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.

This thesis deals with the South Ossetian- Georgian conflict and its internationalization especially since the Rose revolution in Georgia in 2003. The main objective of the thesis is to examine the changes in the rivalry between Russia and the United States over the Caucasus and their effects on the relations between Georgia and the South Ossetia. The thesis argues that the development of the conflict between Georgia and the South Ossetia has been shaped by the changes in the level of involvement by Russia and the United States rather than the bilateral relations between Tbilisi and Tskhinvali. Thus, international and systematic factors are more determining than local dynamics of this conflict. The thesis has six chapters, including the introduction and conclusion chapters. After the introduction, the second chapter examines the ethnic origins of the Ossetians and the Georgians as well as historical background of their relations. The third chapter analyzes the sources of the conflict and the 1991-1992 war between Georgia and the South Ossetia. The fourth chapter discusses the 2003 Rose revolution in Georgia and its affects on Georgia&rsquo / s relations with the Western powers, namely the United States and the European Union. The fifth chapter examines the worsening relations between Russia and Georgia after the Rose revolution as well as the Russian-Georgian War in 2008 with its international consequences.

Disertacijoje nagrinėjamas diplomatijos vaidmuo Pietų Kaukazo valstybių saugumo politikoje, pasitelkiant geopolitinių kodų metodą ir regioninio saugumo komplekso teoriją. Sudėtinis teorinis analizės modelis yra grindžiamas neorealistine tarptautinių santykių samprata, o diplomatijos analizėje naudojama racionalistinė tarptautinių santykių paradigma. Tyrimas apima laikotarpį nuo Pietų Kaukazo valstybių nepriklausomybės atgavimo devintojo dešimtmečio pradžioje iki 2008 m. vėlyvo pavasario. Pietų Kaukazo valstybių geopolitinių kodų studija yra pirmasis tokio pobūdžio bandymas identifikuoti Armėnijos, Azerbaidžano ir Gruzijos geopolitinius savitumus ir individualios bei regioninės geostrateginės raidos galimybes. Tyrimas pateikia naują požiūrį į Pietų Kaukazo regioninio saugumo komplekso egzistavimą, taip revizuodamas ankstesnius tyrimus. Disertacijoje atskleista Pietų Kaukazo valstybių diplomatijų, apibrėžtų geopolitinių kodų ir identifikuoto regioninis saugumo komplekso tarpusavio priklausomybė. Taip pat išanalizuota šiuolaikinė tarptautinė sistema ir, didelę įtaką Pietų Kaukazui turintys, transatlantinių santykių principai. Išvadose, tarp kitų įžvalgų, pažymima, kad pagrindinė diplomatijos reikšmė yra komunikacijos tarp regiono politinių lyderių palaikymas ir trinties mažinimas, taip sulaikant valstybes nuo įšaldytų konfliktų sprendimo jėga. / The dissertation, based on the method of geopolitical sketches and the theory of regional security complex, provides with assessment of the role of diplomacy in security policy of the South Caucasus states. Neorealist approach to international relations, fallowed by rationalist paradigm used for analysis of diplomacy, determines the background of theoretical model of analysis. The research is based on the timeframe from early independence of regional states in the last decade of the twentieth century till late spring of 2008. The study of South Caucasus geopolitical sketches is the first attempt, of such kind, to identify geopolitical peculiarities and options for development of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The study provides with new approach to the existence of the regional security complex in the South Caucasus and consequently reassesses the studies conducted earlier. Dissertation discovers the interdependence among diplomacies of the South Caucasus states, defined geopolitical sketches and identified regional security complex. Contemporary international system and principles of transatlantic relations, bearing considerable impact on the South Caucasus, were analyzed as well. Among other insights listed in conclusions, it was envisaged that the main tangible role of diplomacy is to maintain communication of political leaders and minimize frictions between states preventing settling of frozen conflicts by coercive measures.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

The present dissertation seeks to present and analyze the hitherto poorly understood first encounter between the Ottoman Empire and the Tsardom of Muscovy in the North Caucasus from the Muscovites’ annexation of the nearby Khanate of Astrakhan in 1556 and subsequent penetration into this region, to their expulsion from it by the Ottomans in 1605. The study relies on both Ottoman and Muscovite sources, both documentary and narrative, as well as archival and published. The main archival documentary sources are the Ottoman mühimme defters (registers of orders issued by the Imperial Council [Divan-i Hümayun]) and the Muscovite posol’skie knigi (registers of diplomatic documentation, including ambassadorial reports, diplomatic correspondence, and other documents administered by the Ambassadorial Office [Posol’skii Prikaz]). The main narrative sources are sixteenth-century Ottoman and Muscovite chronicles. On the basis of the Ottoman and Muscovite documentary sources it is possible to determine what Ottoman and Muscovite policies in the North Caucasus were, to what degree they were well-formulated, and how they evolved during the aforementioned time period. It becomes clear that Ottoman and Muscovite policies in the Pontic-Caspian steppes and specifically in the North Caucasus had some superficial similarities, but were in essence fundamentally different. Taking into account that it was only after Muscovy’s expansion into the North Caucasus that the Ottomans decided to take an active stand in the north, the dissertation also shows the ways in which Muscovite steppe policy not only affected the political structures on the frontiers but also influenced Ottoman northern policy, and specifically in the North Caucasus. However, this dissertation is not solely a study of an imperial rivalry in a contested frontier zone. The Ottoman and Muscovite involvement brought about changes to the internal dynamics of the polities within the North Caucasus. Lastly, during the first round of this imperial clash, Ottoman and Muscovite presence and sway in the North Caucasus underwent several extreme and unexpected shifts. These shifts and resulting new strategies that the Ottomans and Muscovites had to develop in the North Caucasus played an important role in their future encounters in the northern Black Sea region.

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.

This thesis analyses the developments in the South Caucasus region since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The disintegration brought about the decleration of independence from teh states in the region, namely Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia. However, the conflicts in the aftermath of independence drawing the region into instability brought about the question of whether the instability in the region is an end result of teh policies of regional actors in the region. Whether teh stability in the South Caucasus is directly bound to teh constructive policies of the main actors? Whether actors act as stability providers or instability exploiters in the region? Are the actors especially since 9/11 Russia and the United States while expressing intentions on regional stability, with their differing interests acts as instability exploiters? In fact, these questions stems from the dilemma of discourse and commitment.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Maryland, 1975. / "76-18,706." Xerox reproduction. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 230-248).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Maryland, 1975. / "76-18,706." Xerox reproduction. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 230-248).

ix, 161 p. : maps / In 2002, the Russian government began distributing tens of thousands of Russian passports in the de facto states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Some scholarly attention has been devoted to this process, known as passportization, but most of the literature treats passportization as a primarily political process, ignoring its geographic aspects. This thesis shows that passportization in Abkhazia and South Ossetia amounted to a process of "biocolonization," wherein the populations of the de facto states were discursively captured by Russia through individual naturalization. Consequently, passportization served to create "Russian spaces" within the internationally recognized borders of Georgia and, in the process challenged international legal norms rooted in the logic of the modern state system. / Committee in charge: Dr. Alexander Murphy, Chair; Dr. Shaul Cohen, Member; Dr. Julie Hessler, Member