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This book offers an analysis of the decolonisation process across three different regions around the world: Central America, Southeast Asia and the Caucasus. It explores how the nature of previous imperial systems shaped the nation states that were created in their stead. By outlining these contrasting historical trajectories, this short study argues that the stability of these nation states and their ability to cooperate with one another are dependent on the acceptance of the frontiers established by the previous imperial powers. It moves from Central America, left in the early nineteenth century without any clear borders and which has suffered much inter-state tension ever since, to Southeast Asia, whose clear colonial delineations have been accepted in the post-colonial order, and finally to the Caucasus where the arbitrary boundaries of the Soviet Republics have not easily translated into nation states. Offering a concise comparison of decolonisation in three regions, this book will be of particular interest to students of history, politics and international relations.
In this new century, the relentless appeal of national self-determination has moved beyond decolonisation. A large group of de facto states, would-be sovereignties, now seek international recognition. In some cases these 'nations in waiting' have already established the exclusivity of their writ on the ground and wait only for the outside world to come to terms with the realities of their existence. In others, there are powerful external players who could undermine their claims on one hand or ensure their success on the other. The cases described in this book are to be found throughout the world: Abkhazia and Chechnya in the Caucasus; Kosovo, Montenegro, Republika Srpska, and Transnistria in eastern Europe; Palestine and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the Middle East; Somaliland in Africa; and Bougainville in the Pacific. Are these isolated voices or a harbinger of things to come? Their demands for separate statehood have breached the orthodoxies of territorial integrity and eroded the taboos of secession. Other large states, such as Indonesia, Nigeria, and the Sudan, also teeter on the brink of disintegration.
Explore the intricate historical fabric that has woven the complex relationship between Turkey and Greece along the enchanting Aegean Sea. Despite their shared geographic proximity, Greece and Turkey secured their independence in vastly different centuries, with Greece gaining sovereignty in 1830 and Turkey in 1923. Their journeys to nationhood were marred by conflicts, casting a long shadow over their subsequent interactions. Both nations, influenced by the passionate Mediterranean temperament, have engaged in a delicate dance of disputes. Their interactions have often embodied the saying "the pot calling the kettle black," leading to a series of missteps that occasionally teetered on the b...
At the core of the interest are the controversy on the political implementation of violence, the relevance of the international law for the conflict, the regional and foreign relations of the PKK, and the chances and obstacles of a peaceful democratic conflict resolution."--Jacket.
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The South Caucasus has established itself as a corridor for transporting energy from Azerbaijan to Georgia, Turkey, and on to Europe, symbolized by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. This new infrastructure has created an east-west “Eurasian bridge” in which transnational extra-regional actors, especially the European Union and international financial institutions, have played a critical role. This book offers an original exploration of integration in the energy and transport sectors amongst Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, and the capacity of this to fundamentally change relations between these countries. In the period studied, from the mid-1990s to 2008, integration in energy and transport did not result in broader political, security, and sociocultural integration in any significant way. The author sets his analysis in a theoretical framework, drawing on theories of integration, but also grounds it in the detailed, empirical knowledge that is the measure of true expertise.
The 14th of August 2022 is the 30th anniversary of the start of the war between the Georgians and the Abkhazians in the decades-long dispute over ownership of the small territory known to the autochthonous Abkhazians as Apsny, to the Georgians as apxazeti, and to most of the world as Abkhazia. For much of the world, the territory remains either a thoroughly unknown or, at best, poorly known country and, for many, a disputed region… This project is the continuation of the earlier “Reflections on Abkhazia: [14 August] 1992-2012”, which was completed 10 years ago. It aims to bring together different points of view on Abkhazia and the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. The authors were given com...
The second edition of Historical Dictionary of the Kurds greatly expands on the first edition through an updated chronology, an introductory essay, an expanded bibliography, maps, photos, and over 400 cross-referenced dictionary entries on significant persons, places, events, institutions, and aspects of culture, society, economy, and politics.
The A to Z of the Kurds covers the largest nation on Earth that does not have its own independent state. Scholars, government officials who are dealing with the Middle East and the Kurds, the news media, as well as the general reader will find this an accessible historical account about a people who are becoming increasingly important for the future of the geostrategic Middle East. Maps, a chronology of Kurdish history, an introductory essay on the Kurds, a dictionary containing several hundred entries on various aspects of the Kurdish experience, and an extensive bibliography comprise this volume.
The sheer scale and brutality of the hostilities between Russia and Chechnya stand out as an exception in the mostly peaceful breakup of the Soviet Union. Chechnya: From Nationalism to Jihad provides a fascinating analysis of the transformation of secular nationalist resistance in a nominally Islamic society into a struggle that is its antithesis, jihad. Hughes locates Chechen nationalism within the wider movement for national self-determination that followed the collapse of the Soviet empire. When negotiations failed in the early 1990s, political violence was instrumentalized to consolidate opposing nationalist visions of state-building in Russia and Chechnya. The resistance in Chechnya als...