Description
Book Synopsis"The USSRs dissolution resulted in the creation of not only fifteen recognized states but also of four non-recognized statelets: Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Transnistria. Their polities comprise networks with state-like elements. Since the early 1990s, the four pseudo-states have been continously dependent on their sponsor countries (Russia, Armenia), and contesting the territorial integrity of their parental nation-states Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Moldova. In 2014, the outburst of Russia-backed separatism in Eastern Ukraine led to the creation of two more para-states, the Donetsk Peoples Republic (DNR) and the Luhansk Peoples Republic (LNR), whose leaders used the experience of older de facto states. In 2020, this growing network of de facto states counted an overall population of more than 4 million people. The essays collected in this volume address such questions as: How do post-Soviet de facto states survive and continue to grow? Is there anything specific about the political ecology of Eastern Europe that provides secessionism with the possibility to launch state-making processes in spite of international sanctions and counteractions of their parental states? How do secessionist movements become embedded in wider networks of separatism in Eastern and Western Europe? What is the impact of secessionism and war on the parental states? The contributors are Jan Claas Behrends, Petra Colmorgen, Bruno Coppieters, Nataliia Kasianenko, Alice Lackner, Mikhail Minakov, and Gwendolyn Sasse."
Trade ReviewA valuable contribution to the growing study of post-Soviet de facto states and breakaway territories, rich in insights and new information. Thomas de Waal, Carnegie Europe
"This an excellent compilation of insightful analyses on the past, present, and future of secessionist movements and entities in the post-Soviet space. Minakov, Sasse, and Isachenko have assembled an impressive collection of able contributors who offer theoretically grounded and empirically rich studies on a range of different dimensions of post-Soviet secessionism. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the dynamics and implications of secessionist politics."-Stefan Wolff, University of Birmingham
"De facto regimes proliferate globally and demonstrate remarkable resilience. The volume is highly topical, it addresses the legitimacy, politics of recognition and the modus operandi of quasi-states in a comparative, not just additive manner. The authors, all renowned in their field, combine theoretical insight with original empirical research on post-Soviet de facto regimes and beyond. This volume contributes to the renewed scholarly interest in the survivability of de facto regimes."-Andreas Heinemann-Grueder,University of Bonn
