The political economy of conflicts and peaceful coexistence in the Caucasus: comparing Abkhazia, Ajaria, Chechnya and Dagestan.

Abstract

This Master’s dissertation will focus on identifying the role of the main factors in generating conflict and peaceful coexistence in North and South Caucasus, with a detailed emphasis placed on the role of both material, political and symbolic factors as sources of conflict or stability in the region. We will pay attention on the major reasons for Dagestan and Ajaria to follow a different path from the neighbouring Chechnya, respectively Abkhazia, in avoiding war. The case studies in focus are Chechnya and Dagestan in the North-East Caucasus, and Ajaria and Abkhazia in the South Caucasus, as opposing models of conflict and peaceful coexistence during and after the transition in the Russian Federation and respectively in Georgia.