Ethnic conflicts and nation-building trajectories in post-Soviet states

Abstract

State-building and nation-building processes in divided societies often lead to ethnic conflicts and wars, separatism, secession, ethnic terrorism, regime changes, regime breakdowns and equifinality in political development. Mainstream comparative empirical research has shown the advantages of power-sharing in ethnic conflict prevention and settlement and also in post-conflict democratization in divided societies. Power-sharing institutions guarantee inclusion, representation and participation of all segments of the population in the decision-making process, thus diminishing the security dilemmas of minorities and preventing majority rule in a society torn by ethnic cleavages. The analysis of the post-Soviet ethnic conflicts can be viewed from two perspectives, civil war research and ethnic war research. These reveal opposite tendencies as conflict settlement has led to the introduction of majoritarian mechanisms, nationalizing tendencies and the eventual formation of homogenous populations. The chapter analyses post-Soviet ethnic conflicts from the perspective of civil and ethnic war theories. Four examples of ethnic conflicts—Nagorny Karabakh, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Chechnya—and two examples of territorial conflicts—Transnistria and south-eastern Ukraine—have been examined.