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The Benefits of Ethnic War: Understanding Eurasia's Unrecognized States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

Charles King
Charles King
Affiliation:
Georgetown University
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Extract

Within international relations, discussions about how civil wars end have focused mainly on the qualities of the belligerents (ethnicity, commitment to the cause) or on the strategic environment of decision making (security dilemmas). Work in sociology and development economics, however, has highlighted the importance of war economies and the functional role of violence. This article combines these approaches by examining the mechanisms through which the chaos of war becomes transformed into networks of profit, and through which these in turn become hardened into the institutions of quasi states. The first section offers a brief overview of current research on civil war endings. The second section outlines the course of four Eurasian wars and identifies the de facto states that have arisen after them: the republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (in Azerbaijan), the Dnestr Moldovan republic (in Moldova), and the republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia (in Georgia). The third section analyzes the pillars of state building in each case: the political economy of weak states, the role of external actors, the mythologizing function of cultural and educational institutions, and the complicity of central governments. The concluding section suggests lessons that these cases might hold for further study of intrastate violence.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , July 2001 , pp. 524 - 552
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 2001

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References

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2 By “statelike entity,” I mean a political unit that has (1) a population and (2) a government exercising sovereign control over some piece of territory—but without the imprimatur of international recognition. In Eurasia the conceptual bar for statehood cannot be raised too high, for many of the qualities that define relatively well functioning states in central Europe do not exist farther east, even among “states” that have seats at the United Nations.

3 In deeply divided societies even spelling bees are political events, so place-names in each of these instances are controversial. I use the Romanian Transnistria instead of Pridnestrov'e or Transdniestria because it is more easily pronounceable, and Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Karabakh because few people will have heard of alternative designations such as Apsny, Iryston, and Azat Artsakh. The same rule of convenience applies to other proper nouns.

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10 Keen, “When War Itself Is Privatized,” Times Literary Supplement, December 29, 1995. For a full exposition of his argument, see idem, The Economic Functions of Violence in Civil Wars, Adelphi Paper 320 (Oxford: Oxford University Press and International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1998).

11 These arguments, central to the study of conflicts in the developing world for some time, have only recently begun to filter into the study of regional and interethnic violence in other areas. Even more recent is the attempt to see the uses of substate war through a broad, comparative lens. Among the most important works in this field are Reno, William, Warlord Politics andAfrican States (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 1998)Google Scholar; Berdal, Mats and Malone, David M., eds., Greed and Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 2000)Google Scholar; A Rough Trade: The Role of Companies and Governments in the Angola Conflict (London: Global Witness, 1998)Google Scholar; and several working papers by Paul Collier and his associates at the Development Research Group of the World Bank, e.g., Collier, “On the Economic Consequences of Civil War,” Oxford Economic Papers 51 (January 1999).

12 Fearon, James D. and Laitin, David D., “Explaining Interethnic Cooperation,” American Political Science Review 90 (December 1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 For an enlightening overview of the origins and course of the Karabakh war, see Laitin, David D. and Suny, Ronald Grigor, “Armenia and Azerbaijan: Thinking a Way Out of Karabakh,” Middle East Policy 7 (October 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Zolotarev, V. A., ed., Rossiia (SSSR) v lokal'nykh voinakh i voennykh konfliktakh vtoroipoloviny XX veka (Russia [USSR] in local wars and armed conflicts in the second half of the twentieth century) (Moscow: Institute of Military History, Russian Ministry of Defense, 2000), 45Google Scholar.

15 See King, Charles, The Moldovans: Romania, Russia, and the Politics of Culture (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 2000), chap. 9Google Scholar.

16 For a firm statement of this view, see Totadze, Anzor, The Ossets in Georgia (Tbilisi: Samshoblo, 1994)Google Scholar; Totadze is the Georgian deputy minister of labor, health, and social affairs.

17 The Military Balance, 2000-2001 (London: International Institute for Strategic Studies, 2000), 100Google Scholar.

18 Economic figures are based on World Bank reports at www.worldbank.org.

19 Author interviews in Stepanakert, September 27-28, 2000.

20 Author interview with Edgar Sargsian, field officer, International Committee of the Red Cross, Stepanakert, September 28, 2000.

21 Author interview with Tevfik Yaprak, World Bank head of mission, Tbilisi, October 11, 2000; Svobodnaia Gruziia, September 27, 2000, 4.

22 Author interviews in Tskhinvali, October 13, 2000.

23 Author interview with Hans-Gjorg Heinrich, adviser to OSCE mission, Tbilisi, October 23, 2000.

24 IMF Economic Reviews: Moldova, 1993 (Washington, D.C.: International Monetary Fund, 1993), 46Google Scholar.

25 Author interviews with Transnistrian steel workers, Ribnita, August 1, 1997.

26 Oxford Analytica East Europe Daily Brief, January 11, 1999.

27 Author interview with Valeriu Prudnicov, Moldovan police commissioner, Bender, August 1, 1997.

28 Republic of Moldova: Economic Review of the Transnistria Region, June 1998 (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1998), 27Google Scholar.

29 See Brubaker, , Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), esp. chap. 3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 See Zolotarev (fn. 14), esp. chap. 8.

31 Moldova suverana, June 11, 1991, 1; Curierul national, April 4, 1992, 1, 7; Romania libera, April 4-5,1992, 8.

32 Stephen Bowers, “The Crisis in Moldova,” Jane's Intelligence Review (November 1992), 484.

33 Den, August 9-15, 1992, and Radio Maiak, September 18,1992,both cited in Mihai Gribincea, Politico rusa a bazelor militare: Moldova si Georgia (Russian policy on military bases: Moldova and Georgia) (Chisinau: Civitas, 1999), 15. Gribincea's book is the most thorough study of the role of the Russian military in Moldova and Georgia. See also idem, Trupele ruse in Republica Moldova:factor sta-bilizator sau sursa depericol? (Russian troops in the Republic of Moldova: Stabilizing factor or source of danger?) (Chisinau: Civitas, 1998)Google Scholar.

34 Gribincea (fn. 33,1999), 42-43.

35 Author interview with Elena Niculina, World Bank representative, Chisinau, July 29,1997. The same point, however, could be made even about the recognized states. Russia continues to provide what amounts to subsidized gas deliveries, since outstanding debts from the former Soviet republics are often paid in government-issued bonds, which are, as Gazprom must realize, virtually worthless.

36 The Military Balance (fn. 17), 125.

37 A March 1995 referendum organized by the Transnistrian administration indicated that 93 percent of voters wanted a permanent Russian base in the region.

38 Azerbaijani officials have suggested that the deployment of Turkish troops in Nakhichevan, the Azerbaijani enclave bordering Armenia, Turkey, and Iran, might be considered as a response to the increase in Russian forces in Armenia. Svobodnaia Gruziia, October 25, 2000, 4.

39 Georgia Today, October 6-12, 2000, 4.

40 Russian peacekeeping forces, although under a separate command from regular army personnel, have had a similar influence on the local economy. By early 2000 there were around fifteen hundred Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia (formally a CIS peacekeeping mission), five hundred in South Ossetia, and five hundred in Transnistria.

41 Svobodnaia Gruziia, October 24, 2000, 3, and October 25, 2000, 1.

42 In August 2000 Moldova adopted a new citizenship law that provides for dual citizenship based on bilateral agreements. Currently, however, Moldova does not have any such agreements with foreign countries.

43 Oxford Analytka East Europe Daily Brie/June 29, 2000.

44 Author interviews in Stepanakert, September 27-28,2000; Russia Journal, October 7,2000 (electronic version at www.russiajournal.com/weekly); Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Armenia Report (May 1, 2000). Diaspora support, however, has not been as enthusiastic as Karabakh leaders would like. A tour through the United States by Karabakh premier Anushavan Danielian in 2000 produced pledges of about $5 million. The campaign had hoped to raise four times that amount.

45 Author's interview with Igor Munteanu, director of the Viitorul Foundation, Tbilisi, October 12, 2000.

46 Aleksandr Ianovskii, Osetiia (Ossetia) (Tskhinvali: Ministry of Information and Press of the Republic of South Ossetia, 1993), 3, from the editor's preface.

47 Dzadziev, A. B., Dzutsev, Kh. V., and Karaev, S. M., Etnografiia i mifologiia osetin (Ethnography and mythology of the Ossetians) (Vladikavkaz: n. p., 1994), 64Google Scholar.

48 Author interview with Vladimir Atamaniuk, first deputy speaker of the Supreme Soviet of the Dnestr Moldovan republic, Tiraspol, August 1, 1997.

49 Dzugaev, K. G., ed., Iuzhnaia Osetiia: 10 let respublike (South Ossetia: On the tenth anniversary of the republic) (Vladikavkaz: Iryston, 2000), 4Google Scholar.

50 Babilunga, N. V. and Bomeshko, V. G., Pagini din istoriaplaiului natal (Pages from the history of the fatherland) (Tiraspol: Transnistrian Institute of Continuing Education, 1997), 98Google Scholar.

51 See, for example, Babilunga, N., ed., Bessarabskii vopros i obrazovanie Pridnestrovskoi Moldavskoi Respubliki (The Bessarabian question and the formation of the Dnestr Moldovan republic) (Tiraspol: Dnestr State Cooperative University, 1993)Google Scholar; Shornikov, M., Pokushenie na status (Striving for status) (Chisinau: Chisinau Society of Russians, 1997)Google Scholar.

52 See the “Corruption Perceptions Index” at www.transparency.org.

53 Author confidential interview with senior United Nations official, Tbilisi, October 30, 2000.

54 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Caucasus Report (April 7, 2000).

55 Heinrich interview (fn. 23); author interview with Naira Gelashvili, director of Caucasus House, Tbilisi, October 3 and 23, 2000; Ekho-Daidzhest, August 1-15, 2000, 7.

56 Georgian Lifestyle Survey, 2000, cited in Human Development Report, Georgia 2000 (Tbilisi: United Nations Development Program, 2000), 74.

57 Buletinul social-democrat, no. 2 (2000); and author conversations with Oazu Nantoi, Chisinau, September 2000.

58 Foreign Broadcast Information Service—Soviet Union (October 24, 2000).

59 Georgia Today, August 11-17, 2000, 3.

60 United Nations interview (fn. 53).

61 Similar situations exist in Moldova (where pro-Romanian intellectuals have opposed concessions on Transnistria) and Armenia (where militants assassinated the prime minister in 1999, when he seemed to be moving toward a compromise with Azerbaijan).

62 Author confidential interviews with senior OSCE and United Nations officials, Tbilisi, October 23 and 26, 2000.

63 Author confidential interview with senior manager of United States assistance program, Stepanakert, September 28,2000. Even the OSCE Minsk Group, the main negotiating forum, is based in Tbilisi, since basing the mission in either Baku or Yerevan would have been unacceptable to one of the sides.

64 “Memorandum ob osnovakh normalizatsii otnoshenii mezhdu Respublikoi Moldova i Pridne-strov'em,” signed Moscow, May 8, 1997.

65 Author confidential interview with senior official in the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (UNOCHA), Tbilisi, August 29, 2000.

66 Zolotarev (fn. 14), 395.