The fall of Communism and ethnic violence: An inquiry. Armenia-Azerbaijan, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia
Abstract
Ethnic violence has accompanied the splintering of the republics of Armenian and Azerbaijan from the Former Soviet Union and the disintegration of Yugoslavia, but did not occur when Czechoslovakia split into two sovereign states on January 1, 1993. This study examines each of these three cases according to the insights offered by international relations and ethnic conflict theory to explain why the former two federal dissolutions precipitated inter-ethnic warfare, and why the latter case did not. This study identifies and explores a number of recurring factors accompanying the two cases in which large-scale ethnic violence did occur. It then examines the "deviant" Czechoslovak case through the lens of these factors to better understand the relationship between them and the presence or absence of mass bloodshed. It is the principal argument of this work that the incidence of violence in the disintegrating formerly Communist states of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe depends upon the interaction of factors deriving from (1) the historical identity and legacy of opposition of the groups involved and (2) the actions taken by ethnonational elites, as they are played out through (3) the explosive political mobilization of ethnonational groups. This exploratory inquiry grounds its analysis in the literatures on both ethnic conflict and international relations. It conducts a comparative examination across cases of the existence of the basis of group identity and opposition as conditioned by (a) a political culture which tolerates or encourages the violent resolution of intergroup disputes, and (b) the economic conditions and structures predisposing ethnic groups to violent interaction. Separately, it analyzes the disposition, rhetoric, and political choices of the ethnonational group leaders involved, as conditioned by (a) the availability of human and material instruments of violence, and (b) the imperatives, restrictions and possibilities afforded by the broader international context within which the conflict unfolds.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Melson, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Political science|International law|International relations|Minority & ethnic groups|Sociology
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