The experience of globalisation has taken a special form in the post-Communist world, a region that has at the same time undergone the re-introduction of market relations from scratch, re-entry into the international economy and the formation of newstates and state structures. It can be seen as an extreme special case, and many of its features appear similar to those of other parts of the world that have endured the most severe stresses under globalisation. In the fifteen former republics of the USSR, the majority of citizens have seen the manifold security they used to enjoy in their personal lives vanish. They have grown poorer and lost entitlements to employment, housing, education, health care and pensions, and have often been exposed to crime for the first time in their lives. Many people's overriding sense has been of loss, as even the increased political security they gained with the end of Soviet repression has been compromised by the weakness and instability of the successor states. Yetdespite pervasive economic crisis, political instability and human insecurity, the region has remained largely at peace for nearly ten years. This surely requires some explanation.
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