A Struggle over Recognition and Nonrecognition: The Internationalization of the Abkhaz State University

Bruno Coppieters

doi:10.1017/nps.2021.48

Abstract

AbstractThe Abkhaz State University (ASU) is internationally isolated, despite its cooperation with universities in Russia. Georgia combines its refusal to recognize Abkhaz statehood with a policy of nonrecognition of its university, which sets the direction for other countries. But the Abkhaz policies of nonrecognition are also to be taken into account. Abkhazia opposes any form of internationalization of the ASU generating closer ties with Georgia. The article examines how the Georgian and Abkhaz policies of nonrecognition hamper the internationalization of the ASU within the European educational space. It explores a conflict on recognition and nonrecognition of status and identity, where status does not refer exclusively to statehood. In the field of higher education, European integration involves a large number of state and nonstate actors in 49 countries and a wide variety of forms of recognition and nonrecognition, ranging from the certification of individual qualifications and the publication of lists of unrecognized universities, to the setting up of joint educational programs. This integration process is largely state driven but based on the principle of the institutional autonomy of universities. Using the ASU as a case study, the way that policies on nonrecognition affect status in the field of higher education is examined.

Highlights

Throughout the Soviet period, Abkhaz and Georgians were involved in a conflict on the constitutional status of Abkhazia
The literature in international law and political science on recognition in conflicts on secession deals with ceasefire and trade agreements where one of the parties to the agreement claims a statehood that the other refuses to recognize. Despite this asymmetry in perception and status among the conflicting parties, these agreements imply a mutual recognition of rights and obligations
This research into asymmetric types of recognition and nonrecognition of status in conflicts on secession is extended in this article to the European educational space, where status refers to educational achievements

Summary

Introduction

Throughout the Soviet period, Abkhaz and Georgians were involved in a conflict on the constitutional status of Abkhazia. The Georgian authorities, by contrast, wanted to preserve the status of the Abkhaz autonomous republic as subordinated to Georgian state institutions This conflict was expressed in a dispute on status and identity in higher education. The university’s official purpose was to give the multinational population of this autonomous republic, and of Western Georgia in general, better access to higher education (Abkhaz State University 2021a; Ofitsial’nyy sayt Prezident Respubliki Abkhaziya Sergey Bagapsh 2008). To this end, the ASU was divided into a Russian, a Georgian, and an Abkhaz branch

Objectives

Conclusion