Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, May, 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

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Cold War Soviet foreign policy was driven by a strategic competition. A competition-detente cycle based on the superpower rivalry between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, including the Warsaw Pact dependencies, and the United States of America and its respective alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) existed for over forty-five years. Following the dismantling of the Warsaw Pact and the implosion of the USSR, remnant Soviet and subsequent Russian foreign policy, changed dramatically. Though some fragmentary Soviet style vertical controls of the foreign policy of the transitional Gorbachev years and the first years of Yeltsin's first administration were recognizable, their respective foreign relations operated on the defensive realities of a splintered empire in every conceivable manner. This dissertation will track and analyze each president's foreign policy goals within the dependent variables of social, economic and political influences of post Cold War realities. In an absolute sense, each president formulated Russian foreign policy based on domestic considerations. This fact constitutes the independent variable in this analysis. From the bellicosity of the Cold War through the opposition of Russia to America's unilateralist approach to the second Iraqi war, Russia attempted to return as a major player in international relations as a whole and as an interlocutor with the United States in a strategic sense. This engagement has produced the gambit of political polemics, from the strident Soviet "launch on warning" correlation of forces fighting doctrine to the interactive and more personal political good will venue between Bush and Putin. It is this "push-pull" political history that prompts the primary research question: Is the present Russian strategic relationship with the post 9.11 United States the beginning of a new and unique post Cold War international relationship or is it simply a continuation of the familiar confrontation-detente cycle historically endemic to Russian-American relations? Has the American occupation of Iraq, a perennial Russian client state, derailed the post 9.11 accommodation between the two countries?

The doctoral dissertation “Waterbirth and Russian-American Exchange: From the Iron Curtain to Facebook” presents the social history of the Russian waterbirth movement, from the Cold War epoch to the present. One of the first ethnographies to examine Russian-American cultural exchange, this study fills a number of gaps in both Russian and American cultural history, bringing together the issues of religion, science, gender, body politics and the state. By drawing on interviews with Russian and American birth practitioners, as well as participant observation of the birthing practices on both continents, I seek to define their agendas for the development of alternative ideologies and practices, as well as their specific effects, experienced on both global and local scales. In particular, I attempt to problematize the conventional narratives of globalization and biomedicalization, presenting “local” cultures either as passive victims of the dominant Western agent or rebels exercising futile resistance. Despite the turbulent effects of Western intervention into the Russian value system and everyday practices, the local culture of Russia proved capable of producing, promoting, and communicating to the world particular models and schemes that proved to be viable, went global, and affected the vision of the body and self in the Western world. By examining the case of the waterbirth movement, the project seeks to enrich current understanding of the information flows between Russia and the West. By looking at Russian and American utopian projects, which center on science, nature, tradition and globalization, and carefully tracing their sources, origins, mutual impacts and conflicts, we can get a better understanding of the formation and distribution of authoritative knowledge on global and local levels. An empirical study of this specific set of problems is expected to stimulate a valuable insight into the mechanisms governing the relationships between social orders, complex transnational identity formation, and global/local knowledge production in late modern societies.

This is a case study of the historical development of a private Christian faith-based school of higher education in post-Soviet Russia from its conception in 1990 until 2006. This bi-national school was founded as the Russian-American Christian University (RACU) in 1996. In 2003, RACU was accredited by the Russian Ministry of Education under the name Russko-Americansky Christiansky Institute. RACU offers two state-accredited undergraduate academic programs: 1) business and economics, and 2) social work. RACU also offers a major in English language and literature. The academic model of RACU was designed according to the traditional American Christian liberal arts model and adapted to Russian higher education system. The study documents the founding, vision, and growth of RACU. It provides insight into the academic, organizational, and campus life of RACU. The study led to the creation of an operational framework of the historical development of RACU. The study also provides recommendations for the development of new Christian liberal arts colleges and universities based on the experience and the underlying structure of RACU.

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The presented work focuses on the history of Russian America, the only Russian overseas colony located in the territory of today's American state of Alaska, specifically it is concerned with the middle period of its existence, i.e. between the years 1784 and 1818. After a brief introduction of the beginnings of Russian presence in the North Pacific, the thesis deals with its main topics. The first one is the organization of voyages to the islands and the mainland of Russian America. Commercial hunting companies are introduced in this context as a subject representing eastern Russian expansion and the characteristics of hunting expeditions are analysed in detail. The second, key part of the thesis is the analysis of the Russian colonization of Alaska in terms of the relations between Russians and the indigenous people, the creation of base structures and the competitive struggles of Russian traders. Comparison with colonization practices of other colonizing states in this area - Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America - is also included. This chapter is followed by the analysis of the administration of Russian America and its development since the times of hunting-and-trading companies, to the activities of the Russian-American company, a semi-governmental organization with the...

One of the most important compositional theories of Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977), Russian-American composer and pianist, is the Eurasian ideology, which was a result of the influence of Eastern culture. Inspired by this theory, Tcherepnin not only extricated himself from his own compositional techniques, but also intensified his search for musical folklore. In April, 1934, he began a world tour which was to include China, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Egypt, and Palestine, to search for "musical folklore." He became so fascinated with the culture of ancient China that he cancelled the rest of his arrangements, and, except for visits to Japan, he remained in China for three years, until the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in July, 1937. During his three-year stay in China, Tcherepnin was greatly attracted to Chinese culture, and as a result, Chinese culture influenced his music to a significant degree. This essay examines the manner in which Tcherepnin's music was influenced by his experiences in China. In order to precisely analyze the close affiliation between Chinese musical elements and Tcherepnin's "Chinese Mikrokosmos," many original Chinese sources proved indispensable in this study. These sources include Chinese folk music, theater music, instrumental music, religious music, and Chinese periodicals and newspapers that reported Tcherepnin's activities in China (1934-7). The organization of this dissertation as follows: Chapter I provides a brief biographical sketch of Tcherepnin, traces his activities in China, and introduces one of his greatest "Chinese" compositions, "Chinese Mikrokosmos," which represents the fruits of his labors to scrutinize and absorb Chinese musical language. Chapters II and III are devoted to exploring how Chinese folk and instrumental music inspired Tcherepnin's "Chinese Mikrokosmos." Chapter IV summarizes this study.