Neil Robinson BA (CNAA), MA, PhD (Essex) is Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Limerick. Prior to his appointment at Limerick he taught at the universities of York and Essex. His research interests focus on Russian and post-communist politics, particularly the political economy of post-communism and post-communist state building. He is the author of Ideology and the collapse of the Soviet system. A critical history of Soviet ideological discourse ( Edward Elgar, 1995), and Russia: a state of uncertainty (Routledge, 2002), Contemporary Russian Politics (Polity, 2018), and co-author (with Karen Henderson) of Post-communist politics (Prentice Hall, 1997). He is the editor or co-editor of Institutions and and political change in Russia (Macmillan, 2000), Reforging the weakest link: global political economy and post-Soviet change in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (Ashgate, 2004), (with Aidan Hehir) State-building. Theory and practice (Routledge, 2007), and (with Todd Landman) The Sage handbook of comparative politics (Sage, 2009), The political economy of Russia (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012), and (with Rory Costello) Comparative European politics. Distinctive democracies, common challenges (Oxford University Press, 2020). He is the author of several book chapters and journal articles in, among other places, Soviet Studies, European Journal of Political Research, Political Studies, The Journal of Communist Studies and Transitional Politics, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Demokratizatsiya, Review of International Political Economy, International Political Science Review, Russian Politics.