The Northern Fleet Naval Aviation exercises in the Barents Sea have the traditional agenda of hunting for “hostile” submarines. They may have an additional goal of making an impression on Koji Sekimizu, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization, who is taking a ride of the 50 Let Pobedy nuclear icebreaker in order to inspect the safety… Read more »
On this day thirteen years ago
On this day thirteen years ago we still believed that some sailors on board the Kursk were alive…
Arctic ice hits a new historic low
The Arctic ice is about to hit a new historic low this month, and Rossiiskaya gazeta has proudly reported that nuclear ice-breaker 50 Let Pobedy made a voyage to the North Pole, which happened to be the 100th visit by a ship to this symbolic spot. What the newspaper is somewhat shy about is that… Read more »
2 August 1933
It is 80 years ago – 2 August 1933 – that the unfortunate Chelyuskin left Murmansk for the voyage along the Sevmorput that became one of the legends of early Stalin’s era. And this is the link to a lengthy presentation of the voyage of Petr Velikii along the same route, which is supposed to… Read more »
Extremely hot weather in the Arctic
The extremely hot weather in the Arctic was noticed even by the Fox News, not generally known for climate concerns, but for a more scientific coverage I would recommend this. The command of the Northern Fleet has decided to use this opportunity for sending the nuclear cruiser Petr Veliky (known also as the “presidental yacht”,… Read more »
Russian fleet of nuclear icebreakers
Russian fleet of nuclear icebreakers (pictured here at its base Atomflot near Murmansk) has decommissioned the third ship of Arktika class, called Rossiya. Built in 1985, this ship became famous in 2007 taking the famous flag-planting expedition to the North Pole. With the addition of 50 Let Pobedy in 2007 (the construction started in 1989),… Read more »
Kaluga
The Arctic-info informs that the B-800 submarine Kaluga has finished sea trials after modernization and is ready to return to the Northern Fleet. There is a bit of context to this info – this Kilo-class (project 877) diesel sub was built back in 1989 (and named Vologodsky Komsomolets, yes, a bit funny). In 2002, it… Read more »
‘Being strong’
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin presented confrontation in the Arctic as one of five possible scenarios for future wars focusing particularly on the attacks on Russian oil and gas plants and on NATO naval threats to the SevMorPut. He was speaking at the conference organized by Rossiiskaya gazeta with the aim of elaborating on Putin’s… Read more »
Ethical Challenges of Internet Research on 22/7
For my research on post-22/7 resilience and social media, I am drawing on data sources from the internet. Even though this data is publicly available, there are several ethical issues to be considered. Read More
Complexities and Challenges in Afghan migration?
If you look at the return programs organized by European governments (usually in partnership with the IOM) you will notice that return and reintegration are often mentioned together, as if they always coincide. However, reintegration (however it is defined) does not automatically follow return. Also, how ‘success’ in reintegration assistance is defined differs: is it where those assisted do not re-migrate? Or, as I would argue, reintegration is a multi-dimensional process that involves (re)negotiating membership in a variety of different spheres of society (economic, political, social, and cultural). In a high mobility society like Afghanistan, with a ‘culture of migration’, further migration may actually be an indicator of successful reintegration into socio-cultural norms (i.e. doing what everyone else is doing), rather than a ‘failure’ of reintegration.
Fieldwork for the PREMIG project (amongst other research) suggests that Afghans in Norway and the UK only sign up for Assisted ‘Voluntary’ Return programs when all other options of staying in Europe have been exhausted and they are ‘volunteering’ to take assisted return rather than be deported. Consequently, I agree with those who only use the term voluntary returnee with regard to people who have the option of a regularized stay in Europe as an alternative to return.
I consider ‘migration’ to be an umbrella term that encompasses many different types of mobile people, including refugees. Policy-makers, however, often see contemporary Afghans travelling abroad as migrants as opposed to refugees. UNHCR points out that this might be difficult for many refugee advocates to accept. Whilst I’m all for recognizing the reality of mixed migration flows, until there is a ‘migrant’ category that offers regularized mobility to people fleeing the kinds of complex webs of poverty and insecurity that many Afghans experience, then I’m very wary of seeing the terms ‘migrant’ and ‘refugee’ separated in the Afghan case.