established Eurasian de facto states. Although all four pursue a set of identity politics that would legitimize the separatist cause, comparing them reveals important differences in boundary-making strategies. While maintaining the image of the enemy parent-state and of an imminent external threat is a common endeavor, they face different challenges and thus have pursued different s…
Russia's Patronage Over Post-Soviet De Facto States: Protecting Compatriots or Geopolitical Interest in Transnistria
Most de facto states have patrons. In Eurasia, Russia serves as such to Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria, as it did to Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. What motivates patronal politics? While constructivists look for answers by studying Russia’s identity, representations and ‘compatriot’ policies and discourse, realists infer Russia’s motives looking at Moscow’s geopolitical interests. As a result, there is no unambiguous answer: …
Russia, Friend or Foe? Uneasy Memories of Nineteenth-Century Deportations in Abkhazia
The article investigates the use of history in political struggles over sovereignty. While most scholars focus on the conflictual Abkhaz–Georgian past, this study examines the ways in which Abkhazia navigates ‘troubled waters’ in its relations with Russia when commemorating nineteenth-century mass deportations. How does Abkhazia handle this founding historical myth, useful for nation/state-building, in the context of dependence on Russia for this…
Political science (19 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Politics (16 works) · Law (15 works) · Law (14 works) · Political economy (14 works) · Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics (10 works) · State (computer science (7 works) · Aesthetics (6 works) · Ethnic group (6 works)