The Fire Below How the Caucasus Shaped Russia

by Ware, Robert Bruce

• ISBN13: 9781441107930
• ISBN10: 1441107932
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-05-09
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

This groundbreaking work examines the complex dynamics of Russia's relations with the Caucasus, revealing the profound effects that Caucasian forces have had upon Russia's development.

Essays show how Georgian sparks ignited conflagrations in South Ossetia (1991-1992) and Abkhazia (1992-1993), spreading northward to conflicts in Ossetia and Ingushetia (1992) and Chechnya (1994-1996). Combined with jihadist influences that entered from the South and East by way of Dagestan, these events culminated in the second Russo-Chechen war (1999-2009).

Chechnya transformed both the Russian military and the presidency of Vladimir Putin. Beginning in 2000, Putin's Chechenization strategy had unforeseen and controversial results for the entire Russian Federation.

These ironies are elucidated in case studies of the Stavropol region, the Sochi Olympics, the Pussy Riot conviction, and Russia's efforts to reintegrate religion with politics against the backdrop of an emerging Islamic "inner abroad."

Neither Russia nor the Caucasus can be understood without an appreciation of their uneasy interconnection and its explosive consequences.

Author Biography

Robert Bruce Ware is Associate Professor of philosophy at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, USA. He has taught at Oxford University, the University of Buckingham, the University of New Mexico, the University of Texas at El Paso, and Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi. Since 1996, he has conducted field research in the North Caucasus with support from the National Research Council, the National Council for Eurasian and Eastern European Research, and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Table of Contents

Introduction (Robert Ware) / 1. The Federation in Crisis? A Historical Comparison (Alexander Marshall) / 2. A Thorn by Any Other Name: Georgian Origins of Russia's Caucasian Crises (Patrick Armstrong) / 3. Political Debate, Public Accountability, and Civil-Military Relations in Russia: The Impact of the Russian-Chechen Wars (Mark Kramer) / 4. Russia's War, Putin's Power (James Hughes) / 5. Caucasian Crescent: Russia's Response to Radical Islam (Domitilla Sagramoso) / 6. Blowback?: Chechnya and the Evolution of Russian Politics (Richard Sakwa) / 7. The Little Game: The North Caucasus As an Arena of Interstate Rivalry (Nicholai Petro) / 8. Putin's Dream, Russia's Nightmare: The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics(Walter Richmond) / 9. The Circassians and the Sochi Olympics (John Colarusso) / 10. Has the Russian Federation Been Chechenized? (Robert Ware)