Ethnic Conflict in Asymmetric Federations: Comparative Experience of the Former Soviet and Yugoslav Regions

287 Pages·2017·3.984 MB·English

by  Gorana Grgić

Ethnic Conflict in Asymmetric
Federations
In the last years of their existence, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR) and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) found them-
selves facing a similar and very grim state of affairs. After their disintegration,
the former Yugoslav republics spiralled into a set of ethnic conflicts that did not
leave a single one of them unscathed, and in the ex- Soviet space, conflicts were
far more limited.
This book offers an in-d epth analysis of the difference in state collapses and
ensuing conflicts in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia by focusing on their asym-
metric ethnofederal structure and the different dynamics of ethnic mobilization
that the federal units experienced. Moreover, it explores the links between iden-
tity politics and international relations, as the latter has been a latecomer in
research on ethnonationalism and ethnic conflict. Finally, it contributes to the
literature on the democratization- conflict nexus by proposing that the sequencing
of ethnic mobilization and political liberalization has significant effects on the
likelihood of conflict.
This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of Post- Soviet pol-
itics, Balkan politics, ethnic conflict, peace and conflict studies, federalism, and
more broadly to comparative politics and international relations.
Gorana Grgić is Lecturer in US Politics and Foreign Policy in the United States
Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia.
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1 Presidents, Governors, and the 3 Ethnic Conflict in Asymmetric
Politics of Distribution in Federations
Federal Democracies Comparative Experience of the
Primus Contra Pares in Argentina Former Soviet and Yugoslav
and Brazil Regions
Lucas I. González Gorana Grgić
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Ethnic Conflict in Asymmetric
Federations
Comparative Experience of the Former
Soviet and Yugoslav Regions
Gorana Grgić
First published 2017
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© 2017 Gorana Grgić
The right of Gorana Grgić to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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ISBN: 978-1-138-68242-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-54516-5 (ebk)
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For my mum and best friend – this would have been impossible
without her unconditional love and immeasurable support

Contents
List of figures x
List of tables xi
Acknowledgements xiii
List of abbreviations xvi
PART I
Introduction 3
PART II
1 Dynamics of ethnonationalist mobilization and occurrence
of conflicts in asymmetric federations 13
2 USSR and SFRY – sources of war and peace in
asymmetric ethnofederations 42
PART III
3 Russia and Serbia – the core as the key 91
4 The Periphery I – early to rise, early to fight? 130
5 The Periphery II – mobilizational laggards and interethnic
conflicts 181
6 The Periphery III – the conflict near misses 224
PART IV
Conclusion 255
Index 264