Diplomacy Professor Margarita Balmaceda Wins Two Book Prizes  

The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) honored Professor Margarita Balmaceda, Ph. D, with two book prizes for her latest book, Russian Energy Chains: The Remaking of Technopolitics from Siberia to Ukraine to the European Union. A year after its release, Russian Energy Chains continues to reach new heights with two of the nine ASEEES book prizes they award, recognizing outstanding scholarship in the field to works of merit. ASEEES is the world’s premier membership organization supporting teaching, research, and publication relating to the study of Central Asia, the Caucasus, Russia, and Eastern Europe regions.

Russian Energy Chains won its first ASEEES award, The 2022 Marshall D. Shulman Book Prize, for an exceptional monograph on any nation from the former Soviet Union or Eastern Europe's foreign relations, foreign policy, or foreign policy decision-making. The book stood out for its intricate outlook on the energy supply chain, and its textured study of the complex world of Russian energy. Sponsored by the Harriman Institute of Columbia University, the Shulman book prize is historically awarded to works that encourage high-quality research on the former Communist Bloc's nations' international behavior.

The second award, The Ed A Hewett book prize is sponsored by the University of Michigan Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. Her work challenged the paradigm of Russia’s use of its energy-producing role as a political weapon against energy-dependent consumers of the EU and former Soviet Bloc. She encourages readers to draw their own conclusions by analyzing the relationship between multiple actors negotiating along the resources’ value chains. Russian Energy Chains was deemed worthy of the Hewett Book Prize for its extensive research, interdisciplinary approach, and nuanced analysis.

Balmaceda is a founding faculty member of the School of Diplomacy and International Relations. As a professor, her courses enlighten students on the Politics of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity, Post-Soviet and East European Politics, Foreign Policies, and the Master's Research Project. To learn more about the book, read Balmaceda’s interview with the School or listen to her expert insight with MarketPlace Host David Brancaccio at a Book Talk in response to the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

Categories: Arts and Culture, Nation and World