"Wittke and her contributors shed new light on old problems by challenging worn-out perspectives on the post-Soviet region often rooted in cold-war terminology. Instead, they show that a much better understanding of conflict dynamics and potentials can be gained through in-depth empirical analysis. This collection offers a welcome inter-disciplinary corrective that complements, and in many ways takes us beyond, the "New Cold War" paradigm."- Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham