| Abstrakt: |
The study of the Chechen wars that shaped the North Caucasus following the Soviet Union's demise is much ploughed terrain. While the first Chechen war (1994–1996) received a secular narrative, seeking national self-determination, the second war (1999–2009) propelled a religious narrative. One critical question remains unanswered. Challenging established interpretations, a third wave of Russo-Chechen violence emerged, manifested in increasing numbers of Chechens fighting Russian forces and their allies in the ongoing Syrian conflict. The latest wave begs the question how a secular independence movement evolved in such a way as to develop first regional and subsequently supra-regional religious overtones? Examining the temporal phases of Chechnya's conflicts as a continuum, rather than piecemeal, identifies an underlying structure that explains the development of the conflicts' key issues and changes. Fundamentally, within-case process tracing demonstrates that horizontal inequalities ( H I s) between Russians and Chechens, i.e. unequal access to economic assets as well as political, social and cultural participation explain the violence ( V). Accounting for the ubiquity of H I s and the conflict's political environment, I expand the chain of causality that turns H I s into V by so-called power ideas ( P I s), i.e. ideas about how political power should be organised, such as nationalism or Islamism. Departing from the causal role of H I s , I examine the role of P I s in transforming secular nationalism into regional and supra-regional jihad. The mechanism of transition has thus far confounded strategists and planners. My study will establish a clear historical narrative that illuminates this previously elusive metamorphosis and present a sharper, clearly defined picture of the causes of a conflict transiting multiple stages and just as many interpretations. Ultimately it offers potential to yield schematic findings with conceivably significant implications for other contemporary conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
