Eastern European Studies Commons^™

Book Review: Damian Cyrocki, The Mariavites: Heresy, The Apocalypse, And Poland’S Female Savior, John Grondelski

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Damian Cyrocki, The Mariavites: Heresy, the Apocalypse, and Poland’s Female Savior. Equinox Publishing, 2025.  ISBN: ‎ 978-1800505650

Book Review: Oleksandr Geychenko, Roman Soloviy, And Yevgeny Ustinovich, Eds. Beatitudes And Terror: A Ukrainian Theological Response To Russian Aggression. Trans. From Ukrainian By Mykola Leliovskyi., Michael Blythe

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Oleksandr Geychenko, Roman Soloviy, and Yevgeny Ustinovich, eds. Beatitudes and Terror: A Ukrainian Theological Response to Russian Aggression. Trans. from Ukrainian by Mykola Leliovskyi. Carlisle, UK: Langham Global Library, 2025. Pp. 240. £17.99 (paperback). ISBN: 978-1-78641-191-4.

Practical Aspects Of Religious Social Work In Modern Ukraine, Inna I. Kovalchuk K

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This work analyzes the current state and specifics of the activity of religious organizations in the social sphere of Ukraine. Special attention is paid to the transformation of religious social work in the conditions of a full-scale war, where religious communities have become key agents of humanitarian, psychological and spiritual assistance. The article examines the mechanisms of interaction between the church, the state and non-governmental organizations in solving social problems. The findings are based on the practical experiences of those working with internally displaced persons (IDPs), veterans, large families, and individuals facing difficult life circumstances. Unique methods of denominational assistance …

The Church’S Social Vocation In World War I And Postwar Recovery: Theodor Zöckler’S Pastoral Ministry In Stanislaviv And Its Relevance For Contemporary Ukraine, Liudmyla Tymchuk, Yurii Klonovsky

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article examines Theodor Zöckler’s pastoral ministry in Stanislaviv during the First World War and the difficult years of postwar reconstruction, and assesses the relevance of that experience for churches in contemporary Ukraine. Drawing on archival records, institutional reports, church periodicals, correspondence, and historical scholarship, the study analyzes how Zöckler combined spiritual care with evacuation, humanitarian relief, medical service, child protection, education, vocational training, and institutional advocacy. Historical-genetic, problem-chronological, hermeneutic, and comparative methods are used to reconstruct the transformation of his ministry under conditions of occupation, forced displacement, political transition, and economic collapse. The findings show that Zöckler’s response moved …

Solidarity In Action: Social Service Of Caritas Organizations In Ukraine In Wartime, Andrii Marchenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to the analysis of the activities of Caritas charitable organizations in Ukraine, which are affiliated with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (Caritas Ukraine) and the Roman Catholic Church (Caritas-Spes Ukraine), in the realities of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Particular attention is focused on considering how the fundamental ideas of Christian love, mercy, common good, and solidarity are embodied in the various practices of humanitarian, spiritual, and other support that these institutions provide to different categories of the population of Ukraine, especially those who have suffered from the destructive consequences of the war. Types of such support include, …

Ethics Under Siege: The Conflict In Tigray Through The Lens Of Just War Theory, Daniela Widya Purba

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

This research article explains the ethical principles of the conflict in Tigray based on the Just War Theory. By using the descriptive qualitative methodology, this research article draws data from secondary sources which includes; academic journals, news reports, as well as international legal instruments to analyze the moral trajectory of the conflict. This research begins with jus ad bellum, to assess Ethiopia’s government justification in declaring conflict within Tigray. While the government fulfilled the criteria of just cause and legitimate authority, the question stands on the ambiguous political intentions and the failure to enact peaceful alternatives before resulting in waging …

Presidential Visits As Foreign Policy Instruments: U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy In Trump’S Second Term, Atar Thaung Htet

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

Through an analysis of President Donald Trump's October 2025 travel to Asia, this study investigates the consequences of U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy under his second-term diplomacy. The paper examines three significant diplomatic encounters—the ASEAN Summit in Malaysia, bilateral meetings in Japan, and the APEC Summit in South Korea—using a qualitative case study methodology based on role theory and foreign policy analysis. The results show that alliance-centered security cooperation, strategic balancing toward China, and selective economic engagement were U.S. Indo-Pacific goals. Through extremely transactional and bilateralized relations, presidential diplomacy allowed the United States to fulfill a number of foreign policy responsibilities, such …

Hindu Poetry And The Project Of An Inter-Spiritual Catholic Theology, Francis X. Clooney

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article engages the work of the Indian south Indian Tamil-language Vaiṣṇava poet saints known as the Alvārs. The article specifically focuses the First HundredHoly Linked verses of Poykai Ālvār to argue for inter-spiritual learning between Catholics and Hindus. The article concludes with personal reflections on this encounter within the context of the global Catholic Church

The Contentious Politics Of Abortion: Understanding The Black Protests And Women’S Strikes In Poland, Taubie Sanders

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

In 1993, the Polish Parliament, the Sejm, passed a law called ‘The Abortion Compromise’ permitting abortion only in cases when there is a serious threat to the life or health of the woman, pregnancy is the result of a crime, or prenatal tests show the fetus to be severely or incurably damaged. The current abortion laws in Poland are the most restrictive in all of Europe. Poland’s abortion laws have undergone much contestation in recent years. In 2016, the Black Protests erupted across the country in opposition to a proposed total ban on abortion. In 2020, the Women’s Strikes commenced …

Semi-Peripheral Whiteness In A Global City: Central And Eastern European Women In Dubai, Hana Rubenstein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone examines how Central and Eastern European (CEE) women navigate professional mobility in Dubai and asks to what extent Dubai enables them to bypass the post-socialist stigma attached to their semi-peripheral European identity. Situated at the intersection of migration studies, gender, and critical scholarship on semi-peripheral whiteness, the study addresses the limited attention paid to CEE women as economic actors outside European contexts, where they are often either absorbed into the category of “Western expatriates” or reduced to highly gendered stereotypes. Grounded in a qualitative, interpretivist approach, the study combines digital discourse analysis of 50 publicly accessible LinkedIn profiles …

Strategic Silence: The Greek Left's Avoidance Of The 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe During The Refugee Crisis, 2015–2019, Harry Courts

College Honors Program

This thesis examines why the Greek political left, and specifically the SYRIZA government under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during the time period from 2015 to 2019, made near-absent reference to the 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe when addressing the refugee crisis of those years. The Catastrophe, in which approximately 1.3 million Orthodox Greeks were displaced from Anatolia, is the foundational trauma of modern Greek nationhood and a living presence in Greek political culture. When hundreds of thousands of Syrian, Afghan, and Iraqi refugees arrived on Greek shores from 2015, the historical parallel was widely noted. That SYRIZA rarely drew it requires …

The Offense-Defense Balance And The Modern System In Ukraine, Daniel Hogestyn

Master in Public Policy Theses

This thesis evaluates whether the Russo Ukrainian war represents a revolution in military affairs (RMA) by testing Stephen Biddle’s "modern system" theory of battlefield outcomes against recent combat operations. Applying Biddle’s formal model to the 2023 Ukrainian offensive in Zaporizhia, the thesis finds that the offensive's failure conforms closely to Biddle’s causal logic, with force employment variables drawn from 20th century combat sufficient to account for the outcome. Biddle's model in military power argues that force employment has explained victory and defeat since World War I, rather than technology or numerical preponderance alone. Many commentators claim that proliferation of small …

Unmaking And Remaking Crimean Tatar Identity Stalin’S Deportation, Sürgün Stories, And The Claiming Of Indigeneity, Milo A. Clarkson

International Studies Honors Projects

The Crimean Tatars exist within a framework of historical and modern Russian settler colonial oppression. By examining their preferred form of identification, this thesis argues that claiming indigeneity holds promise for combating this colonial structure. Further, it identifies the construction of collective memories of the Sürgün (1944 deportation of the Crimean Tatars) in virtual museum project Tamirlar’s oral histories as a form of discursive decolonization—the reclamation of cultural, linguistic, and historical representation and primacy on the land. Novel analysis of fifty interviews with Sürgün survivors preserves indigenous Crimean identity and challenges the retrospective settler colonial construction of Crimea as “Russian.”

Organizing To Engage: A Framework For Conflict Strategy, Paul Mason Carpenter

Dissertations

Conflict strategy can be exceedingly complex. While many of the basics are simple, even the simple can be highly complicated to execute. The Schlieffen Plan in World War I appeared straight forward, but execution was a great deal more complex. It failed and the result was years of trench warfare.  In addition, leaders entering conflict may not fully appreciate the full context, its effect, and the need for a long term result--a better state of peace.

Strategy and tactics may be challenging to transform as an engagement evolves. In addition, strategists must often commit to courses of action within very …

The Necessity Of U.S. Aid: The Russian-Ukrainian War, Lelin Spriggs

The Dialogue

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the conflict has emerged as a defining foreign-policy challenge of the twenty-first century. In the United States, the war dominates political discourse and continues to shape debates on national security and the appropriate scope of American global leadership. Although President Trump vowed during his campaign to end the war upon entering office, hostilities intensified following his inauguration, prompting renewed policy debates regarding the future and extent of U.S. military and economic support for Kyiv.

This paper argues that the United States must continue providing sustained military and economic …

“Enslavement By Unbridled Passions:” Catholic Magisterial Institutional Attitudes Toward Homosexuals In Poland Between 1945 And 1989, Agnieszka Laddach

Journal of Global Catholicism

During Communism, the Polish bishops presented a narrative about (homo)sexuality with in order to create the image of a righteous moral and social life that was to influence the Catholics. In my research I conduced a thematic analysis of this narrative. I highlight the doctrinal and Polish social-religious context to foreground tendencies in the formation of Church teaching about homosexuality as well as the importance of the Church in Poland to its formation. Then, I show the factors that characterize the episcopal discourse’s content and language about homosexuality, recognizing that components of episcopal discourse suggest a specificity of Church potential …

Overview & Acknowledgments, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

This Introduction overviews the work of contributors from the Graduate Symposium sponsored by the Journal of Global Catholicism and the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.  The Introduction also highlights the independent peer reviewed submission from Dr. Agnieszka Laddach of the University of Warsaw.

Frontmatter (Volume 46, Issue 3), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

The Soviet Template And Its Application: Bulgarian State Policy Toward The Bulgarian Orthodox Church After 1944, Ventzislav Gueorgiev Karavaltchev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines the adoption and implementation of Soviet models in Bulgarian state policy toward the Bulgarian Orthodox Church following the communist takeover on September 9, 1944. Situating the Bulgarian case within a broader comparative framework, the study traces key continuities between Soviet church–state relations after the October Revolution of 1917—particularly as was institutionalized during the Stalinist period—and their subsequent application in Bulgaria. Drawing on extensive archival materials from Bulgarian and Russian repositories, the article demonstrates that all major decisions concerning the Church were closely coordinated with, and often directly approved by, Moscow. Beyond repression and legal restriction, the analysis …

Hegemonial Nationalism And The Role Of Religion: A View From The Perspective Of The Western Balkans, Semir Halilović, Tomislav Tadic

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This paper points to the problem of hegemonic nationalism, with an emphasis on the role of religion, in the context of a social understanding of the situation in the Western Balkans (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Croatia). The question of the “Eastern and Western models of nationalism” is articulated, and the social role of religion in their construction is examined. In relation to this framework, the possibilities for applying the thesis of the Eastern model of the nation are considered in light of the current war situation between Russia and Ukraine. The paper highlights some of the theoretical configurations …