Manuscripts
Inside Abkhazia: A Survey of Attitudes in a De Facto State
John O’Loughlin, Vladimir Kolossov, and Gerard Toal
Post-Soviet Affairs, Vol. 26, No. 3 (2010).
Abstract:
The authors examine the attitudes of the residents of Abkhazia, one of about 20
de facto states now in existence. They test existing claims about a region that
is often glibly described by outsiders, thus checking on assumptions upon
which policy recommendations are based The results of a nationally
representative social scientific survey in Abkhazia in March 2010 are presented
in five broad themes, - security and perceived well-being, the life-world of
ethnicity of respondents, views of state-building principles, the state of
reconciliation between the divided communities and the potential (or not) for
displaced person returns, and finally, views on current and future geopolitical
relations with Russia and Georgia. The responses show a deeply divided
society. Ethnic Abkhaz, Russians and Armenians showing strong loyalty to the
de facto republic’s institutions and support its current status and direction.
The responses of the Georgian/Mingrelian minority, heavily concentrated in the
Gali region in the south, are much more variegated and demonstrate a sense of
vulnerability and a distrust of Abkhazian government policies. The key findings
shed important light on the broad contours of the internal legitimacy of the de
facto Abkhazian state and society, on its strengths (broad acceptance and
relative well-being by the three non-Georgian ethnicities), weaknesses (the
perception by many non-ethnic Abkhaz that the state is an ethnocracy), and
limits (the marginality and excluded position of most of Abkhazia’s Georgians).
Russia's Kosovo: A Critical Geopolitics of the August 2008 War over South Ossetia
Gerard Toal
Eurasian Geography and Economics, Vol. 49, No. 6 (2008).
Abstract:
A noted political geographer presents an analysis of the August 2008 South Ossetian war. He analyzes the conflict from a critical geopolitical perspective sensitive to the importance of localized context and agency in world affairs and to the limitations of state-centric logics in capturing the connectivities, flows, and attachments that transcend state borders and characterize specific locations. The paper traces the historical antecedents to the August 2008 conflict and identifies major factors that led to it, including legacies of past violence, the Georgian president's aggressive style of leadership, and renewed Russian "great power" aspirations under Putin. The Kosovo case created normative precedents available for opportunistic localization. The author then focuses on the events of August 2008 and the competing storylines promoted by the Georgian and Russian governments.
