Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper is a preliminary look at the similarities and differences of the insurgencies in Iraq and Chechnay and at the similarities and differences of American and Russian counterinsurgency efforts respectively. It argues that the Russians have some inherent advantages in Chechnya--smaller country in terms of both terrain and population, greater will to fight the war--than the Americans in Iraq. However, Russian counterinsurgency policy, and in particular the over-reliance on force and failure to include Chechens in the local politics, has increased the likelihood of long-term failure. In Iraq, while the Americans have not conducted themselves flawlessly, their more measured use of force and incorporation of a wider swath of Iraqi society into the political scene increases the likelihood of long-term success. The danger for the Americans, however, is in the short-term.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The study of intrastate conflicts has become a hot topic in the post-Cold War period. The rapidly growing IR literature on this theme has developed in relative isolation from the long-standing sociological literature on revolutions. The absence of a dialogue has resulted in an IR literature largely emphasizing societal factors and a sociology literature emphasizing the state. In this paper, I seek to highlight how both literatures can benefit from more a dialogue, and I will do so by empirically assessing how a state-centered theory of revolution can shed light on a contemporary intrastate conflict. My argument is that while it is useful to analyze how the state’s structures and practices influence both the onset and persistence of intrastate conflicts (from the revolutions literature), a full understanding of the state’s role requires an analysis of how the state interacts with societal traits such as inter-regional inequality and ethnic make-up (from the intrastate conflict literature). Empirically, the study focuses on the Chechen wars.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: What previously seemed highly unlikely because of the existing notions of women as victims of war rather than as perpetrators, women are taking a leading role in terrorism by using their bodies as human detonators for the explosive material strapped around their bodies. To complicate the notions of femininity and motherhood, the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) is often disguised under the women's clothing to make her appear as if she is pregnant and thus beyond suspicion or reproach. The advent of women suicide bombers has transformed the revolutionary womb into an exploding one. In the case studies of Sri Lanka and Chechnya, women have risen to the forefront of their organizations by engaging in suicide terrorism. Complicating matters, many of the women who have joined the Black Widows in Chechnya or the Birds of Paradise Unit of the LTTE are themselves victims of rape from the previous iteration of conflict. Thus they express their outrage against the brutal state by becoming martyrs for their organizations' cause. This paper examines the unintended consequences of rape in war and the increasing role played by women as suicide terrorists. It debates the costs and benefits of women's participation in terrorist organizations by using primary source and interview data collected by the author in Sri Lanka when she was a guest of the LTTE in Kilinochi and the Vanni (Rebel controlled territory).

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Since the fall of the Soviet Union,
Chechnya has engaged in a separatist movement from Russia. Throughout
the 1990s, Chechnya regarded their separatist movement as a relatively
successful independence revolution due to their victory in the Chechen
War of 1994-1996. However, since the war on terrorism began, the United
States and Russia have denounced Chechnya as a terrorist state. Russian
President Vladimir Putin has implemented military policies towards the
Chechen separatist movement that has led to the current Russian
occupation of Chechnya in the second Chechen War. Due to the inability
of Chechen Guerilla soldiers to defeat the occupying Russians, Chechnya
has relied on terrorist acts as a last military resort for Chechen
independence. Through a case study analysis of the second Chechen War,
my research suggests that a state evolves into a terrorist state only
after military dominance by an occupying enemy in which the only
defense left is terrorism.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Different views of the conflict and different types of nationalism have evolved in the course of the current conflict in Chechnya. President Yeltsin’s decision to invade Chechnya in 1994 transformed what had begun as moderately popular demands for independence into an armed struggle. Interpretations of the conflict changed after the renewal of hostilities in 1999. Russian leaders increasingly portrayed the war in Chechnya as a war against terrorists. It became a major rationale for President Putin’s concentration of political power and remilitarization of society in Russia. Those Chechen leaders who saw their struggle as allied with a growing global Islamist movement gained influence as they brought in foreign allies. These leaders saw their influence decline with the drift of world attention to Iraq. This interpretation of what the struggle is about sometimes compliments and sometimes competes with more particularistic Chechen nationalist orientations. This case study confirms Fredrik Barth’s contention that boundaries (cultural, linguistic, etc.) and their maintenance are crucial in the evolution of ethnic group identity. Chechen leaders have sometimes changed the boundaries that they emphasize, but boundary markers of some kind continue to be central issues in the conflict. Whatever it’s ultimate outcome the conflict has widely disseminated various nationalist strains of thinking in Chechnya and Russia.