The rapid changes in the former Soviet Union have rendered most pre-1992 works on its environment obsolete. A more specifically geographic approach that highlights the particular situation in each republic and region is offered by Philip R. Pryde’s new work, Environmental Resources and Constraints in the Former Soviet Republics. Focusing bro

Starting from the stance that environmental policy has progressed from rhetoric to substance in Latin America, the editors’ proceed through a series of papers to show why, what difference it makes, and how it compares to other parts of the world. In doing so, the book touches on domestic and international factors including political institutions, international development institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and transboundary cooperation. Latin American Environmental Policy in International Perspective is one in a series of books that take a look at Latin America in Global Perspective. Previous titles have addressed politics, gender, regional integration, institutional design, and civil/military relations.

This major study assesses prospects for economic recovery in the Russian Far East, evaluating foreign trade and investment, political and economic forces, patterns of resource supply and needs in Pacific Asia, and potential competitors. It concludes that this unfulfilled potential has as much to do with conditions in Russia as the downturn caused by the Asian crisis.

After the Soviet Union's collapse, the newly independent nations that emerged from its wreckage were immediately confronted by a myriad of environmental problems, and continue to be plagued by them nearly a decade later. In a microcosm of the shortsighted planning, reckless development and lack of ecological concern that epitomized the Soviet era, 70 decommissioned nuclear submarines are currently moored in ports along the Kola Peninsula. Obsolete, damaged, or banned by strategic arms reductions treaties, they have been largely abandoned after being stripped of their offensive armament. Manned by skeleton crews, these toothless sharks hold within their poorly maintained hulls a total of nearly 30 times the amount of nuclear fuel that was in Chernobyl Reactor Number Four when it exploded in 1986. Reporters and ecologists (from Russia and elsewhere) have made a connection between that disaster and one they see unfolding in Russia's northwest, depicting the submarines as "floating Chernobyl" and "a Chernobyl in slow motion." This illustrates the irony of shifting perceptions in NATO countries about how these submarines threaten them. In their Cold War glory, these vessels were meticulously watched in the West. The threat they represented was defined in terms of the throw weights of the nuclear warheads they carried aboard. A decade after the Soviet implosion, these submarines are largely ignored. The threat they now pose is measured in metric tons of the spent fuel and radioactive waste carried within their decaying hulls.

The collapse of the Soviet Union suddenly rendered ethnic Russians living in non-Russian successor states like Latvia and Kyrgyzstan new minorities subject to dramatic political, economic, and social upheaval. As elites in these new states implemented formal policies and condoned informal practices that privileged non-Russians, ethnic Russians had to react. In Russian Minority Politics in Post-Soviet Latvia and Kyrgyzstan, Michele E. Commercio draws on extensive field research, including hundreds of personal interviews, to analyze the responses of minority Russians to such policies and practices. In particular, she focuses on the role played by formal and informal institutions in the crystallization of Russian attitudes, preferences, and behaviors in these states. Commercio asks why there is more out-migration and less political mobilization among Russians in Kyrgyzstan, a state that adopts policies that placate both Kyrgyz and Russians, and less out-migration and more political mobilization among Russians in Latvia, a state that adopts policies that favor Latvians at the expense of Russians. Challenging current thinking, she suggests that the answer to this question lies in the power of informal networks. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Communist party, Komsomol youth organization, and KGB networks were transformed into informal networks. Russians in Kyrgyzstan were for various reasons isolated from such networks, and this isolation restricted their access to the country's private sector, making it difficult for them to create effective associations capable of representing their interests. This resulted in a high level of Russian exit and the silencing of Russian voices. In contrast, Russians in Latvia were well connected to such networks, which provided them with access to the country's private sector and facilitated the establishment of political parties and nongovernmental organizations that represented their interests. This led to a low level of Russian exit and high level of Russian voice. Commercio concludes that informal networks have a stronger influence on minority politics than formal institutions.