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The Eurasian Politician - February 2004
Dear reader of The Eurasian Politician,
We are looking for new contributors, editors and correspondents of articles, columns, reports, and press and book reviews. If you are interested in non-profit reporting or editorial work, please read this!
The Eurasian Politician is an independent web journal for Eurasian affairs - politics and history, having been published since 2000 by a group of young specialists, who were then mostly students of social sciences and history. From 2001, the journal has been mostly edited in Finland, but we are not bound to any governmental or party interest. However, as the name of the journal indicates, we originally intended the journal to be balanced between academic analysis and opinion.
Just to reply to some letters we have received, we are in no way connected with the "Eurasianist" political movements of Russia, Turkey, Iran, or other countries where such ideological currents have recently evolved or revived. The Eurasian Politician is based on values of political, religious and national tolerance and liberty, and unlike the "Eurasianist" movement, we reject the idea of Eurasian antagonism against America or any other continent. Our Eurasian idea refers to inclusive values rather than exclusive; advocacy for more understanding between "Europeans" and "Asians", and attention is paid specifically to the zone where Europe meets Asia, from Eastern Europe, Turkey and Russia to the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Our conception of Eurasia is rather the space where Europe and Asia coexist. We do not want to exclude America or Africa from it. By definition, we are also in favor of ecumenical understanding, especially between Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. We are against the idea of "clash of civilizations", and that is one of the founding principles of the journal.
The Eurasian Politician is not merely academic, though. We do like to publish analytical and insightful columns and critical opinions commenting world politics. Expressing one's own ideas is encouraged. We do not hide our general preference in favor of democracy, freedom of speech and open society, which we do not consider as exclusive property of "the West". Every nation should have the right to aspire these basic elements of human dignity. Thus, we do have a certain normative and value-laden perspective, and we warmly support those people in their respective countries who continue to work for democracy, freedom and human rights issues.
Although we believe in peaceful and voluntary integration on regional or even global scale, we do not condemn "separatism" per se, as most of the countries, including ours, have gone through the same process and it would be most arrogant hypocrisy to deny the right of self-determination from those who yet struggle for their liberty. The map of states and boundaries has always been dynamic and continues to be so. The problem is usually not integration or secession but the violent exacerbation of a conflict over the process. Neither change nor status quo should be advocated "at any price". We do not believe in doctrinal or totalitarian ideologies based on the idea of imposing a system over a population against their will. National-socialism/fascism, communism and radical Islamism are among such ideologies. We do not accept genocide or "ethnic cleansing" at any excuse. Likewise, we also condemn terrorism in all its forms, with the added note that not all armed resistance or invasion are terrorism, and the conception of terrorism should not be used to incriminate any ethnic group, religion or nation; this kind of agitation seriously undermines the struggle against terrorism, too.
Our publishing policy can be summed by stating that we are open to publish texts offered to us, which are analytical or otherwise well based, written in good style and quality (though we do not have resources for language checking, for which we apologize - help with this kind of editorial work is of course most welcome), and which are in a suitable file format - preferably RTF. However, we reject texts which seem to be just political pamphlets, which agitate hatred against an ethnic or religious group, or clearly distort facts as seen by the editorial board. However, well founded speculation is of course totally acceptable, as is criticism at governments, other political actors, and their policies, both in historical and contemporary context.
We are not obliged to publish anything, and although in case of rejection we would like to give explanation to the author, we are not obliged to do so, and we are not obliged to reply all the messages we get. We also do not publish advertisements, although an author of course has the right to short self promotion and possible website link in the author's bio at the end of an article. In general, articles should be published under one's own name (exceptions will be considered separately, regarding, for example, the author's safety), and they should be dated. If reviewing a book or media report, reference information should be given. Although we check the articles to be published, responsibility for their content remains with the author, as does the copyright.
We especially invite young researchers and students from all parts of the world to contribute, as The Eurasian Politician can help you to express your knowledge and views and to help in making contacts with far-away colleagues. We are proud of having made contacts between many people over national, regional and cultural boundaries already, so even if we are no Reuters in terms of publicity, and cannot pay for contributions, our work has not been worthless. We are receiving e-mail letters from readers every week and it seems there are no geographic limitations for our audience, since letters are coming from places extending from Santiago de Chile to Irkutsk, from Lusaka to Kuala Lumpur, from Istanbul to Boston, and from Prishtina to Peshawar.
The Eurasian Politician editors