Article

After Ethnic Violence in the Caucasus: Attitudes of Local Abkhazians and Displaced Georgians in 2010

September 2011

DOI:10.2747/1539-7216.52.5.655

Authors:

Virginia Tech

The paper combines the results of two nearly simultaneous surveys in 2010 to provide a unique, rather comprehensive picture of the attitudes of (a) current residents of Abkhazia and (b) largely ethnic Georgian former residents of Abkhazia now living in forced displacement in Georgia following the 1992-1993 war. More specifically, it probes the views of these two groups about each other and the sensitive question raised by the disputed return of displaced Georgians to breakaway Abkhazia. Also investigated are the potential conditions for possible return in the future, including issues relating to property ownership. The authors conclude by discussing the policy implications of the survey results. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: D740, I310, J600, O150. 13 figures, 24 references.

Home is Where the Heart Is? Forced Migration and Voluntary Return in Turkey's Kurdish Regions

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2014

What influences the decisions of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to return home after prolonged displacement? This article investigates the attitudes of victims of forced migration by analysing survey data on Kurdish displaced persons and returnees in Turkey. In an attempt to give a voice to displaced persons, we survey the conditions under which IDPs return home despite continuing tensions, lack of infrastructure and risk of renewed violence. The findings suggest that integration into a new environment in Western Turkey, measured by economic advancement and knowledge of Turkish, reduces the likelihood of return. Yet contrary to conventional wisdom, more educated IDPs demonstrate a stronger desire to return to their ancestral communities, suggesting that education increases available options for displaced persons. The findings are relevant in informing global responses to forced migration as well as understanding the local experiences and perceptions of IDPs in conflict-ridden societies.

The Displaced as ‘Ordinary Citizens’: Exploring Variation in the Political Attitudes of the Displaced from Donbas

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2020

Based on original survey data, this essay analyses the political attitudes of individuals displaced by the war in eastern Ukraine. We systematically compare attitudinal differences and similarities along three axes: the displaced relative to the resident population; the displaced in Ukraine relative to the displaced in Russia; and the displaced from the (non-)government-controlled areas relative to the resident population in the (non-)government-controlled areas of Donbas. This fine-grained comparative analysis highlights the variety of attitudes held by the displaced, similarities in attitudes across displacement locations, and the effect of war casualties on attitudes and self-declared political interest.

Peaceful Returns: Reversing Ethnic Cleansing after the Bosnian War

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2017
INT MIGR

This article questions the conventional wisdom which claims forced migration is irreversible following massive ethnic cleansing campaigns, by investigating durable returns to pre-conflict home communities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. We formulate a set of novel hypotheses on the demographic determinants of return as well as on the role of social capital, nationalist ideology, integration, and war victimization. We use a 2013 Bosnian representative sample with 1,007 respondents to test our hypotheses. The findings support the expectation that gender and age have a major impact on return. Net of other factors, women and those experiencing wartime victimization are less likely to return. Older Bosnians with positive memories of pre-conflict interethnic relations are more likely to return than younger persons or those with negative memories. Finally, ethnic Bosniacs are more likely to return than ethnic Croats or Serbs. More nationalistic internally displaced persons (IDPs) are less likely to return.

The Memory Policy in the Caucasus after 1989: a Theoretical Basis for the War Narrative in Chechnya

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2021

Evgeniya Goryushina

The article examines the strategic war narrative as a tool used by the state after 1989 to justify the start of a war or justify its end. Based on the understanding of this term, introduced into the popular science turnover by M. Vlahos, the author of the article expands the conceptual framework by referring to the narrative principle of collective memory by J. Verch. It is concluded that the war narrative is partly similar to the concept of mnemonic security (as well as other hegemonic forms of memory), which is tested on the A. Pető's concept. A review of key domestic and foreign research works on the topic is carried out. The key elements of the war narrative (symbols, sacrifice, etc.) within political dimension are identified, as well as the victory narrative, which was in demand in the first months of V. V. Putin (coinciding with the outbreak of hostilities in Chechnya in the period since 1999 and the continuation until 2009 in the form of counter-terrorism measures on the territory of the republic and the border regions of the North Caucasus).

Ethnic cleansing: Reversing the effects.

Chapter

Full-text available

Apr 2020

Neophytos Loizides

This chapter examines how the right of return has been defined, negotiated and implemented in post-conflict societies. It draws on new research on post-conflict returnees aiming to identify the conditions under which displaced persons choose to return often despite opposition from new occupants and hostile local authorities. The chapter integrates diverse contributions across the social sciences focusing on the role of institutional design, emerging legal practices, inter-ethnic contact, trust and social capital to demonstrate the potential for and limits of community effort in reversing the effects of displacement and to suggest possible policy directions.

Who are the ‘Don’t Knows’? Missing Data in Surveys of Post-Soviet Conflict-affected Regions

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2020

Respondents often answer ‘don’t know’ to sensitive survey questions to avoid revealing their true opinions, especially in post-conflict societies, thus requiring difficult decisions for analysing affected survey data. Using the same five sensitive questions in ten surveys from conflict-affected societies in the former Soviet Union in the period 2005–2014, methods for coping with missing data resulting from ‘don’t know’ responses are presented. Many commonly applied missing data treatments are shown to be incompatible with the missing data mechanism for politically sensitive questions, while also significantly affecting statistical results and conclusions. Ultimately, knowledge of local context is paramount for choosing proper missing data treatments.

The social and spatial insularity of internally displaced persons: “neighbourhood effects” in Georgia’s collective centres

Article

Jun 2019

Since 1991, armed conflicts in regions of Georgia have forced over 300,000 people to become internally displaced persons (IDPs). Many settled on the outskirts of cities in state-provided, non-residential buildings called collective centres, which function as distinct neighbourhoods with their spatial segregation and community networks. This article charts the impacts of social and spatial insularity on IDPs in these centres and frames it within the concept of neighbourhood effects. Research on neighbourhood effects has shown that physical and social isolation can exacerbate issues of health, education, living conditions, and employment, present in particular areas. Although IDPs are a vulnerable, socio-economically disadvantagedpopulation often living in concentrated poverty, to date this concept has not been applied to their conditions. This article addresses that gap by examining the neighbourhood effects of collective centres. The work provides a meta-analysis of existing research on Georgian IDPs and complements it with two years of first-hand data collected through a representative survey. The results show that IDPs within Georgia are at multiple disadvantages as a result of their isolation in collective centres. The article concludes with a call for greater government consideration of IDP isolation in situations of protracted conflict, so as to resist such detrimental effects.

Who identifies with the “Russian World”? Geopolitical attitudes in southeastern Ukraine, Crimea, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2017

The concept of the Russian world (Russkii mir) re-entered geopolitical discourse after the end of the Soviet Union. Though it has long historical roots, the practical definition and geopolitical framing of the term has been debated and refined in Russian political and cultural circles during the years of the Putin presidency. Having both linguistic-cultural and geopolitical meanings, the concept of the Russian world remains controversial, and outside Russia it is often associated with Russian foreign policy actions. Examination of official texts from Vladimir Putin and articles from three Russian newspapers indicate complicated and multifaceted views of the significance and usage of the Russkii mir concept. Surveys in December 2014 in five sites on the fringes of Russia – in southeastern Ukraine, Crimea, and three Russian-supported de facto states (Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria) – show significant differences between the Ukrainian sample points and the other locations about whether respondents believe that they live in the Russian world. In Ukraine, nationality (Russian vs. Ukrainian) is aligned with the answers, while overall, attitudes toward Russian foreign policy, level of trust in the Russian president, trust of Vladimir Putin, and liking Russians are positively related to beliefs about living in the Russian world. In Ukraine, the negative reactions to geopolitical speech acts and suspicions about Russian government actions overlap with and confuse historical linguistic-cultural linkages with Russia, but in the other settings, close security and economic ties reinforce a sense of being in the Russian “world.”

Place matters: return intentions among forcibly displaced young Georgians from Abkhazia living in Tbilisi and Zugdidi

Article

Apr 2016

Minna Lundgren

Around 250,000 people are internally displaced within Georgia today as a consequence of violent conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the early 1990s and the Georgian-Russian war in 2008. The majority of the internally displaced persons originate from Abkhazia, which declared independence in 1999. While the conflict is still unresolved, the majority of those who fled remain displaced, most of them living in the vicinity of the capital Tbilisi, or in Zugdidi and the Samegrelo region bordering Abkhazia. The aim of this article is to study factors that impact on young people’s intentions to return to Abkhazia, with a focus on youth presently living in the Tbilisi and Zugdidi areas. The study is based on a quantitative survey (n = 131) with youth aged 18–25 years, who were displaced when very young, or who were born in displacement, have few or no memories of prior residences, and may have different opinions on returning from their parents. A chi-square analysis was used to measure differences among the respondents’ intentions to return permanently to Abkhazia withinx five years, in relation to their reasons for returning and factors in the past and the present. There was a significant association between return intentions and the current place of residence (Tbilisi or Zugdidi), with Tbilisi respondents more inclined towards return. Separate chi-square analyses for the two cities showed that different factors (birthplace, property in Abkhazia, socio-economic conditions, reasons for return and so on) have different impact on the return intentions of the respondents from the two cities, which allows us to conclude that place matters in thinking about post-conflict return trajectories. Download and read: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23761199.2016.1162569

Stalin is dead, long live Stalin? Testing socialization, structural, ideological, nationalist, and gender hypotheses

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2015

Recently, there has been a renewed focus on analyzing post-Soviet memory, including the rekindling of debate on contemporary perspectives of Josef Stalin. Most notably, the publication of The Stalin Puzzle has helped bring attention to the persistence of positive accounts and admiration, along with ambivalent and contested images, of the former dictator of the Soviet Union. Using survey data and multivariate statistical methods, we test five broad hypotheses – socialization, structural, ideological, nationalist, and gender – to ascertain what factors might shape people's attitudes toward Stalin in Georgia. Our analysis reveals that elderly, poor men from rural areas have the most positive associations of Stalin, whereas young, wealthier women from cities, those who are open to privatization, and perceive Russia as Georgia's biggest threat judge Stalin negatively. Counterintuitively, non-Georgian minorities show higher esteem for Stalin than Georgians. We envision that the effects of cohort replacement, economic development, and urbanization will decrease positive perceptions of Stalin in years to come.

Recognising politics in unrecognised states: 20 years of enquiry into the de facto states of the South Caucasus

Article

Apr 2015

Laurence Broers

De facto states in the South Caucasus have presented a range of theoretical and empirical challenges for both scholars and policy-makers for some 20 years. This article charts the trajectories of different concepts, theories and paradigms deployed over this period to understand de facto states in this region, and in particular their internal dynamics. It is argued that while external factors are central to the sustainability of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorny Karabakh, scholarship on these entities has increasingly over time asserted the relevance of their internal politics. The article discusses how over the last decade this analysis has increasingly conflicted with the revival of the region’s central state authorities, whose conceptual reading and policy repertoires vis-à-vis de facto states remain focused on their external support structures. The article finishes by discussing some of the implications of this disjunction for policies enacted towards to de facto states of the region by both central state authorities and the international community.

Inside the post-Soviet de facto states: A comparison of attitudes in Abkhazia, Nagorny Karabakh, South Ossetia, and Transnistria

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2015

In the wake of the Ukrainian crisis in 2013-2014, renewed attention has been given to the earlier so-called “frozen conflicts” of the successor states of the Soviet Union. In Georgia, Moldova, and Azerbaijan, national conflicts of the early 1990s resulted in establishment of four breakaway regions, the de facto states of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria, and Nagorny Karabakh. While the first three are supported by Russia, the latter is supported by Armenia. Such support as well as growing internal legitimacy has enabled these republics to retain separate status for almost 25 years. Though appearing quite similar from an external perspective, the populations of the de facto states are quite diverse in composition, geopolitical preferences, and support for political institutions and persons. Large representative public opinion surveys conducted by the authors in 2010-2011 in the four de facto states allow a deeper comprehension of internal political and social dynamics. Three main dimensions of their current status and orientation (relations with Russia, support for local institutions, and possibilities of post-war reconciliation) are examined using nine key comparative questions. Nationality is the main predictor of divergent opinions within the republics, and results are reported along this dimension. Close relations with the external patron, support for the legitimacy and identity of the respective de facto republics, and little interest in returning to the parent state testify to the longevity and successful promotion of state and nation in the de facto republics in the Caucasus-Black Sea Region.

Convincing State-Builders? Disaggregating Internal Legitimacy in Abkhazia

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2013
INT STUD QUART

De facto states, functional on the ground but unrecognized by most states, have long been black boxes for systematic empirical research. This study investigates de facto states’ internal legitimacy—people's confidence in the entity itself, the regime, and institutions. While internal legitimacy is important for any state, it is particularly important for de facto states, whose lack of external legitimacy has made internal legitimacy integral to their quest for recognition. We propose that the internal legitimacy of de facto states depends on how convincing they are to their “citizens” as state-builders. Using original data from a 2010 survey in Abkhazia, we examine this argument based on respondent perceptions of security, welfare, and democracy. Our findings suggest that internal legitimacy is shaped by the key Weberian state-building function of monopoly of the legitimate use of force, as well as these entities’ ability to fulfill other aspects of the social contract.

Acting like a state: Armed violence in post-war Abkhazia

Article

Nov 2023
GEOFORUM

Anastasia Shesterinina

Narrating Conflicts in Post-Truth Era: Facing Revisionist Russia. Ukraine and Georgia in a Comparative Perspective

Chapter

Sep 2022

The chapter focuses on how populist claims to historical truth reached “new heights” in the framework of the ideological construct of the Russkiy Mir (Russian World) that has proved a fertile field for yielding post-truths. The authors observe president Vladimir Putin’s historical justifications of Russia’s military interventions and presence in Georgia and in Ukraine (defending Abkhaz and Ossetian ethnic minorities and “compatriots” in the eastern Ukraine from aggressions of the NATO’s “marionette” governments of Kyiv and Tbilisi). They also cover Ukrainian and Georgian counter-narratives which portray conflicts with contemporary Russia as battles against their aspirations to “re-join” the West

Crossing the Conflict Divide: De facto Borders, State Belonging, and the Changing Dynamics of Enemy Relations in Abkhazia

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2022

Andrea Peinhopf

Focusing on the motivations of ethnic Abkhazians travelling ‘to Georgia’, this article examines the changing dynamics of enemy relations and state belonging in the contest of contested, de facto statehood. Drawing on ethnographic data collected among ordinary Abkhaz, I argue that while it can be certain limitations of life in a de facto state that motivate people to cross the conflict divide, it is simultaneously their belonging to the Abkhazian state that equips them with the confidence to encounter the ‘enemy’. This challenges the assumption that de facto statehood is necessarily detrimental to peacebuilding, instead showing how it can facilitate ‘normal’ relations.

Conflict and Co-Existence: War, Displacement and the Changing Dynamics of Inter- and Intra-Ethnic Relations in Abkhazia

Thesis

Dec 2020

Andrea Peinhopf

This thesis traces the process of ethnic mixing and un-mixing in Abkhazia, a contested state in the South Caucasus that became de facto independent from Georgia after a war in the early 1990s. In particular, it focuses on the role of violence and its impact on people’s relations and identities on the ground, a phenomenon which has received limited attention in the study of ethnic conflict in the former Soviet Union. It departs from the widely accepted view that violence and protracted conflict are largely a result of antagonistic identities, rather than its source, and instead shifts attention to the endogenous dynamics of violence. Adopting an approach that is sensitive to identity as lived experience and drawing extensively on data obtained through ethnographic fieldwork, it argues that although there were tensions, a cross-ethnic, “inter-national” community nevertheless existed in Abkhazia. While society became increasingly polarised along ethnic lines from the late 1980s onwards, large-scale violence was ultimately provoked by the elite-level decision to send military troops into Abkhazia. However, once unleashed, atrocities triggered a process of antagonistic collective categorisation that paved the way for the mass displacement of the Georgian population. But looking beyond the event of war, the thesis also illustrates the challenges that a community faces once war is over and the conflicting parties have become separated, a period, in which an external enemy continues to unite people – especially as the conflict remains unresolved – but, due to physical and temporal distance, has also become distant. The thesis thus argues that it is not just the experience of violence that shapes post-conflict relations, but also the experience of post-war changes. Although the language of ethnic difference remains powerful in Abkhazia, more than two decades on, people’s concerns have shifted towards the new power dynamics within which their post-war lives have unfolded.

The Curse of Displacement: Local Narratives of Forced Expulsion and the Appropriation of Abandoned Property in Abkhazia

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2021

Andrea Peinhopf

Since the end of the Georgian-Abkhaz war, the often-precarious status of the Georgians displaced from Abkhazia has received significant academic attention. In contrast, the consequences of displacement from the reverse perspective—how it has affected the people who stayed behind—remains underanalyzed. Drawing on narratives collected during several months of ethnographic fieldwork, this article argues that although ethnic Abkhazians see themselves as victims of ethnic violence rather than perpetrators, the re-distribution of Georgian property nevertheless caused significant distress. Many condemned the practice of appropriation, suggesting that taking what is not one’s own is not only a violation of the property of the original owner, but also of the Abkhaz moral code and therefore shameful. To them, the trophy houses were a curse, both literally—as spaces haunted by former occupants—and metaphorically, as a source and reminder of a certain “moral corruption” within Abkhazian society. However, while the stories around the trophy houses reflect substantial intra-communal divisions, I suggest that they are also an expression of a shared postwar experience. Like the horror stories of Georgian violence, and the tales of Abkhaz heroism, they have become part of an intimate national repertoire constitutive of Abkhazia’s postwar community.

Who are the 'don't knows'? The problem of missingness in surveys in conflict- affected regions, with illustrations from 10 post-Soviet settings

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2019

Why one should not ignore the 'don't know' answers in surveys in contested and post-conflict regions

Trade as a confidence-building measure in protracted conflicts: the cases of Georgia and Moldova compared

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2019

Academic and policy literature on the post-Soviet region’s protracted conflicts frequently assumes that trade is an effective confidence-building measure (CBM) and as such also has the potential to facilitate progress toward conflict settlement. We probe these assertions through a detailed empirical comparison of the effects that regulated and unregulated forms of trade have had in the cases of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria. Relying on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, including 29 semi-structured interviews, as well as direct and participant observation, we find that, absent political will by authorities on the ground and their respective international partners, trade remains by-and-large unregulated and has limited and generally not sustainable confidence-building and stabilizing effects, as evidenced by the cases of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Where local and geopolitical conditions are more conducive, trade becomes more regulated and significantly contributes to confidence building and stabilization and has some positive spill-over effects into non-economic areas of confidence building, as is evident from Transnistria. This finding has potentially important implications for other cases in which governments and relevant regional and international actors are faced with difficult choices over whether and how to engage with unrecognized entities, such as in Ukraine.

In the Shadow of Conflict: How Emotions, Threat Perceptions and Victimization Influence Foreign Policy Attitudes

Article

Jul 2019

We investigate how emotions, threat perceptions and past violence influence foreign policy attitudes via a survey experiment in Georgia. Using a stratified sample across areas with differential exposure to the conflict and the presence of internally displaced persons, we randomly assign respondents to receive emotional primes about Russian aggression in the region. We find that exposure to violence, as well as simply being primed about past Russian aggression, both increase the perceived threat from Russia, and to a lesser extent anger towards Russia. Individuals who receive the primes are more supportive of a hardline foreign policy. In contrast, we find that exposure to violence does not have a direct effect on foreign policy attitudes, but increases hardline attitudes indirectly, through increased anger and threat. Taken together our results provide evidence that reminders of past violence have different effects than direct exposure to violence on foreign policy attitudes.

Trapped in the Past: Memories of Georgian Internally Displaced Persons on the Margins of Society

Article

May 2019

From the early 1990s through the 2008 “Russo-Georgian war,” waves of armed conflicts in the Abkhazia and South Ossetia/Tskhinvali regions of Georgia forced thousands of residents, mainly ethnic Georgians, to leave their homes. More than two decades of protracted internal displacement, marked by tough economic and social problems, led this vulnerable community to a common trap in reckoning with the past: an overwhelming sense of the fundamental ruptures between the idealized past and current, miserable reality. Failures of the displacement policy and “side effects” of numerous humanitarian aid projects hinder internally displaced persons’ social integration and leave them on the margins of Georgian society with almost a singular option: to constantly recall meaningful life in the lost homeland, which they remember as free of ethnic phobias and economic problems. In this article, we suggest that for persons who are internally displaced, memories are defined not only by their past lived experiences and present hardships, but also by the official historical narratives that argue that Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian “endemic” unity and cohabitation was destroyed by Russian imperial politics. Living in constant pain also narrows the future expectations of the internally displaced persons. However, it is the past and the memories that are supposed to be useful in achieving the utopian dream of a return.

Remembering Homeland in Exile: Recollections of IDPs from the Abkhazia Region of Georgia. Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe. Vol 14, No 1, 2015, 48-70.

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2015

Malkhaz Toria

The Georgian-Abkhazian conflict (1992–1993) resulted in the displacement of thousands of ethnic Georgians from the Abkhazia region of Georgia. IDPs as a “mnemonic community” have a shared experience of hardship from civil wars and forced migration that somehow serves as common source of their memories of homeland. To illustrate the recollections of IDPs, the author interviewed 20 IDPs (in January 2014) living in collective centers in Tbilisi and nine IDP historians (in September 2014) affiliated with Sokhumi State University (in exile). He proposes to analyze all gathered accounts within the theoretical framework that is a useful research strategy to reflect on nostalgic idealization of pre-war Georgian–Abkhazian relationships, reconstruction of supposed reasons for the conflict, and imagining the future of reconciliation with Abkhazians. All these key elements of IDPs’ recollections and expectations generally fit into Georgian “memory project” and “national narrative”, which stress Russia’s role in fueling, escalating and maintaining the conflict. Apart from this, the author employs the theory of “communicative” and “cultural” memories to mark typically different sources of IDPs’ recollections – on the one hand, personal experience and on the other hand, institutionalized national narrative.

After the Wars in the South Caucasus State of Georgia: Economic Insecurities and Migration in the "De Facto" States of Abkhazia and South Ossetia

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2011

Two noted political geographers examine the results of surveys in the "de facto" states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia conducted in 2010. They assess the migration intentions of their residents, the likely destinations and motivations for planned departures, as well as the dramatic population decline due to emigration and expulsion of Georgian residents after wars in the early 1990s. Discussed are economic dislocations, the breakaway republics' uncertain geographical status, as well as improvements in security and economic conditions due to Russian military guarantees and massive economic aid that followed the 2008 wars with Georgia. The authors utilize key predictors derived from hypotheses about the push and pull forces affecting the decision to migrate (socio-demographic, war experiences, and attitudes about the "de facto" state prospects) to develop explanatory models of migration for each territory before deriving a pooled set of explanations. Both surveys suggest the likelihood that the majority of potential migrants have already left. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F220, F510, I300, J110, O150. 1 figure, 7 tables, 59 references.

Violence and Armed Conflicts in the Caucasus: An Introductory Comment

Article

Sep 2011

George Breslauer

Conflicts in the Caucasus and Their Resolution: A Framing Essay

Article

Sep 2011

Susan Hannah Allen

An essay by an experienced scholar-practitioner of conflict resolution in the Caucasus examines the narratives of the interlocking conflicts involving Georgia. The author argues that more complex narratives are necessary for forging constructive paths toward conflict resolution. After outlining the stereotypical arguments presented by the different sides, the author urges a multi-track diplomacy that creates opportunities for the development of more complex narratives. Research, whether by conflict insiders or by external investigators, is presented as a potential contributor to the larger peace processes. In addition to comments on the three preceding articles in the symposium published in Eurasian Geography and Economics, the paper highlights the utility in understanding local context and complexities in order to create more inclusive and complex narratives that can support confidence-building activities and eventual progress on outstanding issues plaguing the conflict-affected populations in the region. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F510, H560, H770, O180. 11 references.

Moving Borders: Russia's Creative Entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO)

Article

Jan 2015

Daniel Warner

The establishment of country's borders is both a political and a legal determination. The brief Russian-Georgian War of 2008 not only suspended diplomatic relations between the two countries but also caused international confusion about the definitive border between them. In 2012, with the help of creative Swiss diplomatic activity, a breakthrough took place that allowed the Russian Federation to finally become a member of the World Trade Organization. This article will examine how five years after a major conflict that left hundreds if not thousands of casualties and the declared independence of two separatist regions from Georgia, the Russian Federation and Georgia were able to agree on a border between the two countries for customs while still not agreeing on the definitive border between them.

Reading Gerard Toal and Carl T. Dahlman's Bosnia Remade: Ethnic cleansing and its reversal

Article

Sep 2013
POLIT GEOGR

Russia's Kosovo: A Critical Geopolitics of the August 2008 War over South Ossetia

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2008

Gerard Toal

A noted political geographer presents an analysis of the August 2008 South Ossetian war. He analyzes the conflict from a critical geopolitical perspective sensitive to the importance of localized context and agency in world affairs and to the limitations of state-centric logics in capturing the connectivities, flows, and attachments that transcend state borders and characterize specific locations. The paper traces the historical antecedents to the August 2008 conflict and identifies major factors that led to it, including legacies of past violence, the Georgian president's aggressive style of leadership, and renewed Russian "great power" aspirations under Putin. The Kosovo case created normative precedents available for opportunistic localization, The author then focuses Oil the events of August 2008 and the competing storylines promoted by the Georgian and Russian governments. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H10, 131, O18, P30. 7 figures, 2 tables, 137 references.

Is Bosnia-Herzegovina Unsustainable? Implications for the Balkans and European Union

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2011

Two U.S.-based political geographers survey the current state of affairs in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), characterized by increasing political tensions between its two constituent entities—the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Republika Srpska (RS). The authors examine ways in which recurrent calls for a referendum on RS's self-determination/independence (from BiH) have charged the political atmosphere in both entities, delayed the formation of a central government in the aftermath of inter-entity elections in October 2010, and thus precipitated claims of BiH's unsustainability. In a concluding section, they explore the broader implications of renewed conflict and territorial fragmentation in BiH, which include the mobilization of seccessionist movements (and possible ethnic cleansing) in other contested regions in the Balkans and the former USSR and the possibility of renewed EU/NATO military engagement, with the attendant risks involving the EU's relations with Russia and member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. 1 figure, 2 tables, 38 references.

Inside Abkhazia: Survey of Attitudes in a De Facto State

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2011

Testing claims about a region often glibly described by outsiders, thus checking assumptions upon which policy recommendations are based, this article examines residents' attitudes in the de facto state of Abkhazia. The results of a nationally representative social scientific survey in Abkhazia in March 2010 are presented in five themes-security and perceived well-being, the life-world identifications of respondents, views of state-building principles, the state of reconciliation between the divided communities and the potential for displaced-person returns, and views on current and future geopolitical relations with Russia and Georgia. The findings shed light on the broad contours of the internal legitimacy of the Abkhazian state and society.

The Localized Geopolitics of Displacement and Return in Eastern Prigorodnyy Rayon, North Ossetia

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2008

Three noted political geographers examine the geopolitical entanglements of the republic of North Ossetia in Russia's North Caucasus, where the country's first violent post- Soviet conflict occurred. The dynamic history of administrative border changes in the region is reviewed against the backdrop of population movements (most dramatically Stalin's 1944 deportation of the Ingush people) and shifting federal-local alliances. The primary focus is on the unresolved territorial dispute in Prigorodnyy Rayon, affected strongly by population dis- placement from Georgia in the early 1990s. After reviewing the causes of this dispute, which flared into open warfare in late October 1992, the paper examines two of its outcomes: the localized geopolitics of displacement and return on the ground in Prigorodnyy, and the impact of North Ossetia's geopolitical entanglements in general on ethnic attitudes. Results of a pub- lic opinion survey (N = 2000) in the North Caucasus conducted by the authors revealed high levels of ethnic pride among Ossetians and a generally positive attitude toward relations with other nationalities. Duly noted is the August 2008 confrontation involving Russia and Geor- gia over neighboring South Ossetia, which generated a new flow of refugees. Journal of Eco- nomic Literature, Classification Numbers: H10, I31, O18, P30. 5 figures, 1 table, 43 references. Key words: North Ossetia, Russia, South Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Georgia, Prigorodnyy, internally displaced persons, deportations, returns process, inter-ethnic rela- tions, territorial claims, Beslan tragedy, ethnic cleansing, nomenklatura, radical Islamists.

Bosnia Remade: Ethnic Cleansing and its Reversal

Article

Jan 2011

This book is an authoritative account of ethnic cleansing and its partial undoing in the Bosnian wars from 1990 to the present. The book combines a bird's-eye view of the entire war from onset to aftermath with a micro-level account of three towns that underwent ethnic cleansing and later the return of refugees. Through the lens of critical geopolitics, which highlights the power of both geopolitical discourse and spatial strategies, the book focuses on the two attempts to remake the ethnic structure of Bosnia since 1991. The first attempt was by ascendant ethnonationalist forces that tried to eradicate the mixed ethnic structures of Bosnia's towns, villages and communities. While these forces destroyed tens of thousands of homes and lives, they failed to destroy Bosnia-Herzegovina as a polity. The second attempt followed the war. The international community, in league with Bosnian officials, tried to undo the demographic consequences of ethnic cleansing. This latter effort has moved in fits and starts, but as the book shows, it has re-made Bosnia, producing a country that has moved beyond the stark segregationist geography created by ethnic cleansing.

Return and its alternatives: International law, norms and practices, and dilemmas of ethnocratic power, implementation, justice and development

Article

Jan 2011

Gerard Toal

The UN Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons (The Pinheiro Principles): Suggestions for Improved Applicability

Article

May 2011

Miriam Anderson

The 2005 UN Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons articulate the right of refugees and displaced persons to repossess property lost as the result of armed conflict. These principles are significant because they reverse the international community’s explicit approval of permanent war-time deprivation of property during the first half of the twentieth century. They consolidate the norm of post-conflict restitution of property and they also provide a set of standards for property repossession regimes to be applied worldwide. However, examined in the context of two of the most extensive attempts to restore property to refugees and displaced persons—Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, post-1995—the Principles do not adequately address six key issues. These are: the lack of desire of many of those dispossessed to return to their pre-war place of residence, the displacement of secondary occupants, where responsibility lies for property during its occupation, temporal limitations on repossession, differing conceptions of property, and co-ordinating regional restitution regimes. This article proposes further consideration of these six issues and their refinement in the Principles in order to enhance the Principles’ effectiveness and applicability.

Post-Conflict Property Restitution: Flawed Legal and Theoretical Foundations

Article

Jan 2010

Megan Ballard

Abkhazia: Patronage and Power in the Stalin Era

Article

May 2007

Timothy K. Blauvelt

Abkhazia during the Stalin era was at the same time a subtropical haven where the great leader and his lieutenants built grand dachas and took extended holidays away from Moscow, and also a key piece in the continuing chess match of Soviet politics. This paper will examine how and why this small, sunny autonomous republic on the Black Sea, and the political networks that developed there, played a prominent role in the politics of the south Caucasus region and in Soviet politics as a whole during the Stalin period.

Earned Sovereignty: An Emerging Conflict Resolution Approach

Article

Jan 2004

Earned sovereignty is a conflict resolution process that creates an opportunity for the parties to agree on basic requirements that the emerging entity must meet during an intermediate phase in order to attain or discuss final status. Rather than forcing the negotiating parties to determine during negotiations whether the sub-state entity may or may not be capable or allowed to exist as an independent state, earned sovereignty allows the parties to make evaluations of the effect of independence on the parent state as well as emerging state’s success at meeting certain benchmarks before determining final status. The core elements of earned sovereignty – shared sovereign power, institution building, and final status – form the structure of this process.The process of earned sovereignty has evolved without name or structure through its use by international negotiators and state parties to agreements. State parties to peace agreements to peace agreements have already used this process in an attempt resolve the conflicts in Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Serbia/Montenegro, East Timor and Papua New Guinea.The purpose of this article is two-fold. It attempts to first define and add structure to this evolving process and second to spur interest and debate among those involved in the field. Section one provides an overview of the different core and optional elements that make up the earned sovereignty process. Section two outlines fundamental principle that sovereign authority and functions are both plentiful and severable as internal and external autonomous rights rather than an all or nothing grant of independence.

“Post”Conflict Displacement: Isolation and Integration in Georgia

Article

Oct 2009

The Abkhaz civil wars and continuing territorial conflicts in Georgia have resulted in the long-term displacement of more than 200,000 people since the early 1990s. Although the international and local discourse is about integrating internally displaced persons (IDPs), little research has documented the meaning of isolation or integration for the daily lives of the IDPs or the local population. We engage the discourse about integration and isolation by analyzing the composition, size, and density of social networks in the “post”-conflict environment and the socio-spatial characteristics of social interactions and social networks. We combine a formal social network analysis with a daily path analysis to explore how socio-spatial patterns are formative of social networks and explore how various demographic factors, including gender, dwelling status, and employment status, may be related to the nature of social interactions and social networks. Our results are initially puzzling and suggest the need to rethink the meaning of isolation and integration within postconflict situations. We had expected to find greater diversity of social interactions in both populations, especially IDPs in private accommodations, because they are generally thought to have more diverse social interactions. The social network and daily path analyses, however, suggest evidence of social isolation within social networks among the entire population, not only among IDPs. We find a high degree of social isolation in two ways: (1) the persistent dominance of family and kin in all social networks and (2) highly dense (or closed) social networks in the entire population across gender, dwelling, and migrant status. The only demographic factor that appears to distinguish patterns is whether an individual engages in income-generating activity. Finally, using narrative interviews, we also explore the meaning of integration and isolation during displacement in the Georgian context.

Individual Property Restitution: From Deng to Pinheiro - and the Challenges Ahead

Article

Oct 2008

Giulia Paglione

The issue of housing and property restitution for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) has received considerable attention in the past decade. Conflicts and wars in different parts of the world have shown how housing and property rights are systematically violated during armed strives. Intentional destruction of property, arbitrary confiscation of housing and secondary occupation are just some of the most common practices in violation of individual property rights. In addition to being an individual's right, the international community has increasingly considered post-conflict housing and property restitution as a key component of the broader objective of peace building, and as a means of promoting restorative justice within society. Both at operational and at normative level, several initiatives have contributed to enforcing property restitution rights: from the establishment in the mid 1990s of institutions mandated to resolve conflicting property claims to the adoption in 2005 of the so-called ‘Pinheiro Principles’, the first international standard exclusively addressing property restitution rights. This paper explores the strengthening of international norms in the field of individual property restitution for refugees and IDPs over the past decade, and argues that the currently available normative standards reflect a partial understanding of displacement and restitution. With an almost exclusive focus on individual real property restitution, and an explicit preference for return among solutions to displacement, such standards undervalue the importance of alternative remedies and overlook the rights of non-returnees. After a brief overview on the emergence of a right to individual property restitution in international law and policy (part 1), this paper will concentrate its attention on three legal documents addressing property and displacement: the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement of 1998, the International Law Association Declaration of Principles on IDPs of 2000, and the Pinheiro Principles of 2005 (part 2). The first two documents confine their scope to displacement within national borders, whereas the Pinheiro Principles encompass restitution rights for both IDPs and refugees and represent the most recent and comprehensive standard on the topic. Despite the remarkable developments at normative level, epitomized by the approval of the Pinheiro Principles, this paper highlights the following problematic areas: the role played by physical return in the conceptualisation of property restitution; the supremacy given to individual real property restitution over other types of remedies; and the impact of the passage of time on restitution rights (part 3). The paper concludes by arguing that restitution must be conceived independently from return and must consequently go beyond individual real property restitution, in order to provide effective redress to refugees and displaced persons (part 4).

Two Sons of One Mother': Nested Identities and Center-Periphery Politics in Post-Soviet Georgia

Laurence Broers

A More Proactive US Approach to the Georgian Conflicts

Samuel Charap
Cory Welt

The Problem of Providing Security for the Border Population of the Gal District of Abkhazia

Arda Inal-Ipa

Speech at the Ceremony for the Presentation of Foreign Ambassadors' Letters of Credentials

Dmitriy Medvedev

Transitional Justice and Georgia's Conflicts. Breaking the Silence

Magdalena Frichova

After the August War: A New Strategy for US Engagement with Georgia

Lincoln Mitchell
Alex Cooley

After Ethnic Violence in the Caucasus: Attitudes of Local Abkhazians and Displaced Georgians in 2010

Abstract

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