The Politics of Ethnic Separatism in Russia and Georgia [Paperback]

This book investigates the roots of ethnic separatism in the Russian Federation and post-Soviet Georgia. It considers why regional leaders in both countries chose violent or non-violent strategies to achieve their political, economic, and personal goals.Ethnic Separatism in Russia and Georgia Russia Weakened, 1990-1999 Georgia Fragmented, 1990-2002 Russia Resurgent, 1999-2006 The Tragedy of the Rose Revolution, Georgia 2003-2008 Ethnicity and State Building in Weak States

Why do some nationalists go for broke and seek their own states, while others are content to write tendentious history and bad poetry? In this finely drawn comparative study, Julie A. George tackles the problem of nationalist variation in Eurasia and uncovers the determinants of secession in Russia and Georgia. As George shows, states and their would-be secessionists are often locked in a dark institutional game: Weak states find it difficult to give an inch to restive ethnic groups for fear that they will take a mile; peripheral elites stake out their own positions in response to the preferences and perceived strength of the center. The conclusions are illuminating yet unsettling. Many of the standard prescriptions for international assistance - from state building programs to anti-corruption campaigns - can actually end up exacerbating the threat of territorial dismemberment, even as they seek to solve other problems. Original and cleverly constructed, The Politics of Ethnic Separatism in Russia and Georgia provides insights that both scholars and policymakers would do well to heed. - Charles King, Professor of International Affairs and Government, Georgetown University

In view of both its theoretical and empirical contributions, this book stands to make a major contribution to the existing literature on the subject. We are presented with an elegant explanation which combines several structural and agential factors to yield falsifiable hypotheses, and which captures tl“*