The thesis is grappling with the phenomena of Russia in modern Anglo-American history, especially as it relates to governance tensions concerning (digital) technology. Russia seems a paradox in Anglo-American circles: on the one hand, a serious security apparatus that threatens liberal capitalist democracies and the hearts\/minds of world populations, on the other hand, a backward totalitarian regime vulnerable to foreign and\/or popular reform. The central investigation follows two complementary lines of inquiry around this paradox. On the one hand, my work maps Anglo-American perspectives about Russia and shows how they often were built on incomplete understanding or even domestic projections. On the other hand, I draw on primary and secondary Russian-oriented sources to unpack the dense geographies – cultural, financial, legal, political, and social – that constitute this black box society, Russia. The thesis focuses on two historical periods in relation to three technological clusters: 1950s-1990s \/ cybernetics, 1990s-present \/ fintech (money laundering, anti-terrorist funding), and 2000s-present \/ cybersecurity (e.g., Facebook).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":null,"ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"disabled","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","_jet_sm_ready_style":"","_jet_sm_style":"","_jet_sm_controls_values":"","_jet_sm_fonts_collection":"","_jet_sm_fonts_links":""},"department":[31],"class_list":["post-1196","thesis","type-thesis","status-publish","hentry","department-microbiology"],"yoast_head":"\n