Full Description
With the region of the Caucasus with its ongoing, and even deteriorating, crisis and instability and its strategic and economic importance increasingly at the front of the world's attention, this volume presents and discusses some of the complexities and problems arising in the region such as Islamic terrorists and al-Qaida.
Scholars from different disciplines who specialise in the Caucasus analyze key topics such as:
discussions of grass root perceptions
the influence of informal power structures on ethnic conflicts in the Caucasus
Russian policies towards Islam and their destabilising influence
the influence of Islamic revival on the legal and social situations
nationalism and the revival of pre- and sub-national identities
shifts in identity as reflected in demography
reasons for the Chechen victory in the first Chechen war
the involvement of Islamic volunteers in Chechnya.
With the situation in Chechnia likely to spread across the entire North Caucasus, this cutting edge work will be of great value in the near future and will interest political scientists and regional experts of Russia, Central Asia, Caucasus, Middle East and Turkey, as well as NGOs, government agencies and think tanks.
Contents
1. Informal Power Structures in Russia and Ethno-Political Conflict in the Northern Caucasus Maxim U. Barbashin 2. Islam and the Legal System in the North-Western Caucasus Irina L. Babich 3. 'Re-Islamisation' and Ethno-Nationalism: The Circassians (Adyghe) of the North-Western Caucasus and their Diaspora Chen Bram 4. The Republic of Adygheia: Perceptions of Rights, Freedoms and Life Chances of Ordinary People Cemre Erciyes 5. The Events of November 1996 in Kabardino-Balkaria and their Prehistory Julietta Meskhidze 6. Russian Policies towards Islamic Extremism in the Northern Caucasus and Destabilization in Kabardino-Balkaria Walter Richmond 7. Ideology and Conflict: Chechen Political Nationalism Prior to, and During Ten Years of War Ekaterina Sokirianskaia 8. The Orstkhoy Revival: Identity and Border Dispute in the Northern Caucasus Victor A. Shnirelman 9. 'I Can Fight, Army against Army': The 1994-1996 Russo-Chechen War, Strategies and Misconceptions Yagil Henkin 10. Allah's Foot Soldiers. An Assessment of the Role of Foreign Fighters and Al-Qaeda in the Chechen Insurgency Brian Glyn Williams 11. From the Challenge of Nationalism to the Challenge of Islam: The Case of Daghestan Moshe Gammer 12. 'Wahhabis', Democrats and Everything in Between. The Development of Islamic Activism in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan Sofie Bedford 13. Demography of North Caucasian Jewry: A Note on Population Dynamics and Shifting Identity Mark Tolts
