{"id":14,"date":"2015-01-07T11:45:45","date_gmt":"2015-01-07T18:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/kuus\/?page_id=14"},"modified":"2026-07-01T14:36:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T21:36:04","slug":"publications","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/kuus\/publications\/","title":{"rendered":"Publications"},"content":{"rendered":"

For descriptions of current research themes, see the \u2018Research Themes\u2019<\/a> section. Copyright laws do not permit me to post PDF files on the web. If you have trouble accessing the articles (list after the books), feel free to request a copy from me.<\/p>\n

Books<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"Kuus_Geopolitics_Expertise_cover\"<\/a>Kuus, M. Geopolitics and Expertise: Knowledge and Authority in European Diplomacy<\/strong>,<\/em> Wiley-Blackwell, 2014 (paperback, hardcover, and e-book). The introductory chapter is freely available for download at the publisher’s site.<\/p>\n

Link to the book’s page at publisher’s site.<\/a><\/p>\n

Geopolitics and Expertise<\/em> is an in-depth exploration of how expert knowledge is created and exercised in European Union institutions. It traces how geopolitical arguments are deployed by foreign policy professionals there and how these practices fit into and transform the social milieu of the European Quarter. The book incorporates over 100 interviews with EU foreign policy professionals over the course of seven years. Blending human geography with international relations, anthropology, and sociology, it illuminates the inner workings of knowledge and power in transnational regulatory institutions<\/p>\n

\"Kuus_Ashgate_cover\"<\/a>Dodds, K., Kuus, M. and Sharp, J. (eds). The Ashgate Research Companion to Critical Geopolitics<\/em>,<\/strong> Ashgate, 2013. ISBN: 1409423808, 9781409423805.<\/p>\n

Link to the book’s page at publisher’s site.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kuus, M. Geopolitics Reframed: Security and Identity in <\/strong><\/em>Europe\u2019s Eastern Enlargement<\/em><\/strong>. <\/em>New York: Palgrave \"refrramed_cover\"<\/a>Macmillan, 2007.<\/p>\n

Link to the book’s page at publisher’s site.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Articles, commentaries, book chapters<\/span><\/h2>\n

Most of my recent publications examine diplomacy, policy, and the creation of international governance expertise in Europe and the Arctic. Some pieces explore wine and its role in human connection; those are marked with for easy identification.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2026. Use it or lose it: Arctic pragmatism requires qualitative knowledge. Arctic Today<\/em>, July 1. https:\/\/www.arctictoday.com\/use-it-or-lose-it-arctic-pragmatism-requires-qualitative-knowledge\/\u00a0<\/a> Non-academic, open access.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2026. \u2018The Taste of the Living World\u2019: Story and Emotion in Wine Writing. Anthony Gismondi On Wine<\/em> (The principal wine site and newsletter in British Columbia).\u00a0 https:\/\/gismondionwine.com\/blog\/the-taste-of-the-living-world-story-and-emotion-in-wine-writing\/ <\/a>\u00a0May 30. Non-academic, open access. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2026. Cross-boundary listening: Social expertise in Arctic governance. (Commentary) The Arctic Institute<\/em>. https:\/\/www.thearcticinstitute.org\/cross-boundary-listening-social-expertise-arctic-governance\/ <\/a>\u00a0Feb. 17. Non-academic, open access. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2025. Interaction. In Arctic Encyclopaedia 2025<\/em>. Tromso: Arctic Economic Council.\u00a0 https:\/\/arcticeconomiccouncil.com\/reports\/arctic-encyclopaedia-2025\/<\/a> Open access<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2025. Arctic circles: Transprofessional networking and international governance Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space<\/em>. Online early. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/23996544251360540 <\/a>Open access<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2025. What does wine sell? Complexity and place in British Columbia. Anthony Gismondi on Wine\u00a0(The principal wine site and newsletter in British Columbia)<\/em>.<\/strong> https:\/\/gismondionwine.com\/blog\/what-does-wine-sell\/ <\/a>Non-academic, open access.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2025. Aesthetics and perception in geographical writing: The case of wine (Cultural Geographies in Practice commentary). cultural geographies.<\/i> https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/14744740251326890 <\/a>Open access.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2024. Social interaction in Arctic science diplomacy. Arctic Circle Journal<\/em>, November 28. Non-academic, open access<\/strong>. Link\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2024. What makes a wine region worth visiting: place and beauty in Okanagan Valley, British Columbia. Canadian Geographies\/ G\u00e9ographies canadiennes<\/em>. \u00a0<\/strong>vol 68, pp. 529\u2013537, Nov.\u00a0 \u00a0http:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/cag.12926\u00a0\u00a0<\/a> Open access.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2023. The in-person of fieldwork: on effectiveness, efficiency, and ethics. Guest editorial, Political Geography <\/em>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.polgeo.2023.103000.<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2023. The social lives of Arctic expertise, or how to do transnational networks\u2019 (Briefing Note). In Heininen, L., H. Exner-Pirot and J. Barnes (eds.) (2023). Arctic Yearbook 2023: Arctic Indigenous Peoples: Climate, Science, Knowledge and Governance<\/em>. Akureyri, Iceland: Arctic Portal. Available from https:\/\/arcticyearbook.com\/<\/a>. Open access<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2023. Interstitial expertise and international governance: Cultivating diplomatic practitioners in Europe. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography<\/em>.\u00a0https:\/\/DOI: 10.1080\/04353684.2023.2211078<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2023. Between an archipelago and an ice floe: the know-where of Arctic governance expertise. Polar Record, <\/em>online early Open access <\/strong>https:\/\/www.doi.org\/10.1017\/S0032247422000316<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2023. \u2018Bureaucratic sociability, or the missing eighty percent of effectiveness: \u00a0the case of diplomacy\u2019. Geopolitics <\/em>28 (1): 174-195\u00a0 https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/14650045.2021.1934672<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2021. \u2018The Know-Where of Diplomatic Sociability: Expanding the Spaces of Practice Theory\u2019. In the Collective Discussion: \u2018Thinking with Diplomacy: Within and Beyond Practice Theory\u2019 (with C. Constantinou, J. Dittmer, F. McConnell, S. Opondo, V. Pouliot). International Political Sociology <\/em>15 (4): 559\u2013587. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/ips\/olab028<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2021. “Professions and their expertise: charting the spaces of \u2018elite\u2019 occupations”. Progress in Human Geography, <\/em>45(6): 1339-1355. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0309132520950466<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2020. \u2018Regulatory power and region-making in the Arctic: China and the European Union\u2019 (Euro commentary). <\/span>European Urban and Regional Studies<\/em> vol. 27, 4: pp. 321-324.<\/span>\u00a0<\/em>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0969776420925539<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2020. \u2018Europe\u2019s future depends on perspective not policy\u2019. New Perspectives\u00a0<\/em>28 (3): pp. 270-274. Essay based on Keynote Address 1B at the Hamburg (Insecurity) Sessions, 21 November 2019. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/2336825X20934970<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2020. \u2018Toward the geopolitics of geoeconomic ideas\u2019. In \u2018Reading Geopolitics of the Knowledge-Based Economy<\/em> by Sami Moisio\u2019 (review forum). Political Geography<\/em> 80, June 2020. https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S0962629820301980<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2020. \u2018Political Geography III: Bounding the International\u2019. Progress in Human Geography<\/em> vol. 44, 6: pp. 1185-1193. This is the third of three progress reports commissioned by the journal.\u00a0<\/em>(https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0309132519869457).<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2020. Powerful and Elite Subjects. In J. Darling and H. Wilson (ed.). Research Ethics for Human Geography: A Handbook for Students<\/em>, pp. 202-210.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2020. \u2018Political Geography II: Institutions\u2019. Progress Report. Progress in Human Geography <\/em>\u00a044(1) 119\u2013128. Second of three progress reports on political geography.\u00a0 https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0309132518796026.<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2019. ‘The terroir<\/em> of bureaucratic practice: Everyday life and scholarly method in the study of policy’, Environment & Planning C: Politics & Space, 2019, 37(4) 617\u2013633:\u00a0 https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0263774X18802954<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2019. \u2018Political Geography I: Agency\u2019, Progress in Human Geography<\/em> 43 (1): 163-171, 2019. First of three progress reports on political geography. http:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full\/10.1177\/0309132517734337<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2019. \u2018State Power, Spatial Inequality, and Geographical Expertise: Notes on Method\u2019. In Thilo Lang and Franziska G\u00f6rmar (eds). Regional and Local Development in Times of Polarisation: Rethinking Spatial Policies in Europe<\/em>. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 79-94.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2018. \u2018Political Economies of Transnational Fields: Harmonization and Differentiation in European Diplomacy\u2019, Territory, Politics, Governance, <\/em>6(2): 222-239. http:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/21622671.2016.1266960<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2018. \u2018Transnational Institutional Fields: Positionality and Generalization in the Study of Diplomacy\u2019, Political Geography<\/em>\u00a067, pp. 156-165. Link:\u00a0https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0962629817300598<\/a>,<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. 2017. \u2018Diplomacy and the Other \u2013 and Wagner\u2019. Discussion forum \u2018On On Diplomacy<\/em>: James Der Derian\u2019s Classic 30 Years On\u2019 (with H. Leira, J. DerDerian, I. Neumann, M. Acuto, P. Sharp), New Perspectives: Interdisciplinary Journal of Central & Eastern European Politics and International Relations<\/em> 25(3):\u00a0 pp. 19-24. Link to the entire forum, which is open access<\/strong>:\u00a0http:\/\/perspectives.iir.cz\/download\/forum-on-on-diplomacy-james-der-derians-classic-30-years-on\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Locating Europe\u2019s Power, or the Difference between Passports and Passporting\u2019. in \u2018Interventions in Europe\u2019s Political Futures\u2019 (with Fiona McConnell, Alex Jeffrey, Adrian Smith, Nick Vaughan-Williams, Heaven Crawley) Political Geography,<\/em> 60, 2017, pp. 261-271.\u00a0https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S096262981730029X<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Diplomacy and Audit: Technologies of Knowledge in Europe\u2019, Geoforum, <\/em>2016, vol. 68 (January): 39-47.\u00a0https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0016718515300592<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u201c\u2018To Understand the Place\u2019: Geographical Knowledge and Diplomatic Practice\u201d, The Professional Geographer, <\/em>2016, vol. 68 (4) 546-553.\u00a0http:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/00330124.2015.1099450<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Transnational Diplomacy in Europe: What is Transcended and How?\u2019. In J. Dittmer and F. McConnell (eds.), Diplomatic Cultures and International Politics: Translations, Spaces and Alternatives<\/em>. <\/em>London: Routledge, 2015, pp. 41-58.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Symbolic Power in Diplomatic Practice: Matters of Style in Brussels\u2019, in V. Pouliot and J. Cornut (eds.) \u201cDiplomacy and Practice Theory\u201d, special issue of Cooperation and Conflict<\/em>, 2015, vol. 50 no. 3 <\/span> 368-384<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Crafting Europe for its Neighbourhood: Practical Geopolitics in European Institutions\u2019, in V. Bachmann and M. M\u00fcller (eds.) Perceptions of the EU in Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa: Looking from the Outside In<\/em>. London: Palgrave, 2015, pp. 34-49.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Regional Institutions\u2019, in A. Agnew, V. Mamadouh, A. Secor, and J. Sharp (eds.). The Companion to Political Geography<\/em> (2nd<\/sup> ed.). Routledge, 2015, pp. 311-323.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018For Slow Research\u2019, In Temenos, C., and T. Baker (eds.), Debates and Developments forum \u2018Urban Policy Mobilities: Moving Forward\u2019, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research,<\/em> 2015. DOI: 10.1111\/1468-2427.12257<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Response: Studying Evaporative Things\u2019, In Bachmann, V. (ed.) \u2018Bureaucratic Fields and the Brussels Machinery: Reading Merje Kuus\u2019 Geopolitics and Expertise<\/em> (Review forum), Political Geography, <\/em>44 (Jan): 19-28, 2015.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. ‘Transnational Bureaucracies: How Do We Know What They Know?’, Progress in Human Geography, 30 (4),<\/em> pp. 432-448, 2015.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Places of Lower Rank: Margins in Conversations\u2019. Invited commentary. Political Geography, <\/em>36 (6), pp. 30-32, 2013.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Introduction: Human Agency in Geopolitics\u2019, In Dodds, K., Kuus, M. and Sharp, J. (eds). The Ashgate Research Companion to Critical Geopolitics<\/em>, Ashgate, pp. 383-386, 2013.<\/p>\n

Dodds, K., Kuus, M., and Sharp, J. ‘Introduction: Geopolitics and its Critics’. In Dodds, K., Kuus, M. and Sharp, J. (eds). The Ashgate Research Companion to Critical Geopolitics<\/em>, Ashgate, pp. 1-18, 2013.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. Foreign Policy and Ethnography: A Skeptical Intervention\u2019. Geopolitics<\/em>, 18 (1), 2013: 115-131.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Banal Huntingtonianism: Civilizational Geopolitics in Estonia\u2019. In Stefano Guzzini (ed.) The Return of Geopolitics in Europe?: Social Mechanisms and Foreign Policy Identity Crises<\/em>. Cambridge University Press, 2012, 174-191.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Bureaucracy and Place: Expertise in the European Quarter\u2019. Global Networks: A Journal of Transnational Affairs, <\/em>2011 (4), pp. 421-439.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Policy and Geopolitics: Bounding Europe in Europe\u2019. Annals of the Association of American Geographers<\/em>, 101(5) 2011, 1140-1155.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Whose Regional Expertise?: Political Geographies of Knowledge in the European Bureaucracy\u2019. European Urban and Regional Studies<\/em>, 18 (3), 2011, pp. 275 – 288.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Geopolitics. Part II\u2019. In Agnew, J., and Duncan, J. (eds.) Companion to Human Geography<\/em>. Blackwell, 2011, pp. 512-522.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018EUrope and the baroque.\u2019 Commentary in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space<\/em>. 28, 3, 2010, pp. 381-387.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Critical Geopolitics\u2019. In R. Denemark (ed.) The International Studies Encyclopedia. <\/em>Blackwell, Volume II (Co-Ec), 2010, pp. 683-701.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Europe\u2019, in R. Kitchin and N. Thrift. (Editors-in-Chief) The International Encyclopedia of Human Geography<\/em>. Elsevier (2009), pp. 644-648.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Political Geography and Geopolitics\u2019. (Contribution to a special series of articles on the direction of Canadian geography.) The Canadian Geographer (TCG)<\/em> \/ Le G\u00e9ographe Canadien<\/em> (LGC) 53 (1) 2009: 86-90.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018All We Need is NATO? Frontiers of Security Cooperation in Europe\u2019. In Klaus Dodds and Alan Ingram, eds. Spaces of Security and Insecurity: Geographies of the War on Terror<\/em>. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009, pp. 185-204.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Cosmopolitan Militarism?: Spaces of NATO Expansion\u2019. Environment and Planning A.<\/em> 41 (2009), pp. 545-562.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Professionals of Geopolitics: Agency in Spatializing International Politics\u2019. Geography Compass. <\/em>2\/6 (2008): 2062\u20132079.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Civic Militarism?\u2019. In Flusty, Steven, Dittmer, Jason, Gilbert, Emily, and Kuus, Merje. \u2018Interventions in Banal Neoimperialism\u2019, Political Geography<\/em> 27 (2008), pp. 617-629.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Marginals and Outsiders\u2019. Contribution to the discussion forum \u2018Teaching European Identities\u2019 in Journal of Geography in Higher Education<\/em>. 32 (3), 2008.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018\u0160vejkian Geopolitics: Subversive Obedience in Central Europe\u2019. Geopolitics<\/em> vol. 13, no. 2, 2008, pp. 257- 277.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018The Ritual of Listening to Foreigners: Appropriating Geopolitics in Central Europe\u2019, in N. Parker (ed.) The Geopolitics of Europe’s Identity: Centers, Boundaries, and Margins<\/em>. New York: Palgrave, 2008, pp. 177-194.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M., and J. Agnew. ‘Theorizing the State Geographically: Sovereignty, Subjectivity, Territoriality’, in K. Cox, J. Robinson, and M. Low (eds.) The Handbook of Political Geography<\/em>. Sage Publications, 2008, pp. 117-132.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. ‘”Love, Peace and Nato”: Imperial Subject-Making in Central Europe’. Antipode, <\/em>vol. 39, no. 2, 2007, pp. 269-290.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Ubiquitous Identities and Elusive Subjects: Puzzles from Central Europe\u2019.\u00a0 Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers,<\/em> vol. 32 no. 1, 2007, pp. 90-101.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Intellectuals and Geopolitics: The \u2018Cultural Politicians\u2019 of Central Europe\u2019. Geoforum, <\/em>vol. 37, no. 2, 2007, pp. 241-251.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Multiple Europes: Boundaries and Margins in European Union Enlargement\u2019. Editorial introduction to a discussion forum on EU enlargement Geopolitics,<\/em> vol. 10, no. 3, 2005, pp. 567-570.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. ‘Europe’s Eastern Enlargement and the Re-Inscription of Otherness in East-Central Europe’ Progress in Human Geography,<\/em> vol. 18, no. 4, 2004, pp. 472-489.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. ”Those Goody-Goody Estonians’: Toward Rethinking Security in the European Union Applicant States’. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space <\/em>vol. 22, no. 2, 2004, pp. 191-207.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Toward Co-operative Security? International Integration and the Construction of Security in Estonia\u2019. Millennium: Journal of International Studies<\/em>, vol. 31, no. 2, 2002, pp. 297-317.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018Sovereignty for Security?: The Discourse of Sovereignty in Estonia\u2019, Political Geography, <\/em>vol. 21, no. 3, 2002, pp. 393-412.<\/p>\n

Kuus, M. \u2018European Integration in Identity Narratives in Estonia: A Quest for Security\u2019, Journal of Peace Research<\/em> vol. 39, no 1, 2002, pp. 91-108.<\/p>\n

Feldman, M. (former name). \u2018European Integration and the Discourse of National Identity in Estonia\u2019, National Identities, <\/em>vol. 3, no. 1, 2001, pp. 5-21.<\/p>\n

Feldman, M. \u2018Waterfront Revitalization and Local Governance in Tallinn, Estonia\u2019, Europe-Asia Studies, <\/em>vol. 52, no. 5, 2000, pp. 829-850.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For descriptions of current research themes, see the \u2018Research Themes\u2019 section. Copyright laws do not permit me to post PDF files on the web. If you have trouble accessing the articles (list after the books), feel free to request a copy from me. Books Kuus, M. Geopolitics and Expertise: Knowledge and Authority in European Diplomacy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28914,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-14","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/kuus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/kuus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/kuus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/kuus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28914"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/kuus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":151,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/kuus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":543,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/kuus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions\/543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/kuus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}