Ethno-territorial Conflicts Research Articles

“Little Dubai” in the crossfire: trade corridor dynamics and ethno-territorial conflict in the Kenyan–Ethiopian border town Moyale

ABSTRACT Against the promise that new trade corridors in Africa lead to political stability and state control, this article presents a contradictory case. In the context of the implementation of the LAPSSET corridor, Moyale at the Kenyan–Ethiopian border has been undergoing a transformation. The formerly marginalized border town is today envisioned as a major trade hub for the region. However, this development has been recurrently disturbed not only by trade barriers and import regulations but also by violent clashes between local communities. Moyale’s history, economic rivalries, and an intra-federal boundary dispute make the new corridor a specifically dangerous setting for the local population, while alternative smuggle routes are perceived as more reliable and secure. The text provides insights into ethnographic research in a particular violent surrounding. Qualitative interviews and participant observations were conducted with locals and border officials in Moyale during clashes between the Borana and Garre communities in 2018. The article aims to understand trade and security strategies on the ground, which are far from being controlled by state monopoly.

Nationalism as an Obstacle to Conflict Resolution and Peace Building Processes in Georgia

The article seeks to explore the impact of nationalism on Georgia’s ethno-territorial conflicts and its negative role in conflict transformation and peace building processes. By looking at fundamental differences and contradictions between Georgian, Abkhaz and Ossetian national projects, article claims that Georgian-Abkhaz and Georgian-Ossetian conflicts were unavoidable. It also discusses all key arguments and counterarguments of conflicting parties, such as discrepancies in rethinking the history, demographic expansion, attempt of assimilation, linguistic politics, etc. When nationalism becomes key trigger of conflict and mistrust between the parties, the ground for external intervention is convenient to use existing situation and strengthen its influence in a country or region. In Georgian ethno-territorial conflicts, this destructive external power was Russian Federation. Hence, disagreement between Georgian, Abkhaz and Ossetian national projects as well as Russia’s destructive engagement and declaration of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, postpones conflict resolution and complicates peace building processes.

Why does segregation prevent conflict in some regions but not others? Interrogating social distance amid ethnic conflicts in Jos, Nigeria

This paper revisits the longstanding question of why segregation douses ethnic tensions in some places but exacerbates them in others. Anchored on the concept of social distance and drawing on empirical evidence from Jos, Nigeria’s hotbed of ethnoterritorial conflict, this article provides a nuanced analysis of why segregation mediates both the emergence and the prevention of ethnic conflict. In the examined case study, the role of social distance in conflict mitigation varies according to neighbourhood type. Animosity was already deep-seated across the region when social distancing – the effect of partition and segregation – was cemented following the outbreak of conflict in some communities in 2001. Yet the conflict spread to some ethnically unmixed neighbourhoods but not others. In conflict-affected areas, social distance did not avert future conflicts compared to neighbourhoods where the initial conflict was avoided. However, past conflict is not a predictor of future outbreaks in socially distanced neighbourhoods given that in the areas that avoided future conflicts, social distance occurred simultaneously with extensive informal bi-communal leadership engagements. Therefore, the paper shows that even imperfect unmixing can dampen violence when combined with observable leadership engagement.

Power-Sharing and the Paradox of Federalism: Federalization and the Evolution of Ethno-Territorial Conflict in the Case of Belgium (1979–2018)

ABSTRACT Does federalism fuel tensions in divided states? This paper addresses this question from a power-sharing angle. It provides a longitudinal analysis of the evolution of ethno-territorial conflict during five waves of federalization in a least-likely case: Belgium (1979–2018). Two original datasets on all cabinet conflicts (N = 1013; N = 328) provide an unprecedented picture of ethno-territorial conflict’s intensity, nature, and frequency (absolute/relative). All indicators forcefully contradict the paradox thesis. Conflict did not increase. If anything, there is a tentative decline. Exposing intra-segmental and segmentally mixed conflicts, this study also challenges conventional views on factors like bipolarity and the repercussions of split party systems.

ТЕРРИТОРИАЛЬНЫЙ ФАКТОР КОНФЛИКТОГЕННОСТИ ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИХ ОТНОШЕНИЙ В РЕСПУБЛИКЕ ДАГЕСТАН

The article is concerned with a seemingly unnoticeable phenomenon of the regional political process in the Republic of Dagestan: territoriality. It would seem, that Russian and foreign researchers are aware of that characteristic of the North Caucasus regions. However, the factor of territoriality is often ignored not only in research, but also in real political practice. When it comes to the conflict-geneity of political relations, social, economic, and culturalhistorical factors come to the fore. They are indeed more voluminous in their content and impact than territoriality. The authors draw attention to the fact thatin the Dagestan reality territoriality is a link in the genesis of conflict. Atthe local level, diverse contradictions of a social, economic, and cultural-historical nature are tightly knotted. Guided by the principles of social-cultural approach and based on a broad interpretation of ethnoterritorial conflict, the authors show the importance of the territoriality factor not only for land relations in local ethnic territory and on their borders, but also for the content of regional policy in Dagestan in general. The article provides a retrospective of the main stages in the formation and reproduction of ethnoterritorial communities. Some cases of ethnoterritorial conflicts in recent years demonstrate the danger of underestimating the territoriality factor in local conflict management. The authors conclude that a scientifically substantiated federal policy of regional development in the North Caucasus must be developed, in which territoriality is understood as a central element of the state governance

THE PROBLEM OF REFORMING THE ARMENIAN VILAYETS OF TURKEY IN THE POLITICS OF THE LEADING POWERS IN 1908-1914

The current problem of the South Caucasus and Russian-Turkish interaction requires constantly to look back to the historical past, where the roots of all Caucasian ethno-territorial conflicts lie. In this regard, the problem of reforming the Armenian vilayets of the Ottoman Empire is urgent for modern international relations. Neither the genocide, nor the current difficulties of the Armenian-Turkish relations can be adequately considered without studying the situation around Armenia at the beginning of the 20th century.Above all, the author examines the problem of reforming the Armenian regions of the Ottoman Empire, taking into account the interests of the leading powers and is placed in the context of the pre-war peace and bloc confrontation. The main research approach of the study is neorealism, which makes the basis of international relations not only states with their interests, but also alliances of states. In addition to the published musical correspondence of Russian diplomats, the work uses sources of personal origin: the memoirs of S. D. Sazonov - the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire, the memoirs of the American Ambassador G. Morgenthau, the diary of the Dutch inspector Louis Konstan Westenenk, archival documents with A. Mandelstam's report on reform projects were introduced into scientific circulation. The study released that the most persistent and consistent position on the reforms of the Armenian vilayets was taken by Russia, which sought to secure the Caucasus, adjacent to Turkey. Refugees were striving from the vilayets to the Russian part of Armenia, therefore, calming down the Armenian population in the Turkish part would contribute to stability in the Caucasian outskirts. However, there was no unanimity in the Entente on the Armenian issue, the outbreak of the First World War prevented the implementation of the project prepared on the eve of the war, as a result, everything turned into genocide for the Armenian people.

Depth of Field: Disorienting the “Ethnographic Gaze” through Zeme Naga Realms

Depth of Field: Disorienting the “Ethnographic Gaze” through Zeme Naga Realms

Феномен «бегства» советских элит в ряды оппозиции в конце 1980-х. – начале 1990-х гг: макросоциологический анализ

The article deals with investigation into the conditions of the defection of the national Soviet party-state functionaries to opposition in the USSR (late 1980s – early 1980s) that is an important indicator of the loyalty of the national elites towards the central government. The analysis is based on comparing two contrastive cases – the Soviet elites of Latvia and those of Kazakhstan in their interactions with the central government as well as local population. Despite seemingly obvious cultural and historical differences, both cases are similar regarding some important aspects such as socio-demographic, economic as well as cultural dynamics in the late Soviet period. In both republics, the proportion of migrants in the whole population as well as in the elites was relatively high. The intensive migration in the post-war period was a result of the rapid industrialization and the Virgin Land campaign in the case of Kazakhstan. The Soviet elites both of Latvia and of Kazakhstan were loyal to the Union center, Russian-speaking and more international than national oriented. Besides, the national movements in both republics were practically nonexistent at the beginning of the perestroika. Nevertheless, many Latvian national ruling cadres joined the opposition in the late 1980s – early 1991s whereas Kazakh national elites remained mostly loyal to the Union center up to the dissolution of the USSR (Kazakhstan declared its independence only on 16 December 1991, as the last republic to leave the USSR) – although Kazakh national party-state functionaries did not have less reasons to get rid of the tough control from Moscow than national elites of Soviet Latvia. As the theoretical basis the author applies the R. Collins` state-centered theory of ethnos elaborated in the framework of the Weberian paradigm. The analysis showed that decreasing loyalty of the Latvian national elites in the late 1980s – early 1991s was due to the success of the protest movement in this republic including the violent confrontation with its rivals in January 1991 (“The Barricades”). A broad support of the protest movement striving for the reestablishment of the independence from the Soviet Union was based on anti-immigration ideological alternative to official Soviet internationalism attracting different social and ethnic groups of Latvian population. A relatively high level of the loyalty of the Kazakh national elites to the central government was caused by the effective suppression of the Kazakh youth riots in December 1986 that triggered the purge of the national ruling cadres in Kazakhstan initiated by Moscow. A relatively low social support of the protest movement in the republic was due to the lack of a broad ideological basis that could create solidarity between different social and ethnic groups that made up the population of Kazakhstan. Besides, the protest of 1986 with Kazakh students as the main participants was perceived by local population in the logic of ethno-territorial conflicts very common in the late Soviet Kazakhstan and evoked therefore not solidarity but fear and anger.

Leadership preferences and ethnic bargaining: theory and illustrations

PurposeIn explaining ethno-territorial conflicts, leadership preferences have an odd status. In case studies, leadership preferences are often viewed as highly significant causes but are not usually defined and measured explicitly. In large-sample statistical studies, leadership preferences are only captured by weakly related proxy variables. This paper aims to fill this gap by developing suitable theory, which can be used consistently in both case study and statistical applications.Design/methodology/approachFormal bargaining models are used to examine the expected impact of variation in leadership preferences. Relevant leadership characteristics are then used to construct measures of variation in leadership preferences, which are applied in case studies.FindingsIn bargaining models, variation in leadership preferences is expected to have a significant impact on ethno-territorial conflict outcomes. More extreme nationalist leaders and, more conditionally, strongly power-seeking leaders, should be more likely to be willing to use force to modify the status quo – although more moderate nationalist leaderships are also willing to do so under certain conditions. In five case studies, these formally derived hypotheses receive initial empirical support.Originality/valueTheoretically and empirically, further refinement of research on variation in leadership preferences promises to add significant value. Formally, it is worth investigating the expected impact of additional preference types. Empirically, it is important to invest in measures of leadership preferences across large samples.

Mediation and Its Role in the Settlement of Internal Territorial Conflicts in the RF

In the article the author offers to use the technology of political mediation in the settlement and the settlement of internal territorial conf lict in the political space of the Russian Federation. Special attention is given to latent internal ethno-territorial conf licts. This article assumes that the mediator in resolving this type of conf lict should be professional and non-professional mediator, using the elements of the technology of political mediation in the form of mediation, conciliation and arbitration.

The State and Ethnic Minorities: The Case of Georgia

This article analyzes interethnic relations in post-Soviet Georgia seen from the perspective of political stability and peaceful democratic consolidation. Approaching the question through theories of conflict management in divided societies, the paper traces the degree of state accommodation of minorities under Gamsakhurdia, Shevardnadze, Saakashvili and Georgian Dream. This article argues that the ethnonationalistic, centralizing, majoritarian, and arbitrary approaches employed in various degrees and intensities by the state contributed to the escalation of ethnoterritorial conflicts, political instability, and insufficient accommodation of minorities in post-Soviet Georgia.

The Last Closed Border of the Cold War: Turkey–Armenia

ABSTRACTIn the post-Soviet Caucasus, a number of borders remain blocked as a result of ethno-territorial conflicts that emerged in the early 1990s. Yet, there is one closed border that does not fit the pattern: the Turkish–Armenian border. This border has not been the site of any conflict in that period, and belongs to an entirely different geopolitical space: the border that previously separated the Soviet Union from Turkey, as well as independent Armenia from the Republic of Turkey. To understand the nature of the conflict that keeps the Turkish–Armenian border closed, therefore, one has to look for historic references that go beyond the Soviet legacy and bring in Ottoman history, and specifically the Genocide of Ottoman Armenians in 1915–1916. This analysis sheds new light on understanding the modern conflicts of the Caucasus, which have previously been studied mostly within the context of the Soviet experience.

External Political Actors and Influences in the South Caucasus

The paper focuses on the means and forms of external influence on political regimes and state policies, mainly considering the case of the former Soviet republics of the South Caucasus, with special focus on Georgia. This topic is particularly interesting due to the specific vulnerabilities of the region with regards to such multiple factors of external influence as: complex geopolitical environment - due to the location at the crossroads and peripheries of important geopolitical regions; totalitarian legacy as reflected in the weakness of institutions and the post-totalitarian political culture; ethno-territorial conflicts; undeveloped and imbalanced economy. The case of these republics is important, also, as an interesting example presenting a multitude of rather diverse forms of external influence, and secondly, because of the potential to have an impact on political events at much greater scale.

NATO Crisis Response

The ethno-territorial conflicts precipitated by the breakup of the Soviet Union and dissolution of Yugoslavia had major implications for European security and substantially altered the strategic priorities of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the post-Cold War period. In order to preserve regional stability, NATO expanded beyond collective defense into crisis management and peacekeeping to address destabilizing ethnic conflicts, particularly in the Balkans region. This paper proposes that the NATO peacekeeping operation succeeded as a whole in stabilizing the Kosovo crisis and enabled the creation of a functioning, multiethnic state in Kosovo, which became independent in 2008. Using Kosovo as a case study, this paper outlines a conceptual framework for use in examining the success of the NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo, known as KFOR, in stabilizing the Kosovo crisis and enhancing regional stability. This framework consists of five core security tasks – diffusing the crisis; ensuring security; enabling humanitarian relief operations; facilitating a political solution; and fostering long-term regional stability – organized around an end state of establishing a stable, independent Kosovo. The paper concludes with comments on the usefulness of KFOR as a model for peacekeeping and the long-term use of NATO forces in such peacekeeping operations going forward.

Nationalist and Power-Seeking Leadership Preferences in Ethno-Territorial Conflicts: Theory, a Measurement Framework, and Applications to the Breakup of Yugoslavia

Theoretically, variation in leadership preferences is often taken to be an important predictor of ethno-territorial conflict outcomes. Yet there is a significant gap when it comes to applying this theory. Case studies do not take a consistent approach to measuring leadership preferences, while statistical research tends to omit the variable altogether. This paper suggests a standardized approach to measuring leadership preferences along two dimensions – a dimension that captures the weight given to achieving ideal nationalist goals as against minimizing conflict costs and downside conflict risks, and a dimension that indicates how much intrinsic nationalist goals are valued relative to the goal of taking and maintaining political power. The resulting measurement template is then applied to seven potential ethno-territorial conflicts in Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. These cases indicate that leadership preferences may help to explain ethno-territorial conflict outcomes and, at the same time, are sometimes not well predicted by other important variables, such as the balance of power and the pre-conflict status quo.

Between logics of deliberation and appropriateness: the discourse and practices of the Catholic Church over the Basque issue

This article addresses the way the Catholic Church deliberates and/or contributes to public deliberation over the Basque ethno-territorial conflict. The article proceeds in three sections. Section 2 positions the piece within theoretical debate about Rissian and institutionalist approaches to the deliberative ideas and practices conveyed by the Church. Section 3 sums up the main results of the empirical research undertaken, making a distinction between the contribution of the Church to public debate over conflict-resolution and the way it has deliberated over the ethno-territorial issue within its own institutional apparatus. We observe the primacy of logics of appropriateness on the part of the Church, thus reducing deliberative practices to an active but marginalized status. The concluding section discusses the empirical and theoretical implications of the case study.

Targeting Civilians in Ethno-Territorial Wars: Power- and Preference-Based Sources of Ethnic Cleansing and Mass Killing Strategies

In internal ethno-territorial conflicts, what explains why state or rebel group leaderships use civilian-targeting strategies—expulsion or mass killing strategies designed to punish enemy civilians or to decimate the enemy civilian presence on contested territory? One argument is that those living under the worst initial conditions—defined in terms of collective goods such as weak collective autonomy, policy outcomes, and material conditions—are most likely to target enemy group civilians. Another approach focuses on relative power—arguing that the enemy civilian population is targeted either because of weaker or stronger relative power. A third approach argues that differences in leadership preferences—in particular, more ideologically extreme or power-seeking preferences—are likely to drive direct assaults on enemy civilians. We examine these proposed mechanisms in terms of expected effects on benefits and costs in a simple ethno-territorial bargaining framework. We argue that relative power advantages and more extreme nationalist preferences seem most likely to predict decisions to target enemy civilian populations. We expect strongly power-seeking preferences to lead to civilian targeting more conditionally—where there is a greater internal political threat along with either greater relative power or a more moderate enemy. Last, we do not expect that variation in initial conditions will have a significant direct effect. We apply the framework to explain patterns of civilian targeting following the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991. [Supplementary material is available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Studies in Conflict & Terrorism for the following free supplemental resource: online appendix.]

Quando il cleavage etnoterritoriale si addormenta: la "connessione disorganica" degli attori regionalisti in Sardegna e Bretagna

The attention of contemporary political science on ethnoterritorial conflicts seems to be limited to the analysis of the most conflictual cases. However, several current centre-periphery conflicts are lacking of a clear political expression. The aim of this paper is to help explaining what happens when does not appear a persistent politization of ethnoregional conflicts, using Sardinia and Brittany as case studies. In these regions ethnoregionalist mobilizations are stronger in the cultual and socio-economic realms, but still weak in the political one. The paper main hipoteses is that the main cause of this weak politization and of the delay in the selfgovernment claims is to be found in the lack of strategic coordination, a disjointed connection, among the various ethnoregionalist actors engaged in four specific dimensions of the mobilization (historical, cultural, socio-economic and political).

Innovative Approaches to Territorial Disputes: Using Principles of Riparian Conflict Management

Many belligerents in ethno-territorial conflicts claim they have an absolute right to contested space, operate on a zero-sum basis, and use maximalist negotiation strategies. This article draws on ongoing fieldwork that examines ethno-territorial conflict and focuses on the transition from rights-based to needs-based negotiations over sites of worship, parading routes, and national borders. These three sites represent different scales and expressions of spatial conflict, including accommodations for Jewish and Muslim worshipers in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron/al-Khalil, West Bank, the terms and conditions agreed to for sectarian parading in the town of Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, and the return and subsequent lease of land on the Israeli–Jordanian border. In each case, negotiated arrangements allow for the belligerents to meet their minimal territorial needs, even as the broader dynamics of the conflict persist. Central to these arrangements is a shared recognition that space is a mutable resource and that needs-based negotiation can allow sharing of contested territory at a variety of scales. The article draws from analogous dynamics in international river treaty negotiations, specifically the riparian model developed by the authors in earlier work. We conclude by enumerating the contributions geographers can make to theories of conflict and peace.

“Nature Knows No Boundaries”: A Critical Reading of UNDP Environmental Peacemaking in Cyprus

In 2005, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) set up in Cyprus a peace-building project called Action for Cooperation and Trust (ACT). This project has aimed to create opportunities for bicommunal partnerships on environmental protection as a way to promote intercommunal tolerance. This article discusses critically the efficacy of this project to contribute to the debate on the significance of environmental cooperation in transforming ethno-territorial conflicts. We rely on both survey data and the qualified opinions of Cypriot environmental stakeholders to show that, in the case of Cyprus, successful environmental peacemaking strategies are dependent on widespread environmental awareness, trust in the “third party” (UNDP), and civil society's empowerment, which, however, should complement and not substitute for intervention at a state level. There is also evidence to suggest that the UNDP discourse about “nature knows no boundaries” is most effective when it generates solutions that are perceived to be beneficial to all parties involved, rather than when it uses the environment to discursively construct a common “patriotism” beyond ethnic identities.