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Pål Kolstø

Pål Kolstø

D-Index & Metrics

Political Science

D-Index
27
Citations
4468
World Ranking
1436
National Ranking
23

Overview

Pål Kolstø is affiliated with the University of Oslo in Norway. Their research mainly spans social sciences and arts and humanities, with a strong focus on political science, international relations, sociology, philosophy, and history. Their academic output reflects a multidisciplinary approach, addressing complex geopolitical and social dynamics.

Their recent publications illustrate a concentration on post-Soviet geopolitical dynamics, Soviet and Russian history, and classical political and philosophical thought. Some notable recent papers include:

  • "Biting the hand that feeds them? Abkhazia-Russia client-patron relations" (2020), published in Post-Soviet Affairs
  • "Authoritarian Diffusion, or the Geopolitics of Self-Interest? Evidence from Russia's Patron-Client Relations with Eurasia'sDe FactoStates" (2020), Europe Asia Studies
  • "Ukrainians and Russians as 'One People': An Ideologeme and its Genesis" (2023), Ethnopolitics

In addition to papers solely authored by Kolstø, they frequently collaborate with other researchers, especially on topics involving de facto statehood and patron-client relations in Eurasian contexts. Frequent co-authors include Helge Blakkisrud, Guri Tyldum, Nino Kemoklidze, Tamta Gelashvili, and Alexander Filippov.

Their publication venues are diverse but with a tendency toward journals and forums focused on Eastern European and post-Soviet issues. Top publication venues for Kolstø include:

  • Nordisk øst-forum/Nordisk østforum
  • Russia in Global Affairs
  • Nationalities Papers
  • Post-Soviet Affairs
  • Europe Asia Studies

Kolstø has also contributed to book publications, working with reputable academic presses. Noteworthy books include:

  • Strategic Uses of Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict (2021, 2022) published by Edinburgh University Press
  • Family, Sex, and Faith (2024, 2025) published by Cornell University Press eBooks
  • Heretical Orthodoxy (2022) published by Cambridge University Press

Their scholarly topics encompass a broad array of themes including post-Soviet geopolitical dynamics, Soviet and Russian history, classical philosophy and thought, seventeenth-century political and philosophical thought, healthcare law and governance, Eastern European communism and reforms, and religion and society interactions.

Best Publications

  • The Sustainability and Future of Unrecognized Quasi-States

    Pål Kolstø

  • Russians in the former Soviet republics

    Pål Kolstø;Andrei Edemsky

  • Unrecognized States: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Modern International System

    Stacy Closson;Pål Kolstø;Lee J. M. Seymour;Nina Caspersen

  • Political Construction Sites: Nation Building In Russia And The Post-soviet States

    Pal Kolsto

  • Living with Non-recognition: State- and Nation-building in South Caucasian Quasi-states

    Pål Kolstø;Helge Blakkisrud

  • From Secessionist Conflict Toward a Functioning State: Processes of State- and Nation-Building in Transnistria

    Helge Blakkisrud;Pål Kolstø

  • The Dniester Conflict: Between Irredentism and Separatism

    Pål Kolstø;Andrei Edemsky;Natalya Kalashnikova

  • National symbols as signs of unity and division

    Pål Kolstø

  • The Transnistrian Republic: A Case of Politicized Regionalism

    Pål Kolstø;Andrei Malgin

  • The new Russian diaspora ‐ an identity of its own? Possible identity trajectories for Russians in the former Soviet republic

    Pål Kolstø

  • Myths and Boundaries in South Eastern Europe

    Pål Kolstø

  • Anticipating demographic superiority: Kazakh thinking on integration and nation building.

    Pål Kolstø

  • The New Russian Nationalism

    Pal Kolstø;Helge Blakkisrud

  • Dynamics of de facto statehood: the South Caucasian de facto states between secession and sovereignty

    Helge Blakkisrud;Helge Blakkisrud;Pål Kolstø;Pål Kolstø

  • Territorialising Diasporas. The case of Russians in the Former Soviet Republics

    Pål Kolstø

  • Media Discourse and the Yugoslav Conflicts: Representations of Self and Other

    Pål Kolstø

  • De facto states and democracy: The case of Nagorno-Karabakh

    Pål Kolstø;Helge Blakkisrud

  • Strategies of Symbolic Nation-building in South Eastern Europe

    Pål Kolstø

  • Nation Building And Ethnic Integration In Post-soviet Societies : An Investigation Of Latvia And Kazakstan

    Pål Kolstø

  • Somaliland: Dynamics of internal legitimacy and (lack of) external sovereignty

    Scott Pegg;Pål Kolstø

  • The New Russian Diaspora: Minority Protection in the Soviet Successor States

    Pål Kolstø

  • National integration and violent conflict in post-Soviet societies : the cases of Estonia and Moldova

    Pål Kolstø

  • Biting the hand that feeds them? Abkhazia–Russia client–patron relations

    Pål Kolstø

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