James Peterson and Jacek Lubecki’s Globalization, Nationalism, and Imperialism: A New History of Eastern Europe is an important book that focuses on eastern Europe’s complex history. The authors have an impressive publication record with multiple books and articles focusing on the region, including their 2019 book Defense Policies of East-Central European Countries After 1989: Creating Stability in a Time of Uncertainty. Their previous scholarship provides Peterson and Lubecki with a broad foundation and understanding of east European history, enabling them to offer this new and important work.
Globalization, Nationalism, and Imperialism is a brief volume that examines east European history over the past three centuries and shows how globalism, imperialism, and nationalism emerged and have “tugged at the ends and corners” (1) of the region. The authors also present several theories as paradigms to understand the accounts portrayed in the work. These intellectual models include legacy theory, divergence and convergence theory, public policy formation theory, and classical realist theory. This theoretical background provides models to better understand regional changes and to link them to other broad global transformations.
There is logic in the book’s structure; it begins with a general introduction before moving to the second chapter, which provides a good historical chronology from 1815 to 1914, ending in 1989. This book section is a valuable tool for educators introducing students to the region. It begins by focusing on the Ottoman, Russian, German, and Austro-Hungarian empires that were dominant in the region until World War I. After a brief period where liberal democracies emerged, the region was again subjected to great power control through Nazi and then Soviet occupation. While focusing on the broader regional history, the authors are able to provide a brief individual chronicle for every east and central European country. It shows how outside powers pressured the region and how western cultural influence created domestic challenges that inadvertently led to nationalism. The modernization process introduced liberal political institutions but it also created deep domestic unrest, which combined with the pressure to form a homogenous state, and this led to the oppression of minority groups. These groups gained a new consciousness that saw them challenge the dominant states. The authors also show how most regional states, because of some previous democratic experience, were able to gain agency and rebuild themselves after Soviet control ended.
The next section turns to the difficult economic adjustment east European states experienced as they rapidly transitioned to a capitalist economy after gaining sovereignty. This transformation was very difficult and is under-appreciated. The nineties are referred to as the lost-decade as economies shrunk and people lost the social narrative that provided them meaning and helped to hold their societies together. Birth-rates and marriage rates fell, leading to the worst global demographic crisis ever experienced outside of war or famine. Many nations greatly desired political unification with the west, which gave their leaders the political cover to institute difficult reforms. Economic growth returned in 2000 and the region’s GDP doubled during the first decade of the new century. However, as some regional countries gained membership in the EU and NATO, they were not exempt from the negative economic consequences caused by the 2008 recession. This economic crisis hit the region hard and it gave additional political prowess to anti-liberal and anti-globalist political parties.
The fourth and fifth chapters focus on the ethnic and security challenges confronting the region. This part of the book provides multiple case studies that focus on significant minority populations in the region and shows how they are tied to past great powers’ regional presence. When foreign armies pulled out, a large population often remained behind, maintaining its linguistic and cultural ties to the former power. The chapter focusing on security provides accounts explaining the region’s vulnerability to terrorism and to Russian military conquest.
The authors curiously move on to address the Covid crisis and how it affected democratic ratings in the region. This was an odd chapter that did not fit within the overall context of the book. The authors never fully explain what democratic states should do in a pandemic and what are the appropriate limitations of government; one has to make inferences that anything that limited the disease’s spread was democratic. There was an effort, though, to focus on how it affected national elections. For an outside reader, it appears that this chapter was added by a reviewer, but while satisfying the reviewer, it added little or nothing to the value of the book.
The book offers a valuable contribution to east Europe regional studies and is an invaluable tool for educators, scholars, and statesmen. While I deal with many of the same subjects in my Cultural Imperialism and the Decline of the Liberal Order: Russian and Western Soft Power in Eastern Europe (2018), there are important philosophical differences that separate our works. While I recommend Peterson and Lubecki’s book, there are some problems with it. Despite the authors’ impressive credentials, the historical context of some events is outdated and reflects the scholarly consensus of previous decades. As such, some parts could have been written decades earlier. Additionally, the text uses globalization, nationalism, and imperialism in a similarly outdated and sometimes anachronistic manner. It would have been better to see the authors have stronger conceptional understandings when ideas are prominently featured. While culture is an important element in several chapters, it is used problematically within the text. It is good that the authors acknowledge that national culture is more than a construction, but they are ambiguous in their overall description. The weakness is that the authors are limited by the conventions and norms present within their discipline and this prevents them from making explicit statements that would place them outside the popular consensus. Even with these weaknesses, Peterson and Lubecki offer an important work that needs to be widely read by all interested in eastern Europe and desire to understand its recent history.
