Security, Society and the State in the Caucasus

Description

The Caucasus, including the South Caucasus states and Russia’s North Caucasus, continues to be an area of instability and conflict. This book, based on extensive original research, explores in detail at both the local and regional level the interaction between state and society and the impact of external actors' engagement in the region within a conceptual framework linking security and democracy. Unlike other books on the subject, which tend to examine the issues from a Western political science perspective, this book incorporates insights from sociology, geography and anthropology as well as politics and contains contributions from scholars who have carried out extensive research in the region within a European Commission-funded Seventh Framework Programme project. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of figures and tables List of contributors Acknowledgements Introduction: security and democracy in the Caucasus: the interaction of state and society Introduction: security and democracy in the Caucasus Security governance and democracy in the Caucasus The human and economic geography of the Caucasus Ethnographic and sociological approaches Note Bibliography 1. The tip of the democratisation spear? Role and importance of the Georgian Armed Forces in the context of democratisation and European integration Introduction The Georgian armed forces from 1990 to 2016The first decade: building state institutions of security and defence The rise of the power structures after the Rose Revolution NATO integration as a priority foreign policy goal The super-presidential system: lack of democratic oversight The aftermath of the August 2008 war Defence institutions after the 2012 change of power in Georgia Parliamentary oversight remains weak EU assistance to Georgia Cooperation under the Common Security and Defence Policy (CDSP) The way forward for increased cooperation on defence sector reform Entry points for the EU in Georgia’s defence sector reform Conclusion Bibliography 2. Russian governance of the North Caucasus: dilemmas of force and inclusion Introduction The policy of force The policy of economic development The policy of political participation The policy of identification and belonging Conclusion Notes Bibliography 3. Overcoming the status quo in the unrecognised states of the South Caucasus: internal and external limitations Introduction Peacebuilding and democratisation in the unrecognised states of the South Caucasus: external limitations From external to internal coping mechanisms for state survival: limitations on independence and democratisation Democratisation and dependency: strategic adjustments by the unrecognised states towards recognition and the status quo Conclusions Bibliography 4. Transformation policies and local modernisation initiatives in the North Caucasus Introduction The demographic situation: crucial transformations Islamic vs. socioeconomic modernisation The North Caucasus: a traditional or contemporary society? Family and society Mobility Education Success Customs and traditions Future Unsolved economic problems: what is the way out? Financial basis and the shadow economy “Anchor” investment projects Local development and obstacles to its progress Conclusion Notes 5. The making of groups, boundaries and cleavages in the South Caucasus: from macro to micro dynamics Introduction Regional dynamics: conflicts, commercial agreements, geopolitics and economic trajectories intertwined Borders and boundaries as loci of power Zooming in: the territoriality of the boundaries straddling the Inguri River Shaping ethnicity to suit geopolitics: tinkering with yet another boundary Conclusion Notes Bibliography 6. Arctic labour migration, vulnerability, and social change in the South Caucasus: the case of Azerbaijanis in the polar cities of Murmansk and Norilsk Introduction and methodology Migration to the extreme North and the reconstruction of the socio-economic field in Azerbaijan Topography and temporality of migration to polar cities: case studies of Murmansk and Norilsk New frontiers, ancient migrations and reshaping of the urban landscape Territorialisation of plural economic niches and generational trajectories Migration for military service Migration for work: territoriality and social ties Embedded reticular migration Role of diaspora associations in the reconstruction of social networks Being secure in the Great North: representations of the Kola Peninsula, between stability and security Conclusion Notes References 7. Armenian volunteer fighters in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: an eye on narrative trajectories in a no-war no-peace situation Introduction Becoming a combatant: singular trajectories within a collective sociopolitical history One way of dating the outbreak of war: Sumgait Committed volunteers, improvised fighters ‘Political scheming’ versus ‘noble fighting’ Unresolved conflict and the paradox of an ordinary state of alert seen through veterans’ social trajectories Reinsertion of former fighters and the institutionalized state of alert The Yerkrapah Union, a case in point Making transmission their new mission: from the battlefield to the teaching ground, and back Conclusion Interviews Notes Bibliography 8. ‘Exorcism of cultural otherness’: refugee women in post-Soviet Armenia Historical review of the issue Refugee stereotypes and attitudes towards the ‘other’ The process of stereotyping between local Armenians and Armenian refugees Conclusion Note References Index