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Ethno-Political Conflicts in the Caucasus

Class at Faculty of Social Sciences |
JTM269

Syllabus

Ethno-political Conflicts in the Caucasus (JMM 130) 

Associate Professor Adrian Brisku, PhD

Doctoral Student, Lamiya Panahova

Department of Russian & East European Studies, Charles University   https://cuni.academia.edu/adrianBrisku adrian.brisku@fsv.cuni.cz lamiya.panahova@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 conflict 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.     Introduction to the course (Brisku) 2.     Historical Context of the Region (Panahova) 3.     Understanding the main concepts: identity, ethnicity, nationalism (Brisku) 4.     Defining ethno-political conflict (Brisku) 5.     Theorizing the causes of ethno-political conflict and separatism (Brisku) 6.     Escalation of ethno-political conflict (Panahova) 7.     Reconciliation in ethnic conflict (Brisku) 8.     Case study I – the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: causes & escalation (Panahova) 9.     Case study II – the South-Ossetia conflict: the causes & escalation (Panahova) 10.  Case study III – the Abkhazia conflict: the causes & escalation (Panahova) 11.  Cases of latent ethnic conflict in the region (Panahova) 12.  Workshop (Brisku)

Updated, 4.09.2023

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.