CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2007
| Author | Papiashvili, Nana |
|---|---|
| Title | Diffusion of Ideas of Ethnic Mobilization in Minority Regions: Cases of South Ossetia and Abkhazia |
| Summary | The fight for independence during the collapse of the Soviet Union prompted a chain reaction in the union republics as well as within the most of autonomies of those republics. The transition period was the most dramatic and complicated in the South Caucasian countries and especially in Georgia, which faced a civil war and two ethnic conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. These turned into war simultaneously in 1988-1993, and the conflicts have yet to be resolved to this day. From the timing it seems that there is some interconnection between the South Ossetian and the Abkhazian conflicts. In this thesis, I investigate whether and to what extent these conflicts were causally linked. This will help address the broader theoretical question: how can the ideas of ethnic mobilization diffuse from one ethnic group to another within a state? In order to explain the timing of regional independence movements and why they often follow each other in close succession, I concentrate on diffusion theory of ethnic mobilization. I modify Beissinger’s linear model of mobilization and devise my own model of ethnic mobilization in minority regions. To test the staged model, I use process-tracing within the South Ossetian and Abkhazian cases in the 1988-1992 time frame to see how the stages progress. To test for diffusion, I also trace the connections between the cases as well as those with the central government. I conclude that the conflicts in Georgia have influenced each other, and ethnic mobilization in these minority regions underwent complicated stages of mobilization with the diffusion elements of a cyclical character. |
| Supervisor | Jenne, Erin Kristin |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2007/papiashvili_nana.pdf |
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