Linked with Chatham House, with The Russian and Eurasian Security Network RES, with the Centre for Russian and East European Studies CREES, and with Russian Analytical Digest RAD.
Bettina Renz is Lecturer in Defence Studies at King’s College London/ Royal Air Force College, Cranwell. She completed her MSc by research in Russian Studies at the University of Edinburgh and her PhD at CREES, entitled, ‘Civil-Military Relations in Post-Soviet Russia: The Case of “Military Politicians”’. From 2002-2003 she worked as a Research Fellow on the ESRC project, ‘The Securitisation of Contemporary Russian Politics’, and in 2004-2005 as a Research Fellow on an ESRC consultancy, ‘UK Social Science and Central and Eastern Europe’. From 2005-2006 she held an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Birmingham. Her research interests have included security sector reform, civil-military relations, media-military relations, « new » security issues, and the perception of security threats in Russia and in other post-Soviet states. Her current research focuses on the evolution of the Russian security sector with a particular emphasis on the topic of counterterrorism. She is Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies. (full text).
See: Lunchtime research seminars, summer 2007.
Bettina Renz – England
She contributed to ‘the russian analytical digest’, to be download on RES/latest Publications/No. 17: « Siloviki » in Politics – Russian Military Reform/March 20, 2007. (in german: russland analysen).
Biography: Dr Bettina Renz graduated with an MA and MSc from the University of Edinburgh and received her PhD on the topic of civil-military relations in contemporary Russia from the University of Birmingham in 2005. Her research interests have included security sector reform, civil-military relations, media-military relations, « new » security issues, and the perception of security threats in Russia and other post-Soviet states.
Her current research focuses on the evolution of the Russian security sector with a particular emphasis on the topic of counterterrorism. Dr Renz worked as a research fellow on the ESRC project, « The Securitisation of Domestic Politics in Russia » from 2002-3, and held an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship from 2005-6. She also taught Comparative Politics and Soviet/Russian Politics as Oxford Brookes University. Dr Renz is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Birminham’s Centre for Russian and East European Studies. (full text).
Renz, B. (2006, Mar): The Chechen Conflict: Securitisation or Normalisation? – Abstract: The proposed paper interprets the second Chechen conflict (since 1999) through the prism of the securitisation framework derived by Barry Buzan et al. In studying official discourses and securitising moves, the repeated claims on the part of the Russian authorities that the situation in the republic is ?normalising? are assessed. Using elements of the constructivist speech-act approach advocated by Buzan et al?s securitisation framework, the first part of the paper analyses Russian and Western discourses relating to developments in Chechnya. Amongst other issues it assesses the effects of 9/11 on international reactions to Russian representations of the Chechen conflict, such as the increasing acceptance by foreign governments of the highly securitised nature of this discourse. The second part of the paper assesses successful securitisation moves with reference to the discourses within which the war has been framed officially, and in particular in consideration of the claims voiced by the Russian authorities of an occurring ?normalisation? of the Chechen republic. By contrasting Russian securitising discourse and claims of a process of normalisation with the counter-discourse of opponents of the Chechen war in Russia and abroad, the paper concludes that the second Chechen war is a clear example of a successful securitisation having taken place.
See Birkbeck University of London, and the Annual Review 2005-2006.
The project was led by Dr Edwin Bacon, Professor JM Cooper, and Bettina Renz from the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, at the University of Birmingham. The research included expert interviews in Russia, and analysis of Russian language material from the press, generalist literature and scholarly works. (full text).
Her book: Putin’s militocracy? An alternative interpretation of Siloviki in contemporary Russian politics, see on ingenta connect.com.
Her other publications: on CREES; on King’s College, London; on amazon; on GLASGOW UNIVERSITY LIBRARY; on Birkbeck; on Chatham House; on Johnsons’s Russia List; on informaworld.com.
links:
Political groups during Vladimir Putin’s presidency;