Publication details
Regional Conflicts in the Western Balkans and the Caucasus Revisited: Comparison of Kosovo to South Ossetia and Abkhazia
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2010 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Středoevropské politické studie |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| web | http://www.cepsr.com/clanek.php?ID=394 |
| Field | Political sciences |
| Keywords | Abkhazia Comparison of Kosovo to South Ossetia/Abkhazia Ethno-nationalist conflicts in South Ossetia/Abkhazia Kosovo NATO intervention in Kosovo South Ossetia US Foreign Policy |
| Description | One of the things that the Western Balkans and the Caucasus have in common is an extremely challenging legacy of the past. The dissolution of two multinational states, the Soviet Union and Socialist Yugoslavia in the beginning of 1990s, led to ethnonationalist conflicts on a large scale. While the Yugoslav crisis ended in 1999 after the FRY was bombed by NATO during its Kosovo campaign, the Caucasus still remains a conflict-ridden region where Russian and Western influences keep colliding. The purpose of this article is to present an analytical comparison of the three respective regional conflicts in Kosovo, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, by enumerating and analyzing similarities and differences between them, as this proves to be one of current and more intriguing issues of the contemporary international political scene. The article aims at providing answers to two different issues: Did independence of Kosovo influence the establishment of a specific political pattern applicable to other disputed regions; and to what degree are the cases in question comparable to each other? |