Thesis advisor: David DiPasquale / For forty-four days in the fall of 2020, Armenians and Azeris fought a bitter war for control of Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan’s victory upset the region’s uneasy status quo and plunged the South Caucasus into a renewed state of uncertainty. While the most recent war was fought with twenty-first century weapons, the roots of the Armenian-Azeri conflict over Artsakh stretch back well over a century. In order to unravel the causes behind Azerbaijan’s invasion last fall, this thesis delves into the history behind the present conflict, engaging both with Artsakh’s ancient past as well as the more recent developments that have shaped the region in the post-Soviet era. This thesis also offers a comprehensive account of the war, examining the factors behind Azerbaijan’s military success. In doing so, this thesis seeks not only to offer insights into past events, but also to identify the political dynamics that will continue to influence the region in the years to come. / Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Political Science.

This study examines the efficacy of new liberal policies designed to recognize cultural difference and improve integration of ethnic communities in Georgia, an emerging democracy in the Caucasus. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in the city of Tbilisi over nine months in 2009 to investigate public opinion and observe changes in heritage-related endeavors. The liberal policies are part of a reform initiative of president Mikheil Saakashvili and reflect his reimagining of the Georgian nation in civic terms rather than ethnonationalist ones. I recognize the unique and ambitious nature of this project and believe that Georgia's leaders are keenly aware of the constraints on their small nation in the context of late capitalism. The project, which I call the Multiethnic Georgia project, is thus a response to these conditions by deploying multiethnic identity as a resource and thus a way to reconfigure Georgia's relationships with its global partners. The Multiethnic Georgia project is problematic on a few levels. At its outset, the project responds to neoliberal pressure rather than to people's desire for a national concept change. Also, average Georgians (not including minorities) believe these kinds of social management paradigms are unnecessary. They claim they have always been tolerant and that social leveling mechanisms will only exacerbate the friction between people. In this sense, ordinary Georgians as well as more educated observers, touch on a problematic feature of the Western recognition paradigm, which arose to prevent ethnic conflict but does not deal with underlying structures that create social inequality. This project seems to be inculcating a superficial approximation of multicultural coexistence. I call attention to Georgian inter-culturalism instead, which exists in the form of unique social practices that show interdependence, flexibility and openness, as well as local norms of civility, and is a better platform from which to construct a recognition and ethnic integration project. / Anthropology

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This thesis was inspired by the question of how the state addresses irregular challenges for its survival and reputation. It used an example of the confrontation between illegal armed groups (IAGs) operating in the North Caucasus and the Russian state in 2007-2014. Investigation started by asking to what extent do repressive and reconciliatory counter tactics decrease the level of violence produced by illegal armed groups? The thesis was situated in-between of deterrence and backlash theories to examine (in)effectiveness of repressive and reconciliatory policies. It accounted for (in)effectiveness by investigating whether the policy decreases or increases the level of insurgency-related violence; namely, whether it causes deterrence or backlash, in the case of repression or, alternatively, whether it causes conformity or backlash in the case of reconciliation. The thesis operationalised its main variables by disaggregating the strategy into separate repressive and reconciliatory tactics. It considered, on the one hand, three types of IAGs tactics: armed assault, bombings (suicide bombing, vehicle bomb, bomb placement, bomb tossing, firing, fake bomb) and hostage taking. One the other hand, the state tactics were divided into four categories: repressive indiscriminate (regime of counterterrorist operation, clash, and shelling), repressive discriminate (special operation, shooting, arrest, seizure, and detection), reconciliatory indiscriminate (involvement of civil society through dialogue, and socio-economic development), and reconciliatory discriminate (amnesty and reintegration). The thesis expected targeted repressive operations to suppress active IAGs members, whereas socio-economic incentives to contribute to maintaining the success of violent repressive operations. To test these hypotheses, the thesis relied on large empirical data, specially collected from the open sources, including 3270 episodes of IAG-initiated violence and 6114 governmental repressive actions. Data for reconciliatory efforts was taken from official statistics. The thesis used a generalized linear negative binomial and a generalized additive negative binomial model to assess the relationship between governmental policies and the level of violence. The thesis found that discriminate violence does indeed decrease attacks. However, it causes an immediate strong backlash effect at first, and only with considerable time and magnitude of repression eventually leads to the reduction of violence. The more discriminate repression is applied the less backlash it causes. Unlike repression, reconciliatory tactics produce a decrease in attacks. Thus, the thesis found partial support for both deterrence and backlash models. It, however, showed that deterrence effect overcomes initial backlash reaction.

The aim of this thesis is to study complex nature of the Azerbaijani Foreign policy and to analyze relations of Azerbaijan with other countries in regional and global context in order to determine which countries are more prioritized. The author concluded that the balanced Foreign policy is no longer pursued and its orientation is now changed towards West. The study had also determined the reasons behind the Western orientation. Thesis concluded that Azerbaijan pursues economic integration with the West as well as sustains political dominance in the South Caucasus region.

This study seeks to examine and assess the effectiveness of the Eastern Partnership Policy (EaP) of the European Union. Beside introduction of positive novelties of the Eastern Partnership, this paper gives a premium attention to scrutinize the possible limitations and shortfalls of EaP. Hence, the study aims to analyze some internal and external factors that complicate the effective functioning of the EaP. The inconsistency of the EU policy structure, the role of Russia and its Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU) in EAP, the ambivalent policy of some Member States (Germany and Italy are examined) toward the EaP, unconsidered discrepancy of eastern partners are analyzed and considered as prime reasons of ineffectiveness. In addition, examined case studies of Ukraine and Azerbaijan reveal that the EU's commitment to their "shared values" are controversial. This paper presents that the EU should find a balance between its economic/energy interests and normative values vis-a-vis Eastern Partners in order to fill the gap between its goals and achievements.

Le Caucase est souvent vu comme une région morcelée, en proie à des rivalités géopolitiques et à des nationalismes virulents. Cette recherche propose de rompre avec ces perceptions, en relisant son histoire récente. Elle reconstitue la trajectoire des confins de la Turquie, de l’Iran et de la Russie dans le premier tiers du 20e siècle, en présentant d’abord une histoire des circulations transfrontalière au cours de cette période de révolutions, de conflits et de bouleversements politiques. L’étude de la frontière caucasienne est mise au service d’une analyse des formes d’autonomie politico-administrative dans ces confins. Les institutions régionales puissantes qui s’appuient sur l’ouverture de la frontière jusqu’à la fin des années 1930 jouent un rôle majeur dans les évolutions intérieures des empires, mais aussi dans les relations interétatiques. Elites régionales et consuls en poste dans la région donnent naissance une véritable paradiplomatie caucasienne. Cette diplomatie frontalière est une ressource pour les élites régionales dans leurs rapports de force avec les gouvernements centraux, et énonce des enjeux très différents de ceux des diplomaties centrales : migrations, questions policières et judiciaires, défis environnementaux constituent certains des champs de cette coopération entre Etats, qui donne lieu à des influences et échanges peu connus. En les mettant en lumière, cette recherche suggère de dépasser une historiographie centrée sur l’impérialisme des puissances. On ne peut comprendre l’histoire caucasienne sans mettre au premier plan ses acteurs régionaux et leur capacité à se positionner dans les interstices de politiques étatiques et de territoires impériaux. / The Caucasus is often perceived as a fragmented area, dominated by geopolitical rivalries and rabid nationalisms. This research attempts to break with such an interpretation by rethinking its recent history. It reconstructs the shared dynamics of the Caucasian borderlands between Turkey, Iran and Russia in the first third of the 20th century, by presenting a history of cross-border circulations in this moment of revolutions, conflicts and political upheavals. This study of border interactions is inserted into a wider analysis of political-administrative autonomy in these borderlands. Until the late 1930s, powerful autonomous institutions rely upon the open Caucasian border and play a major role within each empire and between them. Regional elites and consular networks give rise to a genuine Caucasian paradiplomacy. This border diplomacy creates resources for regional elites in the balance of powers with central governments and focuses on issues neglected by a focus on central diplomacies: migrations, police and judicial matters, environmental challenges are but a few of these fields which foster interstate cooperation, enabling little-known influences and exchanges. By highlighting them, this dissertation suggests a way to go beyond a historiography of great powers imperialism. It contends that Caucasian history cannot be properly understood without putting at the forefront regional actors and their ability to exploits the interstices of state policies and imperial territories.

A partir da obra Cossacos, romance de Lev Tolstói cuja narrativa tem como protagonista os cossacos de Grében, a tese faz um extenso estudo acerca do homem natural e de seu principal veículo de expressão, a música, fruto da relação desse personagem com seu meio. A análise se fundamenta nos escritos do filósofo Jean-Jacques Rousseau (maior mestre do autor russo) a respeito do estado de natureza e da origem da linguagem musical primeira forma de comunicação que o selvagem, incitado pelas necessidades morais (e não físicas), ter-se-ia utilizado para travar contato com seu semelhante. O capítulo inicial se atém no Cáucaso, localidade montanhosa ao sul da Rússia, onde a história se desenrola e que é palco de obrasprimas da literatura russa que precederam Cossacos. Os capítulos seguintes, então, dedicamse a elucidar por que motivo Tolstói teria representado seu personagem, herdeiro do bom selvagem de Rousseau, como um homem ávido pela música - um Homem-Música. Para isso, o trabalho se propõe a trilhar o caminho empreendido pelo próprio Tolstói, procurando dimensionar a relação do autor com a música e com esse homem tradicional que, no decurso de sua trajetória, retratou sob inúmeras roupagens. / Taking its cue from the novel \"Cossacks\" Lev Tolstoy\'s work that featuring the Grebenski Cossacks as protagonists the thesis develops an extensive study of the \"natural man\" and music, his most remarkable means of expression and a product of his relationship with his surroundings. This study bases itself on the writings of philosophe Jean-Jacques Rousseau the Russian author\'s premier influence regarding the State of Nature and the origins of musical language and, allegedly, the earliest means of communication borne out of his moral (and not physical) need to establish contact with his equal. The first chapter deals with the Caucasus, a mountainous region in southern Russia where the story takes place as do numerous masterpieces that preceded Tolstoy\'s novel. Subsequent chapters attempt to explain the reasons why the author presented his character, a successor to Rousseau\'s \"noble savage\", as a man craving for music a \"Music-Man\", so to speak. As such, this study intends to trail Tolstoy\'s own path and map out his relationship with music and with this traditional man so often portrayed, under numerous guises, in his oeuvre.

T. Lad - Zablocki is the most famous poet of Caucasus group. He lived and created his poems in XIX century. The master thesis describes Poland political situation and nature of Caucasus. T. Lad - Zablocki has written about love to his native country.

Thesis (doctoral)--Uppsala universitet, 2002. / "Uppsala 2001." Includes bibliographical references (p. 237-248).