Granì (Mar 2020)
Abkhazian crisis: from the Concept of Awareness of Common Threats to the Building of an "Abkhazian Security Community"
Abstract
This article is part of a research conducted as part of the Support Program for Doctoral Studies of Shota Rustaveli Georgian National Science Foundation.This article is part of a research conducted as part of the Support Program for Doctoral Studies of Shota Rustaveli Georgian National Science Foundation.Name of the research – "Interdisciplinary analysis of the complex system of the Abkhazian conflict by the method 4D-RAV-17" (grant number – PHDF‐18‐1147). The method is a combination of well-known and innovative approaches and techniques. This article is part of the abovementioned research. The complex system of the Abkhazian conflict in this article received a conditional definition – the Abkhazian crisis. The political component of the complex system is accordingly called the Abkhazian political crisis and is the main object of research in the framework of the article.The article is aimed at solving a specific scientific and applied task – at determining a scientifically based method for the positive transformation of the Abkhazian political crisis and the transition to a new level of political order – to the Abkhazian security community.The article considers the possibility of carrying out work on the development and implementation of a new, alternative to the existing, peacemaking process, which can be based on the policy of the transition of the Abkhazian political crisis to a new political order.Consecutive transition tools are the following:• building a model of the structure of the Abkhazian political crisis;• The concept of awareness of common threats;• The concept of the Abkhazian security community.The work can be attributed to the following studies: Abkhazian Studies; Conflicts and Peace Studies, Crisis Studies, Security Studies, Political Studies and International Studies.The practical significance of the work and novelty. As a result of a reflective analysis of the past and existing political and scientific discourse, the absence of holistic research and the dominance of reductionism in the perception and description of the Abkhazian crisis and individual conflicts – its components - were first shown. In scientific works, a mostly complex and multi-component conflict is taken down to a hybrid and scientifically unreasonable formulation – "Georgian-Abkhazian" conflict. This wording also dominates in political discourse and even in international documents.As a result of a thoroughful analysis and synthesis of the information received, for the first time a brief and conditional definition was given to the complex system of the Abkhazian conflict – "Abkhazian crisis".As a result of this research, for the first time, at a scientific level, security threats are considered as a resource for peacemaking and the Concept of awareness of common threats is formulated.Also, for the first time (in the case of the Abkhazian crisis), the well-known Theory of the Security Community for International Relations of Karl Deutsch was proposed. It was adapted to the specifics of this conflict, not only related to the dimension of international relations. The political component of the crisis was classified in the research and a model of the Abkhazian political crisis was proposed, which includes both the domestic and international components of the crisis. The presented definition – "mixed conflict" theoretically resolved the conflict between supporters to define this conflict as "internal, local" and those who consider it "international". This is a useful solution for other political conflicts of the post-Soviet Union space, in particular, for the "Donbas crisis".From a theoretical and practical points of view, attention was drawn to the fact that Security Studies are considered a subsystem of studies in the field of International Studies, which does not allow the effective use of existing scientific achievements in these fields for mixed conflicts.The article proposes specific innovative ideas for implementing these approaches and techniques. This article proposes solutions to the problems of increasing the effectiveness of the peacemaking process. The task itself has an innovative character, since basically researches conducted earlier in this area (around the Abkhazian conflict) is more focused on the Conflicts Studies, rather than Peace Studies. In particular, this concerns the lack of research aimed at studying the effectiveness of peacemaking processes.As a result of formalization of the results obtained, the article presents new political concepts – neologisms, which until now have not been used (or not sufficiently used) in relation to this issue. Among them the following may be outlined: "Abkhazian crisis"; "Mixed conflict", "secessionists of Abkhazia"; "unionists of Abkhazia"; "irredentists of Abkhazia"; "Internationalization of the peacemaking process"; "legitimacy of peacemaking formats"; "democratization of the negotiation process"; "Abkhazian Security Community".As a result of the conducted work, an algorithm of stage-by-stage actions is presented, which can lead to a way out of the crisis and a transition to a new level of management culture and political order. It also provides specific practical recommendations that can be used by the participants in the process.Research on improvement of this model is ongoing, the following articles are being prepared, and negotiations are conducted on implementation with representatives of the participating parties at the expert and political levels.This research may be useful for those interested in the Abkhazian issue, as well as for adapting and using the approaches and techniques described in this article to improve the quality of peacemaking processes to resolve other conflicts and crises.
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