This series of SLAVIC EURASIAN STUDIES develops interdisciplinary and trans-boundary analyses on the evolving Slavic Eurasian areas. Slavic Eurasia covers the post-communist countries and regions, first of all. However, it is not only a geographical term, but also works as a heuristic concept for better and more realistic interpretations of the changing Eurasian continent under the impacts of globalization. Slavic Eurasia is, according to our understanding, a Mega-area, consisting of Meso-areas. Meso-areas emerge from the post-communist spaces and their formation is in various ways and degrees influenced not only by their internal factors but also by external regional integration such as EU enlargement, Islamic recovery, or East Asian economic growth. Therefore, a Meso-area is not a consolidated spatial framework, but rather a hypothetical term to understand emerging identities in a meso-level between the local or national level and a Mega-area level. Thus Slavic Eurasia, a Mega-area, in turn, loosely binds Meso-areas, sharing the communist experiences, other historical heritages, and politico-economic tasks to be solved in their systemic transformation lasting at least for several decades.

Each volume of the series examines some factors of the evolving Slavic Eurasia, and gives credible interpretations on the dynamic relations among Meso-areas, regional integration, the Mega-area and globalization.

Publication of this series and the related research program entitled “Making a Discipline of Slavic Eurasian Studies,” are financed by the 21st Century COE grants of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Sciences and Technology from 2003 to 2008. These projects involve scholars not only domestically but also internationally, and the organizing engine of the program, the Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University, serves as a worldwide hub for creating a new approach to Slavic Eurasian Studies.