This thesis focuses on a key component of societal relations, namely the creation and exploitation of economic leverage. It explores how, in the context of protracted territorial conflicts, relevant actors craft it and use it. Finally, it examines to what ends economic leverage is exploited, if at all. Generally, economic leverage can translate into a considerable form of power. This thesis scrutinizes how this occurs in more specific contexts post-ceasefire agreement conflict protraction, and what the finalities of the actors concerned are. It does so by focusing on a number of relevant actors, and by treating conflict protraction as the specific context in which economic power is exploited. Two cases are examined, namely those of the South Ossetian and the Abkhaz protracted conflicts. This thesis does not focus on the historical conditions and political events that caused the separatist conflicts in Georgia, but on their consequences and on the periods following the ceasefire agreements (signed respectively in 1992 and 1993), which came to a close with the Russo-Georgian war over South Ossetia in August 2008. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Islam in the North Caucasus: History and Contemporary Trends on example of Kabardino- Balkaria and Dagestan The following thesis focuses on selected key aspects of Islam in the North Caucasus, with emphasis on two North Caucasus republics - Kabardino-Balkaria on the west and Dagestan on the east. The first part will follow the penetration of Islam in the North Caucasus, its role in the resistance against the Russian empire and the impact religion had on traditional Caucasian society. In the second part it will be analyzed current trends of Islam in the region, the mutual influence of religion and socio-political situation and the relation between traditional Islam and its radical forms. Work will be based on the study of relevant literature, press and fieldwork is also assumed. Key words: North Caucasus, islam, islamism, Kabardino-Balkaria Republic, Dagestan

No abstract available / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Geology / unrestricted

This dissertation seeks to analyse the upsurge of insurgent violence in the North Caucasus following the end of the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya in 2009. By looking at the development of radical Islam and the impact of the Chechen spillover in the region, this research suggests that these factors should be analysed and contextualized in each republic. By comparing the cases of Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingushetia, and Dagestan, this dissertation seeks to demonstrate the importance of vendetta, criminal activity, religious repression and corruption as local factors that contribute to the increase of violence. By focusing on the case of Dagestan, the author proposes a political ethnographic approach to study the mechanisms and details of religious repression and corruption in everyday life. This analysis permits us to map out the different pathways towards the participation in insurgent groups in Dagestan. By doing so, it demonstrates that one can identify three different generations of insurgent fighters in Dagestan. This dissertation demonstrates that the role of Salafist ideology is often marginal in the early stages of the process of violent radicalisation, and slowly gains importance as the involvement in violence increases. The emphasis should be placed on vengeance and religious repression as crucial triggering factors as they provoke a cognitive opening for young people in Dagestan to engage in violence.

Diploma thesis The Russian Approach to the Process of Disengagement of the Returning Foreign Fighters is dealing with the issue of terminating one's membership and participation on activities of the terrorist organizations abroad in the context of the Russian Federation. The aim of the thesis is to fill the gap in the research which has neglected the Russian approach. The thesis is working with the theoretical knowledge of the current research on disengagement and transfers it to the state level. The approach of the Russian Federation to the process of disengagement is analysed within the categories of hard and soft measures which are being implemented by the Russian Federation in connection with the disengagement of the foreign fighters returning from Syria and Iraq mainly to the North Caucasian region. Based on the balance between hard and soft measures, the complexity of the Russian approach is being assessed. The approach of the Russian Federation to the process of disengagement of the foreign fighters is varied on the federal and within the regional level as well. The federal level approach is strictly based on hard measures and involuntary disengagement of the returning foreign fighters. The regional level in cases of Chechnya, North Ossetia, Stavropol region and Karachay-Cherkessia is...

The thesis is an explorative study of the notion of constraints to Russia’s foreign policy. The explorative attempt investigates Moscow’s external behaviour vis a vis the states of the Baltics and the South Caucasus from 2013 to 2020. The analysis argues that the notion of constraints, under the theoretical framework of neoclassical realism, can offer a certain degree of explanatory power in terms of foreign policy variance. The operationalization of the notion, based on Foreign Policy Analysis Theory, proposes specific factors for inspection. Initially, a thematic analysis of Russia’s Foreign Policy Documents of 2013 and 2016, illustrates that the notion of constraints and regionalism is lacking from the perception of the actor. The two documents understand the external world more in terms of threat/risk instead of constraints. Consequently, an examination of the constraints on the level of the international system, and the regional actors demonstrates that the notion holds analytical value under certain circumstances, however, it overlaps with existing frameworks such as that of Tsygankov’s constructivist version, and Structural Realism. The explorative research brings forward fields where the literature on Russia’s foreign policy can be enriched. One of the suggestions is associated with inspecting the notion of fear conditioning in the policy documents of the country.

Under what configuration of conditions do ethno-territorial conflicts escalate, and under what configurations of conditions is conflict avoided between a minority and the centre in multi- ethnic states? This dissertation employs qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) in order to capture the causal patterns of conflict escalation and peace preservation. By simultaneously analysing the causes of conflict and the conditions of peace, this dissertation bridges a significant gap in the existing literature that assumes causal linearity and unifinality. The QCA analysis this dissertation conducts is grounded in empirical evidence from the South Caucasus where, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, three newly independent states emerged and grappled with the accommodation of ethnic-minorities and their evolving identities. The QCA analysis reveals that, contrary to the popular premise that regional autonomy is "an effective antidote" for ethno-territorial wars, autonomy in the South Caucasus was conducive to conflict and the lack of autonomy was conducive to peace. Nevertheless, this dissertation does not suggest that autonomy on its own can explain the complexity of inter-ethnic relations. Rather, it argues that there were multiple configurations of conditions that interacted to produce...

This thesis examines constraints of the EU’s engagement in the frozen conflicts of the South Caucasus, namely, the Abkhazia, the South Ossetia, and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts. The study begins with a puzzle in which the EU’s ambition for prioritizing the resolution of frozen conflicts mismatches with the reality related to the status quo of frozen conflicts. By using an abductive reasoning in an observed surprising fact, the research highlights that the complexity of the region can be the main contributor to the EU’s limitations.   With this purpose, the ENP as a normative power of the EU is analyzed to identify how the EU is attempting to be a major actor in the region in order to secure its borders. Subsequently, the limitations of the EU in engaging in frozen conflicts are examined from ‘security dilemma’, ‘balance of power’ and ‘bandwagoning’ neorealism perspectives together with a comparative study on the three conflicts. The results show that the complexity of the region is a principal constraint for the EU. In particular, geopolitical rivalries with Russia and small states with their alliances contribute to the complexity of the region. However, this study also explores the idea that the complexity of the region is not only the best explanation for the EU’s limitations, but also the EU’s structure per se creates a lack of credibility with relations to the respective Caucasian states. For future studies, I suggest that the analysis of the social learning mechanism of the EU will be an asset for understanding the region and avoiding Eurocentric approaches towards Caucasian political systems and people. Regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, policymakers can consider that it is possible to change the EU’s low profile either by having clear strategies concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict or replacing one of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group with the EU.

Researchers and policy experts point to key issues and groups such as the Palestinian/Arab Israeli Conflict, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Saudi exported Wahhabism, and, in more recent times, the Iraq wars as being the source of militant Islam in this day in age. However, this perspective ignores key issues and ideals in to how this new form of Islam has emerged in recent decades. For instance, with all the conflicts that have occurred in recent decades, except for the 1979 Revolution in Iran, why have they not yielded Shari'a inspired Islamic states in Yemen, Lebanon, the Occupied Territories and Iraq? Currently the only Islamic states in the Arab world are ones that lay on the Persian Gulf that were established during their independence from colonial rule. One only has to look further east and to the north of the Middle East to see militant Islam taking hold in places like Chechnya, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Waziristan and a host of other areas which do not get the attention from many people in the West. After the demise of the Soviet Union and the years directly after, a political vacuum was formed that received almost no attention from the outside world except for states with historical and cultural similarities. Here Islam has and is being used as a military and political doctrine to accomplish goals and as an ideological base for launching new attacks against its proclaimed enemies. Indeed many of the key theologians and figures have come from the Arab world, but the rise of militant Islam could not have formed with this alone. Many of the fighters on the ground in alQaeda and its direct affiliated groups are indeed not Arabs but come from a wide range of different ethnic groups such as Afghans, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Uyghurs and Pakistanis who have answered bin Laden's call of lesser jihad against the West. Rather than examining militant Islam through a Middle Eastern perspective, this author wishes to give an alternate view that the current rise of militant Islam in the world is directly associated with the internal political situation of the Greater Caspian Sea Basin and not the Middle East as so many people have proposed in the past. To examine this idea, this author will look extensively at the internal conditions of states that have allowed militant Islam to arise and mature in such a short time span in this often forgotten region. The primary purpose of the proposed paper is to examine the rise of militant Islam through a Caspian Sea region lens rather than a Middle Eastern one. This study will also examine violent groups in various states to understand how groups are able to form and how they differ from each other. Countries ranging from as far as Turkey to the Xinxiang Province in China and from the southern reaches of the Russian Federation to Pakistan will be the primary focus.

No description available.