1st Edition
War and Revolution in the Caucasus Georgia Ablaze
The South Caucasus has traditionally been a playground of contesting empires. This region, on the edge of Europe, is associated in Western minds with ethnic conflict and geopolitical struggles in August 2008. Yet, another war broke out in this distant European periphery as Russia and Georgia clashed over the secessionist territory of South Ossetia. The war had global ramifications culminating in deepening tensions between Russia on the one hand, and Europe and the USA on the other. Speculation on the causes and consequences of the war focused on Great Power rivalries and a new Great Game, on oil pipeline routes, and Russian imperial aspirations.
This book takes a different tack which focuses on the domestic roots of the August 2008 war. Collectively the authors in this volume present a new multidimensional context for the war. They analyse historical relations between national minorities in the region, look at the link between democratic development, state-building, and war, and explore the role of leadership and public opinion. Digging beneath often simplistic geopolitical explanations, the authors give the national minorities and Georgians themselves, the voice that is often forgotten by Western analysts.
This book was based on a special issue of Central Asian Survey.
Preface: Georgia on Everybody’s Mind: The Aftermath of War Professor Ronald Suny, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
Introduction: Georgia's Domestic Front Professor Stephen Jones, Mount Holyoke College, Mass., USA
The Colonial Context
‘David and Goliath’ and ‘Georgians in the Kremlin’: A post-colonial perspective on conflict in post-Soviet Georgia Dr Laurence Broers, Conciliation Resources, UK
Managing Ethnic Diversity in Georgia: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back Dr Jonathan Wheatley, Centre for Democracy, Aarau, Switzerland
The Revolutionary State
The Dangers of Reform: State Building and National Minorities in Georgia Assoc. Professor Julie George, Queen’s College, CUNY, USA
The August 2008 War in Georgia: From Ethnic Conflict to Border Wars Dr Vicken Cheterian, Director of Programs, Cimera, Switzerland
A Polarized Democracy
Compromising Democracy-State Building in Saakashvili’s Georgia Professor Lincoln Mitchell, Columbia University, New York, USA
Saakashvili in the Public Eye Dr Nana Sumbadze, Co-Director, Institute for Policy Studies, Tbilisi, Georgia
The Post-Revolutionary Economy
Georgia’s Economy: Post-revolutionary Development and Post-war Difficulties Dr Lado Papava, Senior Fellow, Georgian Foundation for Security and International Studies, Tbilisi, Georgia
Corruption and Organized Crime in Georgia before and after the ‘Rose Revolution’ Professor Alexandre Kukhianidze, Department of Political Scienc,e Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
An Alternative Perspective
The View from Abkhazia of South Ossetia Ablaze Dr Paula Garb, University of California, Irvine, USA
Biography
Stephen Jones is a Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, USA. He has studied Georgian politics and society for 30 years and has written over 80 articles and chapters on Georgia and the South Caucasus. His recent book Socialism in Georgian Colors: The European Road to Social Democracy, 1883-1917, was published by Harvard University Press in 2005. He is currently working on a book, Georgia: A Political Life, 1991-2007, to be published by I.B.Tauris, London.