Network Analysis of the Post-Soviet Integration Processes: Hierarchical Ranking and Joint Cluster Analysis of Attributional and Relational Data of the Former Soviet States

Abstract

The identification of main drivers behind the post-Soviet integration processes has been one of the great academic challenges for the region’s experts. This article seeks to go beyond the existing literature by introducing a new analytical approach based on “big data” and social network analyses to post-Soviet regional studies, and employing a wider and more appropriate range of variables and cases than is usual. This is the first research to explicitly and systematically investigate the distinctiveness of the post-Soviet states ranking and similarities. The study was conducted at an egocentric level of network analysis, comparing fifteen former Soviet states across 188 measures of political institutions, economic development, social welfare structures, and international affiliations and alliances gathered over the period of twenty-one years of the post-Soviet independence.

Keywords: Post-Soviet regionalism, Eurasian integration, network analysis, big data, cluster analysis.

JEL Classification: B00, C10, C15, C22, J00, H00, L00, O10, R59