Emil Souleimanov

Charles University in Prague | CUNI · Department of Security Studies

Previous studies have shown that many recent Jihadist insurgencies differ from other types of civil wars due to their high levels of civilian victimization and their incidence among tribal and honorific societies. We argue that these characteristics of Jihadist wars may have an effect on anti-rebel mobilization among the local population. Notwithst...

Why do jihadi foreign fighters leave local insurgencies? While the literature on jihadi foreign fighters has mushroomed over the last decade, it has largely covered the perspective of individual motivations to join jihadi foreign fighter groups. The critical question of why individual jihadi foreign fighters leave local insurgencies, de facto recog...

How does the presence of armed pro-regime groups affect conflict lethality? This study examines the relationship between ethnicity, militia violence and conflict lethality in civil wars. We emphasise that differences in whether pro-regime militias were recruited in accordance with their ethnicity or not are critical in their influence upon conflict...

This study seeks to improve our understanding of the causes leading to failure of de facto states. In contrast to the voluminous body of literature on sovereign state failure, the process of de facto state failure remains under-researched. Drawing upon the existing research on state failure and de facto statehood, we narrow down our theoretical exp...

The scholarship on unrecognized or de facto states has been booming in the recent decades exploring this phenomenon from a variety of perspectives. Yet, as this article illustrates, a crucial accent on the instrumentalization of unrecognized states by regional actors – or, to put it differently, on unrecognized states as a source of coercive diplom...

This is a state-of-the-art review of the literature dealing with Chechnya's history, society, and conflict.

This book argues that the existing scholarship on asymmetric conflict has so far failed to take into account the role of socio-cultural disparities among belligerents. In order to remedy this deficiency, this study conceptualizes socio-cultural asymmetry under the term of asymmetry of values. It proposes that socio-cultural values which are based u...

This chapter intends to provide the reader with an ethnographic and historical background of the armed conflict in Chechnya. The chapter consists of three major parts. Its first part casts light on the key elements relating to the ethnography of the Chechens and to the milestones of their national history. It focuses on the social organization – th...

This empirical chapter consists of three main parts, each detailing the mechanism relating to the discussed socio-cultural codes: retaliation, hospitality, and silence. The chapter shows that during the First Russo-Chechen War, the code of retaliation served as an important source of violent mobilization as thousands of Chechens sought to retaliate...

The last chapter draws conclusion and offers practical recommendations for policy-makers. It concludes that socio-cultural codes discussed in the book – retaliation, hospitality, and silence – create a unique form of asymmetry between the honor cultures on the one hand, and the industrialized cultures on the other hand. These three socio-cultural c...

This is the first article to systematically examine the factors that have led to the considerable weakening of the North Caucasus insurgency since 2013: the selective targeting of the insurgents’ support base, the deployment of elite counter-insurgent force and army in special operations, the infiltration of insurgent groups and their decapitation,...

Drawing on unique interviews with former jihadists from Russia's autonomous republic of Dagestan, this article is the first to examine the impact of ethnicity on jihadist groups' methods of organization and operations, primarily in terms of their target selection, local support, and recruitment and leadership policies. It distinguishes between larg...

This monograph assesses the vitality of the North Caucasus insurgency.

This is the first article that systematically deconstructs the idealised, widely shared view and formal self-representation of Salafis as a de-culturalised group of Muslim believers who are solely devoted to the idea of a uniform Muslim identity and are indifferent to the notions of ethnic nationalism and racism. Drawing on unique interviews with E...

This article assesses the successes and setbacks of Moscow’s policy of counterinsurgency and beyond. It challenges the general consensus in scholarship positing that military successes associated with Chechenisation have been obtained against the backdrop of Chechnya’s increasingly autonomous status within Russia, considered by some as a case of ‘s...

Does a state's use of indiscriminate violence incite insurgent attacks? The conventional wisdom suggests that it does—Stathis Kalyvas cites dozens of studies and historical cases where collective targeting of the noncombatant population provoked greater insurgent violence. But others have pushed back against this claim. These scholars have made sig...

Can former insurgents in the service of counterinsurgent paramilitaries be considered a perfectly loyal force? What mechanisms may help to deter subsequent defections of individuals who have already “betrayed” once? Drawing on a unique set of primary data, this article examines the effective counter-defection practices of Chechnya’s pro-Moscow para...

This paper examines the evolution of Iran’s foreign policy toward the three South Caucasian republics since 2010 until today. Focusing on a topic that has remained on the margins of scholarly interest, this article identifies and tracks a number of key issues relating to Tehran’s policy toward Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. These issues include...

This article examines recent developments in Chechnya with a particular focus on its leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, whose influence has long surpassed the borders of the republic and whose further provocative behaviour and uncontrolled actions may face repercussions at the federal level. The research consists of two major parts explaining the psychologica...

This study seeks to identify factors conducive to the (in)efficacy of indigenous forces (IF) in counterinsurgency (COIN) operations in Russia’s republics of Chechnya and Dagestan. Empirically, it is the first study to offer an examination of the deployment of IF in the North Caucasus-based COIN. The findings of this article emphasize that the effec...

While scholarship on Islam in the Caucasus has focused on the late Soviet religious revival – the rise of Salafi jihadism and religious radicalisation in the northern part of these strategic crossroads – no study to date has addressed the discursive struggle over the social functions of regional Islam. This article deconstructs these discourses in...

While terrorist and insurgent groups have often combined anti-state subversion with ‘purely‘ criminal activities in order to obtain the financial means to wage their ideological struggle, little is known about the transformation of such groups into non-ideological organised crime groups (OCG) with close links to authorities. This holds particularly...

After a brief introduction to the North Caucasus and Chechnya from a historical, ethnolinguistic and sociological perspective, this entry deals with the development of the concepts of ethnicity, race, and nationalism in the modern Chechen society particularly during the Soviet and post-Soviet period. Special attention is paid to the interplay of ar...

The "Islamic State" poses only a limited threat to Russia. Nevertheless, Moscow repeatedly insists that Russia is threatened by the IS to the same extent as the West. In doing so, Moscow wants to legitimize its intervention in Syria and conceal the fact that its bombardments keep the regime of Bashar Assad in power. At the same time, talk of the "c...

Despite a considerable amount of ethnographic research into the phenomena of blood revenge and blood feud, little is known about the role of blood revenge in political violence, armed conflict, and irregular war. Yet blood revenge�widespread among many conflict-affected societies of the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond�is not confined to the r...

Jihadist groups often select for attack targets such as brothels and casinos, which Salafi ideology considers places of sin. However, they adjust to the expectations of the local population. In doing so, they seek to boost their standing and secure the solidarity of other Salafists. Wherever they cannot assume that fatal attacks on "sinful" (haram)...

This article posits that the remnants of archaic sociocultural norms, particularly the honour-imposed custom of retaliation, play a crucial role in the process of insurgent engagement in Russia's autonomous republic of Dagestan. Through a series of interviews with former insurgents, this study outlines two retaliation-centred mechanisms: “individua...

Exploring the case study of the Moscow-led counterinsurgency in Chechnya, this article shows the crucial importance of cultural knowledge understood in an ethnographic sense in terms of patterns of social organization, persisting value systems, and other related phenomena – in the relative success of the eradication of the Chechnya-based insurgency...

Monografie se zabývá otázkou ázerbájdžánské komunity v Íránu, největší etnojazykové menšiny v hranicích této Islámské republiky, jejíž evoluci zkoumá v kontextu bezpečnostní architektury kaspicko-středovýchodního areálu. Pro bližší pochopení této ve světové odborné literatuře téměř neprozkoumané problematiky text obsahuje představení etnické a nábo...

Drawing upon a range of ethnographic sources, this paper proposes an alternative micro-level explanation of the Jihadization process of the Chechen insurgency in that it explores individual motivations for recruitment into Jihadist units in interwar Chechnya (1996–99). First, it shows that enrolment into Jihadist units was sought by Chechen males w...

This article, unlike the small but rapidly expanding body of literature on Azerbaijan’s relations with Israel, focuses on the role of Iranian influence as a factor strengthening the strategic partnership that has been successfully blossoming between Azerbaijan and Israel in areas of economic, cultural, developmental and more recently, military coop...

The civil war in Syria has attracted hundreds of fighters from the Northeast Caucasus. One of the top military leaders of the terror group Islamic State is Omar al-Shishani, a Chechen. By fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the jihadists from Dagestan, the Chechen diaspora, and northern Georgia's Pankisi Gorge are seeking to weaken a Russian al...

This article fills the gap in existing scholarship on asymmetric conflict, indigenous forces, and how socio-cultural codes shape the dynamics and outcomes of conflict transformation. Specifically, it identifies three key socio-cultural values commonplace in honorific societies: retaliation, hospitality, and silence. As sources of effective pro-insu...

The aim of this article is to analyse the role of Russia in the transformation of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict and analyse this important period in the history of the Caucasus, where Georgia and its secessionist region of South Ossetia have been trying to find a peaceful solution to their post-war situation. Major milestones of the official peace...

The main purpose of this chapter is to present empirical findings of the study. A rigorous analysis of interviews with former militants belonging to three main categories — avengers, nationalists, and jihadists — as well as with the their relatives and close friends and experts, is organized in this chapter along the main research themes of the stu...

This concluding chapter summarizes the goals of research and presents its findings. Overall, the analysis of empirical data suggests that a strong connection exists between the category of (ex)militants and their disengagement pathways. Broadly speaking, the study demonstrates that disengagement from militant activity occurs more often among avenge...

This chapter constructs a conceptual framework for analyzing individual militant disengagement. Having demonstrated on examples of different militant organizations that individual members of militant groups can be conceptualized as driven by ethno-nationalist, religious, or revenge-centered motivations, it is argued in this chapter that most indivi...

This chapter introduces two case studies examined in this book — the North Caucasian republics of Chechnya and Dagestan. While the first part of the chapter undertakes a journey into history and ethnography of these two republics, the second part guides readers through the decades-long armed conflict in the region. From the start of the First Chech...

The main goal of this chapter is to present the existing theoretical framework on individual disengagement. It is demonstrated in this chapter that the current research is heavily focused on rather vague and amorphous ‘pull’ and ‘push’ factors. Having reviewed a diverse body of literature in political violence studies, this chapter offers a detaile...

The goal of our article is to analyze Russia’s role during the transformation of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict during the years 1992-2008. We begin by identifying important milestones of the official peace process in Abkhazia, which we put into the context of the development of Russo-Georgian relations, then we move on to analysis of the internal...

Recognition of the Armenian Genocide as an Issue in Political Discourse in Armenia, Turkey and selected EU Countries The issue whether to legally recognize the tragic events of 1915 in Eastern Anatolia as a genocide remains a key political issue which drives an edge between Armenia and the Republic of Turkey. Through their European diaspora communi...

The aim of our study is to map an important part of the history of the Caucasus, when the conflicts in the breakaway regions escalated, and when the government de facto States and their mother countries were trying to find a peaceful resolution of the post-war situation. For the purpose of this study, we chose a historical and analytical-descriptiv...

Iran has attracted attention of policy-makers, scholars, and experts across the world. Important Middle Easter country located between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf with specific political system and security architecture. Turkophone Iranian Azerbaijanis, Iran´s largest ethnic minority, have been relatively silent in the context of emantipat...

During the period 1991–94, the foreign policy of the Republic of Armenia, and to a somewhat lesser extent that of Azerbaijan, can be regarded as generally monothematic, centered on the issue of the evolving armed conflict.1 The stage was set for an unavoidable Armenian-Azerbaijani-Turkish-Iranian-Russian chess match — enriched, from the mid-1990s o...

The ideological power vacuum which developed upon the breakup of the U.S.S.R. further deepened as a result of the inability, or unwillingness, of the central government in Moscow to effectively prevent interethnic confrontations within the outlying provinces of the former Soviet Union. This, then, resulted in the gradual discrediting of local Sovie...

Low levels of economic development played no discernible role in the precipitation of the ethnopolitical conflicts in the South Caucasus. As illustrated in Chapter 3, both Azerbaijan and Georgia, as parts of the former Soviet Union, possessed relatively highly developed economies; the standard of living in both countries, including their autonomies...

Recent decades have seen an increased occurrence of civil war and ethnopolitical conflict in certain areas of Europe. Whereas, in Latin America and the Middle East, incidents of ethnopolitical warfare decreased by 74 percent and 54 percent, respectively, between 1989 and 1999, incidents of such conflict increased by 43 percent in Europe, by 40 perc...

For Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Georgians, as well as for their neighbors within the post-Soviet area, their gaining of independence in 1991 was an unexpected gift, even if many of them had long been dreaming of it. For the leading politicians of the day within the Communist republics, accustomed as they were to managing a fairly modest domestic a...

The aim of the present study is to map out an important part of the post-Soviet history of the South Caucasus as Georgia and its separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia sought to find a peaceful solution to their conflicts that had descended to bloody armed conflicts. The study also attempts to analyze the often crucial role of Russia in t...

Islam, Nationalism, and Vendetta: The Insurgency in the North Caucasus During the last decade, the insurgency raging in Chechnya has spread to other regions of the Caucasus, Dagestan and Ingushetia in particular. Secular nationalism, a potential trigger of ethnic clashes, has given way to jihad as a unifying principle of the struggle against Russia...

This text deals with current protests and riots in Bahrain, at base of so called Arab spring or Jasmine revolution, which broke out at February 2011. Those events are put in context of historical, political, social, economic, and religious matters that affect conflict dynamics and participating powers. This article also focuses on characterizing of...

Notwithstanding lack of detailed and freely accessible data, this paper examines the heavily underresearched issue of ethno-nationalism and separatism amid Iran's largest ethnic minority, Azerbaijanis, in an attempt to identify whether they may pose a threat to the territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic. Despite the fact that Azerbaijanis, a...

Tento článek sleduje dvojí úkol. Za prvé, objasňuje genezi americko-ruských vztahů v rovině vzájemných percepcí v prvním desetiletí po rozpadu Sovětského svazu, kdy se obě mocnosti pokoušely najít svoje místo v novém globálním pořádku. Akcent je přitom kladen na evoluci ruské zahraniční politiky v tomto období, které do značné míry plynulo ze způso...

Tato stať si klade hlavní otázku, zdalipak poválečná mírová jednání mezi Tbilisi a odštěpeneckými oblastmi měla šanci na úspěch. Je pokusem o analýzu vývoje mírového procesu mezi Gruzií a jižní Osetií, resp. Gruzií a Abcházií v období 1992/1993-2007/2008, tedy bezprostředně v předvečer rusko-gruzínské války v jižní Osetii v srpnu 2008.

Tato studie se pokouší analyzovat geopolitické postavení postsovětského Ázerbájdžánu jako klíčové regionální země na pomezí kaspické pánve a černomořsko-středoasijského regionu, Evropy a Asie. Akcent je přitom kladen na dobu poté, co došlo v letech 2005 - 2006 k operacionalizaci z geopolitického hlediska nesmírně významného ropovodu Baku-Tbilisi-Ce...

Tato stať je pokusem o analýzu (geo)politického situování postsovětské Arménie s akcentem na její vztahy se dvěma významnými regionálními hráči, Turecko a Rusko, jejichž relace s Jerevanem jsou směrodatné z hlediska zajištění jak regionální bezpečnosti na jižním Kavkaze, tak národní bezpečnosti postsovětského arménského státu; otázky uznání arménsk...

The article provides a critical reading of various related discourses, depicting the political motives behind the conflict in Chechnya as a battlefield of the global jihad. These narratives have sought to present the involvement of external Islamist groups as a major factor in the conflict, and to portray many of the main groups within Chechnya as...

World opinion sees Chechnya as a case of Islamic terrorism, but Czech elites have persistently condemned Pussia's human rights violations there.

Since the beginning of the second Chechen war, Russia has experienced several shifts in domestic policy. From the very start of his presidency, Vladimir Putin pursued a policy of consolidating power while facing both the external and internal enemy represented by Chechen rebels. As a side effect, this has brought about an outburst of xenophobia and...

This study analyses the causes of the fall of the Chechen state after its de facto independence (1996-1999) following the so-called First Russian�Chechen War (1994-1996). The failed incursion of the (predominantly Wahhabi) Chechen-Dagestani guerillas in Dagestan (August 1999), designed to inflame a regional rebellion against Russia, resulted in the...

The determination of the standard enthalpies of formation at 298.15 K of composite oxides of general formula, MIVUO6, where MI is Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs, and MINbUO6, where MI is Na, K, Rb, Cs are presented.The standard enthalpies of formation of the crystallohydrates of formula NaVUO6·2H2O, KVUO6·2H2O and KNbUO6·1.5H2O. have also been determined.

Rusko-gruzínske vzťahy sú fenoménom, ktorý je v posledných rokoch, najmä po auguste 2008, vnímaný ako výsledok "novej studenej vojny", keď sa Gruzínsko usilujúce o začlenenie k Západu stáva rukojemníkom mocenských hier Moskvy, podporujúcej už po dve dekády separatizmus na jeho území, v snahe o zachovanie vlastného mocenského vplyvu na južnom Kaukaz...

Válka v Iráku vnesla "kurdskou otázku" do popředí zájmu světových médií i odborné veřejnosti. Jako desetiletí předtím, osud tohoto třicetimilionového národa – největšího národa na světě bez vlastního státu, roztříštěného na území čtyř zemí, Turecka, Íránu, Iráku a Sýrie, se chtě nechtě ocitl ve středu velké mocenské hry vedené o vliv na klíčovém mí...

Vyd. 1. Na obálce uvedeno: Emil Souleimanov a kolektiv

1. vyd.

Vyd. 1. Na obálce uvedeno: Emil Souleimanov a kolektiv