Framing Separatism as Terrorism: Lessons from Kosovo

Abstract

Framing separatism as terrorism presents numerous opportunities for governments facing ethno-nationalist challenges. Namely, such framing allows states to avoid addressing the ethno-nationalist roots of separatist conflicts. This article analyzes incentives and opportunities that terrorism presents for states involved in ethno-nationalist separatist conflicts. The article investigates how the framing dynamics proved to be successful in the cases of the Kurdish and Chechen separatist conflicts. The case of Kosovo is examined as illustrative of a different outcome: the international presence in the Kosovo conflict made it substantially different from the previous cases and served as an intervention in the Serbian framing dynamics.

Notes

1. For the discussion of separatism as an alternative to national unity see Jan Tullberg and Birgitta S. Tullberg, “Separation of Unity? A Model for Solving Ethnic Conflicts,” Politics and the Life Sciences 12(2) (1997), pp. 237–248.

2. See Anthony D. Smith, Theories of Nationalism (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1983).

3. Donald L. Horowitz, “Patterns of Ethnic Separatism,” Comparative Studies in Societies and History 23(2) (1981), p. 166.

4. For the discussion of Horowitz's typology of ethnic groups in conflict see also Donald L. Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985).

5. For the discussion on justifications for secession see Allen Buchanan, “Theories of Secession,” Philosophy and Public Affairs 26(1) (Winter 1997), pp. 31–61.

6. On peaceful versus violent territorial changes see Robert A. Young, “How Do Peaceful Secessions Happen?” Canadian Journal of Political Science 27(4) (December 1994), pp. 773–792; Arie M. Kacowicz, “The Problem of Peaceful Territorial Change,” International Studies Quarterly 38(2) (June 1994), pp. 219–254; Valerie Bunce, Subversive Institutions: The Design and the Destruction of Socialism and the State (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999).

7. Young, “How Do Peaceful Secessions Happen?”

8. See Elise Giuliano, “Secessionism from the Bottom Up: Democratization, Nationalism, and Local Accountability in the Russian Transition,” World Politics 58(2) (2006), pp. 276–310; William R. Ayres and Stephen Saideman, “Is Separatism as Contagious as the Common Cold or as Cancer? Testing the International and Domestic Determinants of Secessionism,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 6(3) (2000), pp. 92–114.

9. Arend Lijphart, “The Power-Sharing Approach,” in Joseph V. Montville, ed., Conflict and Peacemaking in Multiethnic Societies (Massachusetts, Toronto: Lexington Books, 1990), p. 494.

10. Milton J. Esman, An Introduction to Ethnic Conflict (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2004).

11. John McGarry and Brendan O’Leary, “Federation as a Method of Ethnic Conflict Regulation,” in Sid Noel, ed., From Power Sharing to Democracy: Post-Conflict Institutions in Ethnically Divided Societies (Montreal, Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005), pp. 262–296.

12. See Brendan O’Leary, “Debating Consociational Politics: Normative and Explanatory Arguments,” in Sid Noel, ed., From Power Sharing to Democracy: Post-Conflict Institutions in Ethnically Divided Societies (Montreal, Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005), pp. 3–43.

13. For a further discussion on advantages of consociationalism see Charles E. Ehrlich, “Democratic Alternatives to Ethnic Conflict: Consociationalism and Neo-Separatism,” Brooklyn Journal of International Law 26(2) (2000), pp. 447–483.

14. See Michael Hechter, “The Dynamics of Secession,” Acta Sociologica 35(4) (1992), pp. 267–283.

15. See Barbara Johnstone, Discourse Analysis (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2002).

16. See Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, “The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice,” Science 211(4481) (1981), pp. 453–458; Jack S. Levy, “An Introduction to Prospect Theory,” Political Psychology 13(2) (1992), pp. 171–186; James N. Druckman and Rose McDermott, “Emotion and the Framing of Risky Choice,” Political Behavior 30 (2008), pp. 297–321.

17. James N. Druckman and Kjersten R. Nelson, “Framing and Deliberation: How Citizens’ Conversations Limit Elite Influence,” American Journal of Political Science 47(4) (October 2003), pp. 729–745.

18. Dennis Chong and James N. Druckman, “Framing Theory,” Annual Review of Political Science 10 (2007), pp. 103–126.

19. Ibid., p. 104.

20. Erving Goffman, Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974).

21. Chong and Druckman, “Framing and Deliberation,” p. 120.

22. Karen Callaghan and Frauke Schnell, “Introduction: Framing Political Issues in American Politics,” in Karen Callaghan and Frauke Schnell, eds., Framing American Politics (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005).

23. See Anne L. Schneider and Helen Ingram, Policy Design for Democracy (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997).

24. Ibid., p. 106.

25. Robert M. Entman, “Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm,” Journal of Communication 43(4) (1993), pp. 51–58.

26. Ibid., p. 55.

27. See Martha Crenshaw, “The Psychology of Terrorism: An Agenda for the 21st Century,” Political Psychology 21(2) (2000), pp. 405–420; Jason Franks, Rethinking the Roots of Terrorism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006); Richard Jackson, Writing the War on Terrorism: Language, Politics and Counter-Terrorism (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005).

28. For the discussion on the expanding definition of terrorism see Ronald D. Crelinsten, “The Discourse and Practice of Counter-Terrorism in Liberal Democracies,” Australian Journal of Politics and History 44(1) (1998), pp. 389–413; Boaz Ganor, The Counter-Terrorist Puzzle: A Guide for Decision Makers (New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers, 2005).

29. For the discussion of harsh measures against terrorism see Robert E. Goodin, What's Wrong with Terrorism? (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2006); Caleb Carr, “Terrorism as Warfare: The Lessons of Military History,” World Policy Journal 13(4) (1996/97), pp. 1–12; Alan M. Dershowitz, Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002).

30. See Brian Glyn Williams, “From ‘Secessionist Rebels’ to ‘Al-Qaeda Shock Brigades’: Assessing Russia's Efforts to Extend the Post-September 11th War on Terror to Chechnya,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 24(1) (2004), pp. 197–209.

31. Anna Petrova, Anatoly Chernyakov, Svetlana Klimova, and Yekaterina Yadova, “O Vvode Rossiiskih Voisk v Chchnyu” [On Engaging the Russian Military in Chechnya], Vserossiiskiye Oprosi Gorodskogo I Selskogo Naselenya (8 October 1999). Available at http://bd.fom.ru/report/cat/societas/Chechnya/truck_war/of19994001

32. W. Kip Viscusi and Richard J. Zeckhauser, “Sacrificing Civil Liberties to Reduce Terrorism Risks,” Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 26(2/3) (2003), pp. 99–120.

33. See Paul Rogers, Why We're Losing the War on Terror (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2008).

34. Buchanan, “Theories of Secession,” p. 50.

35. Fernando Reinares, “Democratic Regimes, Internal Security Politics, and the Threat of Terrorism,” Australian Journal of Politics and History 44(3) (1998), pp. 351–371.

36. Peter Chalk, “The Response to Terrorism as a Threat to Liberal Democracy,” Australian Journal of Politics and History 44(3) (1998), pp. 373–388.

37. On the creation of the Turkish state see Svante Cornell, “The Kurdish Question in Turkish Politics,” Orbis 45(1) (2001), pp. 31–46; Hugh Poulton, Top Hat, Grey Wolf and Crescent: Turkish Nationalism and the Turkish Republic (New York: New York University Press, 1997); Michael M. Gunter, The Kurds Ascending: The Evolving Solution to the Kurdish Problem in Iraq and Turkey (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).

38. See Cornell, “The Kurdish Question in Turkish Politics”; Michelle Penner Angrist, “Turkey: Roots of the Turkish-Kurdish Conflict and Prospects for Constructive Reform,” in Ugo M. Amoretti and Nancy Bermeo, eds., Federalism and Territorial Cleavages (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), pp. 387–416.

39. See Gulistan Gurbey, “The Kurdish Nationalist Movement in Turkey Since the 1980s,” in Robert Olson, ed., The Kurdish Nationalist Movement in the 1990s: Its Impact on Turkey and the Middle East, (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1996), pp. 9–37.

40. For the discussion of the Kurdish revolts see Nader Entessar, Kurdish Ethnonationalism (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992).

41. See Poulton, Top Hat, Grey Wolf and Crescent.

42. See Cornell, “The Kurdish Question in Turkish Politics.”

43. See Michael M. Gunter, The Kurds and the Future of Turkey (New York: Palgrave Mcmillan, 1997).

44. See Law 2935 State of Emergency Act (1983), published in the Official Gazette on 27 October 1983.

45. See Nur Bilge Criss, “The Nature of PKK Terrorism in Turkey,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 18 (1995), pp. 17–37.

46. See the interview with Abdullah Ocalan in Madrid EL PAIS, “PKK Leader: ‘We Want Spain to Listen to Us” (3 July 1995).

47. Ersel Aydinli, “Between Security and Liberalization: Decoding Turkey's Struggle with the PKK,” Security Dialogue 33(2) (2002), p. 212.

48. Jerusalem Qol Yisra’el, “Ciller Comments on Kurdish Problem,“November 6, 1994.

49. Aydinli, “Between Security and Liberalization.”

50. See Andrew Mango, Turkey and the War on Terror: For Forty Years We Fought Alone (London: Routledge, 2005).

51. See Office of the U.S. Department of State Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Foreign Terrorist Organizations Fact Sheet (Washington DC, 8 April 2008). Available at http://www.state.gov/s/ct/list/

52. For the discussion of the Russo–Chechen history see William Flemming, “The Deportation of the Chechen and Ingush Peoples: A Critical Examination,” in Ben Fowkes, ed., Russia and Chechnia The Permanent Crisis: Essays on Russo-Chechen Relations (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998), pp. 65–86; James Hughes, Chechnya: From Nationalism to Jihad (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007); Anatol Lieven, Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998); Valery A. Tishkov, Chechnya: Life in a War-Torn Society (London: University of California Press, 2004).

53. See Hughes, Chechnya: From Nationalism to Jihad.

54. See Flemming, “The Deportation of the Chechen and Ingush Peoples: A Critical Examination.”

55. See Tomila V. Lankina, Governing the Locals: Local Self-Government and Ethnic Mobilization in Russia (Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004).

56. On the discussion of the possibility of further ethno-nationalist fragmentation see Henry Hale, “The Makeup and Breakup of Ethnofederal States: Why Russia Survives Where the USSR Fell,” Perspectives on Politics 3(1) (March 2005), pp. 55–70; Steven Solnick, “Will Russia Survive? Center and Periphery in the Russian Federation,” in Barnett Rubin and Jack Snyder, eds., Post-Soviet Political Order: Conflict and State-Building (London: Routledge, 1998), pp. 58–80; Daniel Treisman, “Fiscal Redistribution in a Fragile Federation: Moscow and the Regions in 1994,” British Journal of Political Science 28 (January 1998), pp. 185–209.

57. For the discussion of the first Russo–Chechen war of 1994–1996 see Anatolii Kulikov and Sergei Lembik, Chechenskii Uzel: Khronika Vooruzhennogo Konflikta 1994–1996 gg [The Chechen Knot: Chronicles of the Armed Conflict of 1994–1996] (Moscow: Dom Pedagogiki, 2000).

58. See Williams, “From ‘Secessionist Rebels’ to ‘Al-Qaeda Shock Brigades.’“

59. See Hughes, Chechnya: From Nationalism to Jihad.

60. For the discussion on Chechen terrorism see Paul J. Murphy, The Wolves of Islam: Russia and the Faces of Chechen Terror (Washington, DC: Brassey's, 2004); John B. Dunlop, The 2002 Dubrovka and 2004 Beslan Hostage Crises: A Critique of Russian Counter-Terrorism (Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag, 2002).

61. See Williams, “From ‘Secessionist Rebels’ to ‘Al-Qaeda Shock Brigades.’”

62. See Vladimir Putin, Opening Speech at a Security Council Meeting on the North Caucasian Counter-terrorist Operation and Measures to help Chechnya's Transition to Peacetime (Moscow: Kremlin, February 25, 2000). Available at http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2000/02/25/0000_type82912type82913_124099.shtml

63. See Vladimir Putin, Press Statement on Arrival in Grozny (Grozny: Severni Airport, 20 March 2000). Available at http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2000/03/20/1511_type82912type82915_134546.shtml

64. See Vladimir Putin, Statement Concerning Violation of Human Rights in the Course of the Counterterrorist Operation in the North Caucasus (Moscow: Kremlin, 13 April 2000). Available at http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2000/04/13/0000_type82912_122397.shtml

65. Stephen J. Blank, “Putin's Twelve-Step Program,” Washington Quarterly 25(1) (Winter 2002), p. 149.

66. See John O’Loughlin, Gearoid O Tuathail, and Vladimir Kolossov, “Russian Geopolitical Storylines and Public Opinion in the Wake of 9–11: A Critical Geopolitical Analysis and National Survey,” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 37(3) (January 2004), pp. 281–318.

67. Vladimir Putin, Statement on Terrorist Attacks in the USA (Moscow: Kremlin, 11 September 2001). Available at http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2001/09/11/0003_type82912_138531.shtml

68. George W. Bush, “Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions with Persons Who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism,” Executive Order 13224 (Washington, DC: White House, September 23, 2001). Available at http://www.state.gov/s/ct/list/

69. Vladimir Putin, Address by President Vladimir Putin (Moscow: Kremlin, 4 September 2004). Available at http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2004/09/04/1958_type82912_76332.shtml

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71. See Miranda Vickers, Between Serb and Albanian: A History of Kosovo (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).

72. Ibid., p. 25.

73. For the discussion of periods in the Serb-Albanian relations see Miranda Vickers, “Kosovo, the Illusive State,” in William J. Buckley, ed., Kosovo: Contending Voices on Balkan Interventions (Grand Rapids, MI: Williams B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000), pp. 97–100.

74. See The Independent International Commission on Kosovo, The Kosovo Report: Conflict, International Response, Lessons Learned (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

75. See Frances Trix, “Kosovar Albanians Between a Rock and a Hard Place,” in Sabrina P. Ramet and Vjeran Pavlakovic, eds., Serbia Since 1989: Politics and Society Under Milosevic and After, (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2005), pp. 309–349.

76. See The Independent International Commission on Kosovo, The Kosovo Report.

77. For the history of the KLA see Henry H. Perritt Jr., Kosovo Liberation Army: The Inside Story of an Insurgency (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008).

78. See Trix, “Kosovar Albanians Between a Rock and a Hard Place.”

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80. See The Independent International Commission on Kosovo, The Kosovo Report, p. 53.

81. BBC Monitoring Europe, Yugoslavia Urges International Condemnation of Kosovo Rebels (29 December 1998).

82. See Vickers, Between Serb and Albanian.

83. See Misha Glenny, The Balkans: Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804–1999 (New York: Penguin Books, 1999).

84. Oana Lungescu, The KLA: A Dilemma for the West (BBC World: Europe, 30 June 1998).

85. Ibid.

86. United Nations, Resolution 1160 (Adopted by the Security Council at its 3868th meeting, on 31 March 1998).

87. United Nations, Resolution 1199 (Adopted by the Security Council at its 3930th meeting, on 23 September 1998).

88. Marc Weller, “The Rambouillet Conference on Kosovo,” International Affairs 75(2) (1999), p. 227.

89. See Karmen Erjavec and Zala Volcic, “‘War on Terrorism; as a Discursive Battleground: Serbian Recontextualization of G.W. Bush's Discourse,” Discourse and Society 18(2) (2007), pp. 123–137.