Syllabus
Ethno-political Conflicts in the Caucasus (JMM 130)
Adrian Brisku
Department of Russian & East European Studies, Charles University https://cuni.academia.edu/adrianBrisku adrian.brisku@fsv.cuni.cz
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Ethno-political conflicts are not a phenomenon peculiar to the region of the Caucasus, but they became part of the region’s post-Soviet history following the collapse of the Soviet Union. In this context, this one-semester course sheds light on key aspects of ethno-political conflicts in the region by combining an understanding of major concepts and theories of ethno-political conflict initiation and separatism with an analysis of the case studies of Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The course will also draw attention to latent hotspots of ethno-political tensions across the region.
A. COURSE DESIGN 1. Introductiontothecourse 2. Understanding the main concepts: identity, ethnicity, nationalism 3. Defining ethno-political conflict 4. Theorizing the causes of ethno-political conflict and separatism 5. Escalation of ethno-political conflict 6. Reconciliation in ethnic conflict 7. Midterm test 8. Case study I – the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: causes & escalation 9. Case study II – the South-Ossetia conflict: the causes & escalation 10. Case study III – the Abkhazia conflict: the causes & escalation 11. Cases of latent ethnic conflict in the region 12. Concluding seminar
Annotation
Ethno-political conflicts are not a phenomenon peculiar to the region of the Caucasus, but they became part of the region’s post-Soviet history following the collapse of the Soviet Union. In this context, this one-semester course sheds light on key aspects of ethno-political conflicts in the region by combining an understanding of major concepts and theories of ethno-political conflict initiation and separatism with an analysis of the case studies of Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The course will also draw attention to latent hotspots of ethno-political tensions across the region.