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Abstract
The conflict-prone peninsula of Crimea is again—since its annexation—the theatre of new conflict scenarios. When it comes to understanding the de-escalation and increasing potential of complex hybrid conflicts, theories in international relations are too often trapped in their state-centred perspective. Meanwhile, the role of the individual actor, alone or organised, often remains underestimated as political and moral agent. In this essay, I shed light on a critical yet politically practicable individual-centring notion of cosmopolitanism, which is framed by a set of universal principles and provides alternative insights to conflict de-escalation scenarios in Crimea beyond limiting state-centric paradigms.
Notes
1 When Critical Theory is capitalised, it refers to all post-positivist theories that include the narrowly defined Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School. When I refer to IR theory, I mean critical international theory, whose proponents I call critical international theorists. I regard constructivism as an outgrowth of Critical Theory, so when I am not speaking of constructivism explicitly, I call both theories ‘critical theories’. Likewise, when referring only to scholars of constructivism, I talk about constructivists, but when both are meant I refer to critical theorists.
2 A definition of political conflict is available in ‘Conflict Barometer 2016’, p. 6, available at: https://hiik.de/konfliktbarometer/bisherige-ausgaben/, accessed 27 December 2017.
3 Problem-solving refers to the more ambitious intention to focus on creative win–win outcomes where parties are invited to reconceptualise the conflict (Ramsbotham et al. Citation2011, p. 32).
4 For an overview of internal conflicts see ‘Conflict Barometer 2016’, p. 16, available at: http://hiik.de/en/konfliktbarometer/pdf/ConflictBarometer_2016.pdf, accessed 21 December 2017.
5 Cosmopolitan landmarks date back to the Cynics of the fourth century BC (Diogenes of Sinope) and the Roman Stoics (Seneca), followed by the sixteenth-century debate led by Francisco de Vitoria over the question of rights for indigenous people, Hobbes’ and Spinoza's early modern contractual reflections, and eventually Kant's suggestions in Perpetual Peace (1795).
6 In A Theory of Justice (1971), Rawls’ first principle of justice is: ‘Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive scheme of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar scheme of liberties for others’. His second principle, the difference principle of justice, is: ‘Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both: (a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged; and (b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity’ (Rawls Citation1971, p. 302).
7 From the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 to 2006, self-determination was the heart of the matter in 34 new armed conflicts (Archibugi Citation2008, Table 9.1, p. 227).
8 This perception is shaped by what is commonly theorised as the ‘capability approach’. Developed since 1979 by Amartya Sen (Citation1987, Citation1992) and advanced by Martha Nussbaum (Citation2000, p. 84), the capability approach epitomises the quality of not limiting justice to the equal distribution of basic means, but rather to what individuals gain with those means (Sen Citation1987, p. 36).
9 Memorandum on Security Assurances in Connection with Ukraine's Accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, 1994, available at: http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s_1994_1399.pdf, accessed 21 January 2018.
10 The estimated population of 265,985 Crimean Tatars is provided by: The Integration of Formerly Deported People in Crimea, Ukraine: Need Assessment, August 2013, p. 3, available at: http://www.osce.org/hcnm/104309?download=true, accessed 27 December 2017.
11 The bulletin is available at: ‘Krymskaya avtonomiya 23 goda spustya: kak sberegli mir i ne pustili v dom voinu’, available at: http://www.kianews.com.ua/page/krymskaya-avtonomiya-23-goda-spustya-kak-sberegli-mir-i-ne-pustili-v-dom-voynu, sixth picture from top, accessed 21 January 2018. Gorbachev's New Union Treaty (Treaty Alliance) proposed to re-federalise the Soviet Union in order to make secession constitutionally impossible (Sasse Citation2007, p. 134).
12 The weeks between 23 February and 19 March 2014 saw the killings of two pro-Russian protesters and one pro-Ukrainian protester, as well as a Ukrainian naval officer, a serviceman and a Crimean self-defence officer, see, ‘Zverski ubitogo tatarina zvali Reshat Ametov troe maloletnikh detei osiroteli’, 18 March 2014, available at: http://censor.net.ua/news/276351/zverski_ubitogo_krymskogo_tatarina_zvali_reshat_ametov_troe_maloletnih_deteyi_osiroteli_foto; ‘Russian Marine Kills Ukraine Navy Officer in Crimea, says Ministry’, Reuters, 7 April 2014, available at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/07/us-ukraine-crisis-military-idUSBREA360GB20140407, accessed 7 January 2018.
13 In essence, Putin sought to strike a balance between Russia's interests and those of the West, using ‘bandwagoning’ as a realist principle at least until the Iraq invasion in 2003. Thereafter, Putin proved to be an old-school apparatchik who never lost his scepticism about the West. He was and is a realist and revanchist, willing to redraw boundaries within the former Soviet Union's ‘sphere of influence’.
14 ‘Thematic Report: Freedom of Movement across the Administrative Boundary Line with Crimea’, Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, 19 June 2015, pp. 3, 6, 9, available at: http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/165691?download=true, accessed 15 January 2018.
15 ‘The Integration of Formerly Deported People in Crimea, Ukraine’, OSCE Needs Assessments, August 2013, pp. 11–3, available at: https://www.osce.org/hcnm/104309?download=true, accessed 14 January 2018.
16 The original text of the law on resettlement is available at: https://zakon3.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/997_090, Article 3, accessed 26 December 2017.
17 Law on Ukrainian Citizenship, 2001, available at: www.legislationline.org/documents/action/popup/id/7179, accessed 26 December 2017.
18 Rights in Retreat: Abuses in Crimea, 2014, available at: www.hrw.org/ru/node/130593/section/5, accessed 16 January 2018.
19 ‘General Information about Mejis’, Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People official website, 2011, available at: http://qtmm.org/en/general-information-about-mejlis, accessed 15 January 2018.
20 Thematic Report: Freedom of Movement across the Administrative Boundary Line with Crimea, Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, 19 June 2015, available at: http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/165691?download=true, pp. 3, 6, 9, accessed 15 January 2018.
21 ‘U krymskikh tatar—osoboe mnenie’, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 13 March 2014, available at: http://www.ng.ru/cis/2014-03-13/1_tatary.html, accessed 8 January 2018. The video interview of the phone call with Putin and a transcript of the interview in Russian with TV Rain from 12 March 2014 are available at: http://m.tvrain.ru/teleshow/intervju/kto_vam_skazal_chto_nas_nado_zaschischat_mustafa_dzhemilev_o_besede_s_vladimirom_putinym-364892/, accessed 8 January 2018.
22 Pitkin identifies four different views of representation: formalistic representation to authorisation—the means a representative has obtained through a position and accountability, and the ability to punish representatives for failing to act in their position; symbolic representation, which stands for how representatives represent their constituencies and what their representation means; descriptive representation, the extent of those being represented; and substantive representation, which is the activity of a representative, to be an agent of and substitute for the represented (Dovi Citation2006).
23 In 1991 the Crimean population was about 67% ethnic Russian, 26% mainly Russian-speaking ethnic Ukrainians and 7% other minorities. In the 1991 national referendum, 54% of voters in Crimea favoured Ukrainian independence (Drohobycky Citation1995, p. xxvii).
24 ‘General Information about Qurultay’, 2011, available at: http://qtmm.org/en/general-information-about-qurultay, accessed 14 January 2018.
25 Recent contributions to the debate distinguish between models of deliberative or discursive politics. In the literature, however, usage of the term deliberative indicates that its dialogical aspect is so central that the two terms are practically interchangeable (Steiner et al. Citation2004, p. 16).
26 Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements, 12 February 2015, available at: https://peacemaker.un.org/ukraine-minsk-implementation15, accessed 21 January 2018.
27 Implementing the Responsibility to Protect: Report of the Secretary General, 12 January 2009, pp. 7–8, available at: http://responsibilitytoprotect.org/implementing%20the%20rtop.pdf, accessed 21 January 2018.
28 See interview with Mustafa Dzhemilev: ‘Who Speaks for Crimea's Tatars?’, Foreign Policy, 31 March 2014, available at: https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/03/31/who-speaks-for-crimeas-tatars/, accessed 24 January 2018.
29 For civilian casualties see, ‘Report on the Human Rights Situation in Ukraine 16 November 2015 to 15 February 2016’, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, p. 7, available at: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/UA/Ukraine_13th_HRMMU_Report_3March2016.pdf, accessed 24 January 2018; ‘Report on the Human Rights Situation in Ukraine 16 May to 15 August 2019’, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, p. 7, available at: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/UA/ReportUkraine16May-15Aug2019_EN.pdf, accessed 7 October 2019. For the total amount of casualties see: ‘Donbas War Death Toll Rises up to Nearly 13,000—UN’, UNIAN, 22 January 2019, available at: https://www.unian.info/war/10416549-donbas-war-death-toll-rises-up-to-nearly-13-000-un.html?fbclid=IwAR20xApszT6YtF0GHfrZ_iQvxSJVIurGyK_lLsIe9BI8NWd8bN3yvOT-FNk, accessed 7 October 2019.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Marc Dietrich
Marc Dietrich, European Union Advisory Mission to Ukraine—PCCD, 4 V, Volodymyrskyi Uzviz, Kyiv 01001, Ukraine. Email: [email protected]