Violent Conflicts in the Post-Soviet Space - Einzelansicht

The annexation of Crimea and the war in Eastern Ukraine in 2014 had already moved the territorial conflicts in the post-Soviet space into the light of international attention, now, after Russia's full-blown invasion into Ukraine on 24 February 2022, this has become dramatically topical. Still, the subject is broader.

Since Russia is involved, directly or indirectly, in all conflicts, political and academic debate usually concentrates on Russian objectives. The internal causes are, however, also important for the failure of efforts to resolve the existing conflicts: precarious state building processes, fragile statehood, instrumentalisation of conflicts by the dominant elites for the legitimation of their rule, marginalisation of civilian societies etc..

These conflicts will be analysed using the explanation pattern "post-imperial spaces", where (according to Herfried Münkler) during the empire period different nations, ethnicities and religions lived together reasonably peacefully, because no people or religion had dominant participation rights, all issues being decided by the imperial centre. In post-imperial spaces the ethnic and religious contrasts as well as the social and political divergences emerge much more sharply, efforts for integrative nation building almost regularly meet great difficulties.

The seminar has a contemporary history orientation and deals with important aspects of peace and conflict research. Causes, patterns and actors of individual conflicts will be analysed, looking at the following case studies of so-called "frozen" (rather "simmering", violent military) conflicts: Tadzhikistan, Chechnya, Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria, Georgia, Belarus, Kasakhstan, Ukraine,

Since with the ongoing assault on Ukraine and its implications we are living through “history in the making”, there will be a concomitant update and brief discussion in each session.

Allison, Roy, Russia, the West, and military intervention. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2013.

Allison, Roy, Peacekeeping in the Soviet Successor States. Institute for Security Studies of the Western European Union 1994. (Chaillot Paper 18). [Online verfügbar: www.iss.europa.eu/uploads/media/cp018e.pdf]

Asmus, Ronald, A Little War That Shook the World. Georgia, Russia, and the Future of the West. London: Palgrave Macmillan 2010.

Dembinski, Matthias / Schmidt, Hans-Joachim/ Spanger, Hans-Joachim, Einhegung. Die Ukraine, Russland und die europäische Sicherheitsordnung. Frankfurt am Main 2014. Hessische Stiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (HSFK-Report 3/2014). [Online verfügbar: www.hsfk.de/fileadmin/HSFK/hsfk_downloads/report0314.pdf]

Drobizheva, Leokadia /Gottemoeller, Rose/MacArdle Kelleher, Catherine/ Walker, Lee (Hrsg.), Ethnic Conflict in the Post-Soviet World: Case Studies and Analysis. London, New York: Routledge 1998.

Fischer, Sabine (Hrsg.), Nicht eingefroren! Die ungelösten Konflikte um Transnistrien, Abchasien, Südossetien und Berg-Karabach im Lichte der Krise um die Ukraine. Berlin 2016 (SWP-Studie 13/2016).

King, Charles,The Ghost of Freedom. A History of the Caucasus. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2008.. [à Auf dem Internetauftritt der Tbilisi State University frei verfügbar: http://georgica.tsu.edu.ge/files/06-History/Nationalism%20&%20Identity/King-2008.pdf]

Krech, Hans, Der russische Krieg in Tschetschenien (1994–1996). Berlin: Köster, 1997. (Bewaffnete Konflikte nach dem Ende des Ost-West-Konfliktes, Bd. 3).

Krech, Hans,: Der Zweite Tschetschenien-Krieg (1999–2002). Berlin: Köster 2002. (Bewaffnete Konflikte nach dem Ende des Ost-West-Konfliktes, Bd. 11).

Littell, Jonathan, Tschetschenien, Jahr III. Berlin: Berliner Taschenbuch Verlag 2009.

Lynch, Dov, Separatist states and post-Soviet conflicts, in: International Affairs Vol. 78, No. 4 (2002), S. 831-848.

Meister, Stefan, Die innere Logik der Konflikte im post-sowjetischen Raum, Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung. Dossier „Innerstaatliche Konflikte“ 6.9.2016

Merlin, Aude, Relations between the North and South Caucasus: Diverging Paths? In: Caucasus Analytical Digest, 27, 27.05.2011, S. 2-4.

Münkler, Herfried, Imperien. Die Logik der Weltherrschaft – vom Alten Rom bis zu den Vereinigten Staaten. Berlin: Rowohlt 2005.

O'Loughlin, John/Kolossov, Vladimir/Toal, Gerhard, Inside the post-Soviet de facto states: a comparison of attitudes in Abkhazia, Nagorny Karabakh, South Ossetia, and Transnistria in: Eurasian Geography and Economics, 27.02.2015.

Rau, Johannes, Russland - Georgien - Tschetschenien: Der Konflikt um das Pankisi-Tal (1997-2003). Berlin: Köster 2005. (Bewaffnete Konflikte nach dem Ende des Ost-West-Konfliktes, Bd. 18).

Rau, Johannes, Der Nagorny-Karabach-Konflikt (1988 - 2002). Berlin: Köster 2003.(Bewaffnete Konflikte nach dem Ende des Ost-West-Konfliktes, Bd. 14).

Sakwa, Richard, Frontline Ukraine. Crisis in the Borderland. London: I. B. Tauris 2016

Sauer, Heiko, Wagner, Niklas, Der Tschetschenien-Konflikt und das Völkerrecht. Tschetscheniens Sezession, Russlands Militärinterven-tionen und die Reaktionen der Staatengemeinschaft auf dem Prüfstand des internationalen Rechts. In: AVR, Bd. 45 (2007), S. 53–83.

Stöber, Silvia. 2011. „Das Scheitern der OSZE-Mission in Georgien. Was bleibt?“ In: Institut für Friedensforschung und Sicherheitspolitik an der Universität Hamburg (Hrsg.). OSZE-Jahrbuch 2010. Baden-Baden: Nomos: S. 229-272.

Wehner, Markus. 2014. „Putins Ambitionen. ‚Ich denke dabei nicht nur an die Krim‘.“

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 08.09.2014. Online verfügbar: www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/europa/wie-putin-seit-jahren-seine-grossmachtplaene-umsetzt-13139437.html

Zürcher, Christoph. 2007. The post-Soviet wars: rebellion, ethnic conflict, and nationhood in the Caucasus. New York: New York University Press.

Referat und Hausarbeit