This project will provide a world class PhD training programme based on a network of dissertation topics and more experienced researcher interactions all focused on post-Soviet affairs, and in particular post-Soviet tensions. Tensions here is understood as both tangible tensions (conflicts, war, riots) and less tangible (or latent) ones (such as social tensions that have not as yet been manifest in a violent form). The project will support the development of a team of 12 Early Stage Researchers and 2 Experienced Researchers (<5), who will have regional specialisation, a rigorous methodological training and three years experience of working in an international and intercultural environment. Such experts are in high demand and this ITN will lay the basis for ensuring that Europe is self sustaining in creating the best young researchers in the world with an expertise on the former Soviet space. This ITN is based on a premise of learning by doing, but learning in a highly structured and supported environment. The project, in addition to creating the next generation of experts in this field, will also contribute a significant body of knowledge in its own right that explores and compares the way tensions have been escalating (or remaining latent), implemented and applied to different geopolitical realities.