Sochi Surprise: Imagining Change in Moscow’s Caucasus Policy
Let us imagine… at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the United Nations Secretary General announces a new peace deal for the Caucasus, surprising everyone. The…
Posts by tag
North Caucasus
87 posts
The Latent Resonance of the Arab Revolutions in the North Caucasus
The spectacular explosion of revolutionary energy across the greater Middle East in the first weeks of 2011 reconfigured many international endeavors, including the Israeli-Palestinian pseudo-peace process and NATO’s wishful quasi-consolidation.…
The Impact of the Hajj Pilgrimage in the North Caucasus
The Hajj, a pilgrimage to the holy sites of Islam in Mecca and Medina, is an increasingly common practice among Russia's Muslims. According to various estimates since 2007, at least…
A Vicious Circle: The Security Implications of Rising Anti-Americanism in the North Caucasus
While attending a conference on combating terrorism and extremism at the state university in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, in April 2010, one moment in particular made me feel as if I had…
The Terrorism-Corruption Nexus in the North Caucasus
Two terrorist attacks have shaken Russia in the past year: the bombing of the Nevsky Express train en route to St. Petersburg in November 2009 and the double suicide explosion…
Russia, Chechnya, and the Sovereign Kadyrov
Moscow has effectively granted sovereignty over the Republic of Chechnya to its appointed leader, Ramzan Kadyrov. Despite frequent claims in some media sources that Kadyrov’s days are numbered, and despite…
The Circassian Question in Russian-Georgian Relations
Russian-Georgian relations have gone through many changes, but before August 2008 one constant in this relationship was the attitude toward Georgia’s territorial integrity. In 1990-91, when Georgia made its first…
New Actors, Old Obstacles: Security Cooperation in Eurasia
The main obstacle to developing an appropriate security architecture for post-Soviet Eurasia are the number of perceptual and conceptual gaps that exist among the actors involved. Major states and regional…
Georgian Perceptions of the North Caucasus and of U.S.-Russian Relations
Georgian-Russian relations have been frozen since the August 2008 war. This “freeze” resembles the situation of other “frozen” conflicts that have existed in the Caucasus since the 1990s. Indeed, the…
The Kabardino-Balkaria Insurgency: A Comparative Analysis of Ideological Trends in the North Caucasus
In recent years, the North Caucasus has experienced an upsurge of violence and terrorist acts. After the Beslan hostage crisis and its backlash on the Chechen movement’s international legitimacy, there…