Barriers to Justpeace in the Republic of Dagestan

Abstract

The ongoing conflict in Dagestan can be classed as a protracted social conflict (“PSC”) according to Azar’s 1990 theory which focusses on the multi-faceted nature of enduring ethnopolitical conflict. That is, the recent self-sustaining patterns of conflict and violence in Dagestan have multiple sources and causes and can be seen as based on deep-rooted identity-based antagonism thereby meeting the classification of a PSC within Azar’s conceptualisation. Exploration of Azar’s four PSC “conflict determinants” are used as the functional infrastructure of this dissertation to comprehensively examine the structures and the processes that drive and sustain conflict in Dagestan. These four conflict determinants are: 1. State actions and strategies, 2. Deprivation of human needs, 3. Communal content, and 4. International linkages. This analysis, however, diverges from Azar’s examination of process dynamics as separate to conflict determinants. Instead, this dissertation borrows from Leventis’ and Tsokkalides’ approach to PSC analysis which examines how each PSC “determinant” also creates new intergroup social dynamics that perpetuate communal conflict. This modified understanding of Azar’s PSC framework is used to facilitate answering this dissertation’s main research question: what are the barriers to achieving justpeace in The Republic of Dagestan?