Seva Gunitsky
Biographic Data
| ID | 4380164 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Seva Gunitsky |
| GIVEN NAMES | Seva |
| FAMILY NAME | Gunitsky |
| SIGNATURE | GUNITSKY S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Toronto |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8634-0609 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 193 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
The Carney Doctrine: Is Canada Breaking with America
The invisible front: Ukraine’s IT army and the evolution of cyber resistance
Hegemonic shocks and patterns of secession
Studies of secession typically focus on domestic factors that produce independence movements, such as the role of ethnic divides or the concentration of material resources. But motivations for secession are also linked to broader changes in the international system. This article examines the links between great power shocks and global patterns of secession. We argue that abrupt great power shocks, marked by the rise and fall of powerful states, t…
Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: Accounting for the Domestic alongside the International
An old debate on the value of systemic explanations of international relations (IR) reemerged in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Both scholars and popular media have spent much oxygen and ink debating arguments that assign causal primacy to NATO expansion, status reclamation, spheres of influence, dissatisfaction, or multipolarity. However, understanding conflict onset and duration requires consideration of both domestic and …
Response to Daniel Ziblatt’s review of Aftershocks: Great Powers and Domestic Reforms in the Twentieth Century
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Rival Visions of Parsimony
Parsimony” is a vague and divisive concept in political science. I identify three distinct but often conflated conceptions of parsimony. The aesthetic conception emphasizes a theory's elegance and clarity; the ontological conception, drawing upon the hard sciences, posits that the world is governed by simple fundamental laws. Neither applies in international relations theory or to social science more broadly. Instead, only the epistemological con…
The Wilsonian Bias in the Study of Russian Foreign Policy
We examine some problematic narratives in the American international relations scholarship on Russia, focusing on some implicit assumptions about the drivers of Russian foreign policy. Most prominently, this includes the idea that Russian foreign policy is driven primarily by the qualities of its internal regime. While domestic institutions undoubtedly matter, we argue that two other factors are key for understanding Russia’s foreign policy: the …
Democracy’s Future: Riding the Hegemonic Wave
In 1938, a worried British diplomat described what he saw as a troubling development in his region. “It certainly seems that an authoritarian wave is beginning to surge through the countries of Cen
Democratic Waves in Historical Perspective
For over two centuries, the evolution of democracy has been marked by repeated democratic waves. Yet these cross-border bursts of revolution and reform have varied widely in their origins, intensity, and success rates. How do we compare cascades of regime change, and what lessons do they offer about the spread of democracy? I lay out a historical framework of democratic waves that focuses on recurring causal mechanisms across time. Thirteen democ…
Aftershocks: Great Powers and Domestic Reforms in the Twentieth Century
Over the past century, democracy spread around the world in turbulent bursts of change, sweeping across national borders in dramatic cascades of revolution and reform. This book offers a new global-oriented explanation for this wavelike spread and retreat—not only of democracy but also of its twentieth-century rivals, fascism, and communism. The book argues that waves of regime change are driven by the aftermath of cataclysmic disruptions to the …
Aftershocks: Great Powers and Domestic Reforms in the Twentieth Century
Over the past century, democracy spread around the world in turbulent bursts of change, sweeping across national borders in dramatic cascades of revolution and reform. Aftershocks offers a new global-oriented explanation for this wavelike spread and retreat-not only of democracy but also of its twentieth-century rivals, fascism and communism.Seva Gunitsky argues that waves of regime change are driven by the aftermath of cataclysmic disruptions to…
Corrupting the Cyber-Commons: Social Media as a Tool of Autocratic Stability
Non-democratic regimes have increasingly moved beyond merely suppressing online discourse, and are shifting toward proactively subverting and co-opting social media for their own purposes. Namely, social media is increasingly being used to undermine the opposition, to shape the contours of public discussion, and to cheaply gather information about falsified public preferences. Social media is thus becoming not merely an obstacle to autocratic rul…
From Shocks to Waves: Hegemonic Transitions and Democratization in the Twentieth Century
What causes democratic waves? This article puts forward a theory of institutional waves that focuses on the effects of systemic transformations. It argues that abrupt shifts in the distribution of power among leading states create unique and powerful incentives for sweeping domestic reforms. A variety of statistical tests reveals strong support for the idea that shifts in hegemonic power have shaped waves of democracy, fascism, and communism in t…
Complexity and theories of change in international politics
This article examines how the principles of complex systems can illuminate recurring mechanisms of change in theories of international relations. It applies the logic of complex systems to two specific puzzles in international politics – the problem of theorizing change in structural realism, and the dynamics of cross-border democratic diffusion. In the first case, by shifting the analysis of anarchy's consequences from state behavior to state at…
Corrupting the Cyber-Commons: Social Media as a Tool of Autocratic Stability
Non-democratic regimes have increasingly moved beyond merely suppressing online discourse, and are shifting toward proactively subverting and co-opting social media for their own purposes. Namely, social media is increasingly being used to undermine the opposition, to shape the contours of public discussion, and to cheaply gather information about falsified public preferences. Social media is thus becoming not merely an obstacle to autocratic rul…
From Shocks to Waves: Hegemonic Transitions and Democratization in the Twentieth Century
What causes democratic waves? This article puts forward a theory of institutional waves that focuses on the effects of systemic transformations. It argues that abrupt shifts in the distribution of power among leading states create unique and powerful incentives for sweeping domestic reforms. A variety of statistical tests reveals strong support for the idea that shifts in hegemonic power have shaped waves of democracy, fascism, and communism in t…
Democratic Waves in Historical Perspective
For over two centuries, the evolution of democracy has been marked by repeated democratic waves. Yet these cross-border bursts of revolution and reform have varied widely in their origins, intensity, and success rates. How do we compare cascades of regime change, and what lessons do they offer about the spread of democracy? I lay out a historical framework of democratic waves that focuses on recurring causal mechanisms across time. Thirteen democ…
Aftershocks: Great Powers and Domestic Reforms in the Twentieth Century
Over the past century, democracy spread around the world in turbulent bursts of change, sweeping across national borders in dramatic cascades of revolution and reform. Aftershocks offers a new global-oriented explanation for this wavelike spread and retreat-not only of democracy but also of its twentieth-century rivals, fascism and communism.Seva Gunitsky argues that waves of regime change are driven by the aftermath of cataclysmic disruptions to…
The Wilsonian Bias in the Study of Russian Foreign Policy
We examine some problematic narratives in the American international relations scholarship on Russia, focusing on some implicit assumptions about the drivers of Russian foreign policy. Most prominently, this includes the idea that Russian foreign policy is driven primarily by the qualities of its internal regime. While domestic institutions undoubtedly matter, we argue that two other factors are key for understanding Russia’s foreign policy: the …
Complexity and theories of change in international politics
This article examines how the principles of complex systems can illuminate recurring mechanisms of change in theories of international relations. It applies the logic of complex systems to two specific puzzles in international politics – the problem of theorizing change in structural realism, and the dynamics of cross-border democratic diffusion. In the first case, by shifting the analysis of anarchy's consequences from state behavior to state at…
Rival Visions of Parsimony
Parsimony” is a vague and divisive concept in political science. I identify three distinct but often conflated conceptions of parsimony. The aesthetic conception emphasizes a theory's elegance and clarity; the ontological conception, drawing upon the hard sciences, posits that the world is governed by simple fundamental laws. Neither applies in international relations theory or to social science more broadly. Instead, only the epistemological con…
The invisible front: Ukraine’s IT army and the evolution of cyber resistance
Complexity and theories of change in international politics
This article examines how the principles of complex systems can illuminate recurring mechanisms of change in theories of international relations. It applies the logic of complex systems to two specific puzzles in international politics – the problem of theorizing change in structural realism, and the dynamics of cross-border democratic diffusion. In the first case, by shifting the analysis of anarchy's consequences from state behavior to state at…
From Shocks to Waves: Hegemonic Transitions and Democratization in the Twentieth Century
What causes democratic waves? This article puts forward a theory of institutional waves that focuses on the effects of systemic transformations. It argues that abrupt shifts in the distribution of power among leading states create unique and powerful incentives for sweeping domestic reforms. A variety of statistical tests reveals strong support for the idea that shifts in hegemonic power have shaped waves of democracy, fascism, and communism in t…
Corrupting the Cyber-Commons: Social Media as a Tool of Autocratic Stability
Non-democratic regimes have increasingly moved beyond merely suppressing online discourse, and are shifting toward proactively subverting and co-opting social media for their own purposes. Namely, social media is increasingly being used to undermine the opposition, to shape the contours of public discussion, and to cheaply gather information about falsified public preferences. Social media is thus becoming not merely an obstacle to autocratic rul…
Aftershocks: Great Powers and Domestic Reforms in the Twentieth Century
Over the past century, democracy spread around the world in turbulent bursts of change, sweeping across national borders in dramatic cascades of revolution and reform. This book offers a new global-oriented explanation for this wavelike spread and retreat—not only of democracy but also of its twentieth-century rivals, fascism, and communism. The book argues that waves of regime change are driven by the aftermath of cataclysmic disruptions to the …
Aftershocks: Great Powers and Domestic Reforms in the Twentieth Century
Over the past century, democracy spread around the world in turbulent bursts of change, sweeping across national borders in dramatic cascades of revolution and reform. Aftershocks offers a new global-oriented explanation for this wavelike spread and retreat-not only of democracy but also of its twentieth-century rivals, fascism and communism.Seva Gunitsky argues that waves of regime change are driven by the aftermath of cataclysmic disruptions to…
The Wilsonian Bias in the Study of Russian Foreign Policy
We examine some problematic narratives in the American international relations scholarship on Russia, focusing on some implicit assumptions about the drivers of Russian foreign policy. Most prominently, this includes the idea that Russian foreign policy is driven primarily by the qualities of its internal regime. While domestic institutions undoubtedly matter, we argue that two other factors are key for understanding Russia’s foreign policy: the …
Democracy’s Future: Riding the Hegemonic Wave
In 1938, a worried British diplomat described what he saw as a troubling development in his region. “It certainly seems that an authoritarian wave is beginning to surge through the countries of Cen
Democratic Waves in Historical Perspective
For over two centuries, the evolution of democracy has been marked by repeated democratic waves. Yet these cross-border bursts of revolution and reform have varied widely in their origins, intensity, and success rates. How do we compare cascades of regime change, and what lessons do they offer about the spread of democracy? I lay out a historical framework of democratic waves that focuses on recurring causal mechanisms across time. Thirteen democ…
Response to Daniel Ziblatt’s review of Aftershocks: Great Powers and Domestic Reforms in the Twentieth Century
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Rival Visions of Parsimony
Parsimony” is a vague and divisive concept in political science. I identify three distinct but often conflated conceptions of parsimony. The aesthetic conception emphasizes a theory's elegance and clarity; the ontological conception, drawing upon the hard sciences, posits that the world is governed by simple fundamental laws. Neither applies in international relations theory or to social science more broadly. Instead, only the epistemological con…
The invisible front: Ukraine’s IT army and the evolution of cyber resistance
Hegemonic shocks and patterns of secession
Studies of secession typically focus on domestic factors that produce independence movements, such as the role of ethnic divides or the concentration of material resources. But motivations for secession are also linked to broader changes in the international system. This article examines the links between great power shocks and global patterns of secession. We argue that abrupt great power shocks, marked by the rise and fall of powerful states, t…
Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: Accounting for the Domestic alongside the International
An old debate on the value of systemic explanations of international relations (IR) reemerged in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Both scholars and popular media have spent much oxygen and ink debating arguments that assign causal primacy to NATO expansion, status reclamation, spheres of influence, dissatisfaction, or multipolarity. However, understanding conflict onset and duration requires consideration of both domestic and …
The Carney Doctrine: Is Canada Breaking with America
Political science (11 works) · Law (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Economics (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Political economy (7 works) · Democracy (6 works) · Political Conflict and Governance (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Hegemony (5 works)