Reflections on 'Culture Wars'

This is a short reflective note on culture wars centered around seven statements. It is largely based on the introduction to the special issue of Europe-Asia Studies co-written with Sarah Whitmore and Jon Wheatley. That special issue sought to explore the phenomenon of culture wars in the former Soviet space, drawing on case studies such as Latvia, Georgia, Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. I will draw on some of the case studies featured in that special issue in the reflection below. If there is a definitive take-away from these statement-based reflections, it is that culture wars are less about culture and more about a struggle for power over access to resources and rights among a complex of different political, social, and cultural actors, both elite and non-elite.