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Abstract
In Chechnya a protracted conflict only seemingly quieted down, but it still smolders and as the conflict is suppressed by coercion, it is inevitable that it will flare up at some time in the near future. The root causes of the conflict can be understood by use of globalization theory, which dialectically brings together the clashing forces from above and below. Civil society in Chechnya deteriorated, is politically curtailed, and has no resilience left. It thus results in a frozen conflict and an excluded and victimized society. Russian-style reconstruction does alleviate living conditions, but does not remediate the frozen conflict character of the present situation. The dynamics of the globalizing forces from below and above, summarized in the glocalization concept, not only explains the resistance by the Chechen people, for whom revolt, rebellion, and terrorism remain attractive options, but also serves as a model for other insurgencies. Reflecting on the two recent Chechen–Russian wars results in a paradigmatic case study.
Notes
1. Winslow wrote the first version of this article which, after her death, was finished and updated by the co-authors. The article is a tribute to Winslow's work. The idea was to put forward a model for analyzing ‘new wars’, and Chechnya forms a paradigmatic case study. But the model would probably work equally well in analyzing Somalia, Kenya, Sri Lanka, and other conflict areas that are affected by glocalization as is demonstrated in the work of Peter Kloos.
2. See CitationNivat, Chienne de Guerre.
3. In fact, much of the information for this paper was gathered from the Internet – one of the main forces of globalization in our times.
4. On 20 April 2011, the Human Rights Center ‘Memorial’ held a press conference together with the Committee Against Torture, the Moscow Helsinki Group, and Human Rights Watch entitled, ‘Chechen Republic: the Investigation Committee and the Prosecutor admit that they are helpless’. After having presented a number of official documents, human rights defenders present at the event reported that staff members of the Investigation Committee and of the Prosecutor's Office of Chechnya had admitted that cases concerning abductions and extrajudicial executions have not been investigated. http://www.fidh.org/Chechen-Ombudsman-slanders-and-threatens-human.
5. The pro-Chechen kavkazcenter.com/claims that their site has been visited over 25,000,000 times in the past year.
6. Kavkaz Organization, ‘Russia Accused over Chechenya Mass Grave’.
7. See CitationPolitkovskaya. Putin's Russia, 4. Ms Politkovskaya was murdered on 7 October 2006 as was another investigator in July 2009: Ms Natalia Estemirova, leading researcher at the Grozny office of the Human Rights Center ‘Memorial’. http://www.fidh.org/Chechen-Ombudsman-slanders-and-threatens-human. CitationGilligan, Terror in Chechnya, 6.
8. Gilligan, Terror in Chechnya.
9. CitationInternational Federation for Human Rights, ‘Chechen Ombudsman slanders and threatens Human Rights defenders’.
10. Gilligan, Terror in Chechnya.
11. CitationKloos, ‘A Secessionist Movement in an Age of Globalization’, 10.
12. CitationKloos, ‘A Secessionist Movement in an Age of Globalization’, 3.
13. CitationRobertson, ‘Glocalization’.
14. A conference in Moscow on globalization in November 2003 financed by a wealthy Chechen is one example.
15. We do not use these two concepts in the same sense as CitationMittelman who, building upon the work of CitationFalk, ‘Revisiting Globalization-from-above through Globalization-from-below’, defines ‘globalization from above’ as the activities associated with the collaboration between leading states and the agents of free-market economic liberalism. He then defines ‘globalization from below’ as communities' attempts to regain the resources they need to nurture their environment and to democratize decision-making processes, see Mittelman, The Globalization Syndrome, 205.
16. Slaves were usually prisoners of war who worked the land without social rights.
17. CitationWaal and Gall, Chechenya, 27.
18. CitationRubin, ‘Russian Mothers are Saving their Sons in Chechnya’.
19. It is impossible to get exact numbers on population both alive and dead. The last Russian estimate of Chechnya's population on 1 January 2011 is 1,267,740 as against 1.1 million in 1990.
20. Petroglyphs in mountain caverns, dating from approximately 4000 bc, depict solar signs and anthropomorphic animals. Underground burial sites from approximately 2600 bc have been found as well as underground dwellings dating from about 1200 bc. These sites suggest a wide variety of gods associated with the forces of nature.
21. In 1976 it was estimated that even under the Soviet suppression of religion about half of the Chechen population belonged to Sufi brotherhoods.
22. Anatol Lieven cited at http://www.cdl.org/issues/Europe/omzl/html.
23. CitationJansen, ‘Chechnya and Russia between Revolt and Loyalty’, 93.
24. Waal and Gall, Chechnya, 60.
25. CitationWerth, ‘The “Chechen Problem”’, 357; CitationBrauer, ‘Chechens and the survival of their cultural identity in exile’, 391–2; CitationSeely, Russo-Chechen Conflict, 81–6.
26. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Chechens repeatedly blew this statue up and eventually threw it in the river once and for all, see Waal and Gall, Chechenya, 4.
27. The first years of Georgia's independence under President Gamsakhurdia were also economically very difficult.
28. CitationKnezys and Sedlickas, The War in Chechnya, 102–3. The exact casualty rate is disputed. Robert Seely (Russo-Chechen Conflict, 258–63) gives several estimates based on accounts from both sides.
29. See Knezys and Sedlickas, The War in Chechnya, 158–78, 235–51.
30. For example, the May 1996 ceasefire agreement simply called for an end to hostilities, a release of all hostages, and further negotiations to resolve other issues.
31. CitationTreisman, The Return.
32. Open letters can be found on the Internet doubting the Chechen origin: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121209647875130625.html.
33. The Terek river is a symbolic boundary for both Russians and the people from the (South) Caucasus. In Georgia, for example, there is a special name for ‘those who crossed the Terek river’ towards St. Petersburg.
34. Perhaps as much as 10% of Chechnya's population had perished during the 21-month war. During the fighting in the second war, the Russians are said to have used thermobaric munitions that deplete oxygen and lead to suffocation. It was used in Grozny to force people out of basements.
35. CitationBlank, ‘An Ambivalent War: Russia's War on Terrorism’.
36. Stratfor, ‘The Caucasus Emirate’, parts Citation1 & 2.
37. CitationKaldor, New and Old Wars.
38. CitationKaldor, New and Old Wars, 169.
39. CitationKaldor, New and Old Wars, 108.
40. Stratfor, ‘The Caucasus Emirate’, parts 1 & 2.
41. CitationBaev, ‘Putin's Counter-Terrorism’.
42. CitationKloos, ‘The Effect of Globalization on Local Identities’; Robertson, ‘Glocalization’.
43. CitationHeld et al., Global Transformations, 17.
44. We skip the layer of social and psychological mechanisms which this global knowledge triggers: desire to imitate; unfulfilled rising expectations and justified expectations (relative deprivation theory).
45. CitationKhizriyeva and Reyna, ‘Against… Domination’.
46. CitationGökay, ‘The Politics of Oil in the Black Sea Area’.
47. In some cases the oil producers have to drill very deep for the black gold. In others, like the famous Tengiz field, the oil contains sulfur, which causes trouble in refining it. All oil has to be transported through pipelines and/or tankers. The construction of these pipelines is so costly that it remains uncertain whether the exploitation will be profitable.
48. As an International Herald Tribune article, ‘Caspian oil to top Summit Agenda’, dated 12 March 2001 put it: ‘Iran and Russian may be on opposite ends of the Caspian Sea but they are united in their opposition to a trans-Caspian pipeline that would allow Kazakhstan's oil to flow to Turkey and the West without going through either country.’
49. Upstream Online 2006 NHST Media Group 2006, 19 April.
50. Gökay, ‘The Politics of Oil in the Black Sea Area’.
51. It is important to remember that there are historical links because of the Ottoman Empire and Islam. The Turks are less sympathetic towards the Chechens in the wake of several plane hijackings.
52. If the Dagestan section of the pipeline were out of order no detours could repair the situation, and Russia would lose its pipeline connection with Azerbaijan.
53. CitationThomas, ‘Grozny 20000’.
54. CitationDuk, ‘Joeri, waar ben je?’
55. The Khasavyurt agreement of 31 August 1996 postponed the question of Chechen independence to 31 December 2001. This granted Chechnya de facto independence at least until that date.
56. Thomas, ‘Grozny 20000’.
57. The ‘press pool’ concept was implemented for the first time during the US intervention in Panama,. In the Gulf war this concept proved to be very successful.
58. CitationWesterman, ‘Midweekje Tsjetsjenië’, 35.
59. e.g. CitationHughes, Chechnya.
60. Politkovskaya, Putin's Russia; Hughes, Chechnya; Gilligan, Terror in Chechnya; Amnesty International reports; local HR activists,
61. CitationPain, ‘The Second Chechen War’.
62. One minister of foreign affairs who spoke out accordingly was the former Dutch minister of foreign affairs Prof. mr. Kooimans.
63. CitationSmith, ‘The Second Chechen War’.
64. CitationErlanger, ‘Berlusconi Vaunts West's “Superiority”’.
65. CitationErlanger, ‘Berlusconi Vaunts West's “Superiority”’
66. CitationMufson, ‘American Foreign Policy Suddenly Changes Course’.
67. Kloos, ‘The Effect of Globalization on Local Identities’.
68. CitationGaleotti, Brotherhoods and Associates.
69. CitationCastells, The Information Age, 210.
70. CitationCastells, The Information Age, 210
71. See Waal and Gall, Chechenya, Chapter 7.
72. See Waal and Gall, Chechenya, Chapter 7, 133.
73. CitationChossudovsky, ‘Who is Osama bin Laden?’
74. CitationSevunts, ‘Who's Calling the Shots?’
75. CitationSevunts, ‘Who's Calling the Shots?’
76. Chossudovsky, ‘Who is Osama bin Laden?’
77. Chossudovsky, ‘Who is Osama bin Laden?’
78. Sevunts, ‘Who's Calling the shots?’
79. Citation The European , ‘Mafia Linked to Albania's Collapsed Pyramids’.
80. Chossudovsky, ‘Who is Osama bin Laden?’
81. For obvious reasons, little is known about the Chechen mafia. Chechens are said to still control several big hotels, the second-hand car market, and several drugs rings in Moscow. Waal and Gall, Chechnya, 130.
82. According to Waal and Gall, Chechnya, 26, kidnapping was a constant menace in the nineteenth century. Cossacks, Russian civilians, and even a Georgian princess were held hostage.
83. Citation The Economist , ‘Russia and Chechnya’.
84. They meet in a council called the Mujahideen Military Command Council, (source: http://www.ichkeria.org/a/2001/5/com2805-en105340.html).
85. Communications technology also worked against the commanders. Dudayev was killed in April 1996 by a Russian rocket. He had apparently been talking on his satellite telephone in an open field near the village of Gekhi-Chu when Russian forces intercepted the call and dispatched a warplane to bomb the rebel leader. There are even rumors that the American National Security Agency was involved by passing intelligence to the Russians (CitationMasden, ‘Did NSA Help Russia Target Dudayev?’).
86. CitationDillege and Konynenburg, ‘View from the Wolves' Den’.
87. Sometimes credibility gets dented as in the case of a ‘rebel site’ that was claiming that the Chechens held the Russian General Mikhail Malofeyev captive. Even after Russia announced on 23 January 2000 that it had recovered the dead body of the missing general, the rebel site was still claiming on 25 January that the officer was held in captivity (BBC News, Thursday 16 March 2000, 12:31 GMT).
88. Nowadays the site is devoted to academic writing.
89. Kloos, ‘A Secessionist Movement in an Age of Globalization’.
90. CitationStratfor, ‘The Caucasus Emirate’, part 1.
91. CitationStratfor, ‘The Caucasus Emirate’, part 3.
92. The site of Human Rights Watch presents reliable overviews in text and pictures of war crimes, atrocities, and the situation of the refugees, http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/russia/chechnya/. Even high-ranking military officials have admitted that disproportionate violence is used in operations, violence that does not discriminate between combatants and non-combatants.
93. Filtration camps were used in the first as well as in the second war.
94. CitationUsmanov, War Crimes against Chechnya.
95. Human Rights Watch researchers conduct fact-finding investigations into human rights abuses in all regions of the world. See: http://www.hrw.org/hrw/campaigns/russia/chechnya/.
96. CitationNorwegian Refugee Council, Struggling to Integrate, 6.
97. CitationRosstat
98. CitationInternal Displacement Monitoring Centre, ‘Significant reconstruction in Chechnya’.
99. CitationJego, ‘Welcome to “Ranzanistan”’.
100. CitationJego, ‘Welcome to “Ranzanistan”’