Ethno-Nationalism, Islam and the State in the Caucasus: Post-Soviet Disorder * Edited by MOSHE GAMMER

Abstract

The thirteen ‘chapters’ of this very welcome volume deal mainly with the republics of the Northern Caucasus. The individual contributions vary widely in scope and approach, and unfortunately there are no cross-references between them. In general, however, the volume provides good insight into the political processes since the 1990s, and especially into the growing Islamization of initially secular ethnic movements and the states’ failure to react adequately. In Ch. 1—announced by the editor as providing a model necessary for properly understanding any conflict in the region—Maxim Barbashin discusses the importance of informal power structures, and observes that in Russia and the Northern Caucasus, personal networks have more weight than formal structures and even governments. Barbashin argues that most inter-ethnic conflict results from the struggle of individual elite leaders for positions in government and economy; the mobilization of the rest of the ethnic community, from this point of view, is mainly a product of ideological manipulation. Regrettably, the author rarely bolsters his argument with elaborated references to actual case studies. Also, the other chapters of this volume do not use Barbashin's elite network approach but have structural entities as their objects (ethnic groups, the young generation, political movements, religious communities).