Post-Soviet SecessionismThe USSR’s dissolution resulted in the creation of not only fifteen recognized states but also of four non-recognized statelets: Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Transnistria. Their polities comprise networks with state-like elements. Since the early 1990s, the four pseudo-states have been continously dependent on their sponsor countries (Russia, Armenia), and contesting the territorial integrity of their parental nation-states Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Moldova. In 2014, the outburst of Russia-backed separatism in Eastern Ukraine led to the creation of two more para-states, the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR), whose leaders used the experience of older de facto states. In 2020, this growing network of de facto states counted an overall population of more than 4 million people. The essays collected in this volume address such questions as: How do post-Soviet de facto states survive and continue to grow? Is there anything specific about the political ecology of Eastern Europe that provides secessionism with the possibility to launch state-making processes in spite of international sanctions and counteractions of their parental states? How do secessionist movements become embedded in wider networks of separatism in Eastern and Western Europe? What is the impact of secessionism and war on the parental states? The contributors are Jan Claas Behrends, Petra Colmorgen, Bruno Coppieters, Nataliia Kasianenko, Alice Lackner, Mikhail Minakov, and Gwendolyn Sasse. |
Contents
Mikhail Minakov Gwendolyn Sasse and Daria Isachenko | 7 |
Mikhail Minakov | 59 |
Petra Colmorgen | 113 |
Gwendolyn Sasse and Alice Lackner | 161 |
Nataliia Kasianenko | 191 |
Jan Claas Behrends | 213 |
Our Authors | 243 |
Common terms and phrases
Abkhaz Abkhazia accept accessed 1 October According agency agreement analysis Armenia authorities Azerbaijan Caucasus ceasefire cent Central compared concept conflict considered contested cooperation core Cyprus dependent Donbas Eastern economic effect established ethnic Europe European external extreme facto force foreign policy foreword Georgia groups identity important independence influence institutions integration interests involved ISBN issues Journal language leaders legitimacy limited London military Moldova Moscow negotiations non-recognition official Oxford parental parties Peace periphery perspective political population position post-Soviet president question recognition recognized referendum regarding region relations remains representatives Republic respect respondents role Russia sanctions secessionist separatist situation social South Ossetia Soviet sponsor statehood status Studies territories trade Transnistria Turkey Turkish Ukraine Ukrainian Union University University Press USSR Vorwort West Western World