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Papers by Giulia Prelz Oltramonti
ULB Institutional Repository, 2015
This thesis focuses on a key component of societal relations, namely the creation and exploitatio... more This thesis focuses on a key component of societal relations, namely the creation and exploitation of economic leverage. It explores how, in the context of protracted territorial conflicts, relevant actors craft it and use it. Finally, it examines to what ends economic leverage is exploited, if at all. Generally, economic leverage can translate into a considerable form of power. This thesis scrutinizes how this occurs in more specific contexts post-ceasefire agreement conflict protraction, and what the finalities of the actors concerned are. It does so by focusing on a number of relevant actors, and by treating conflict protraction as the specific context in which economic power is exploited. Two cases are examined, namely those of the South Ossetian and the Abkhaz protracted conflicts. This thesis does not focus on the historical conditions and political events that caused the separatist conflicts in Georgia, but on their consequences and on the periods following the ceasefire agre...
ULB Institutional Repository, 2015
This thesis focuses on a key component of societal relations, namely the creation and exploitatio... more This thesis focuses on a key component of societal relations, namely the creation and exploitation of economic leverage. It explores how, in the context of protracted territorial conflicts, relevant actors craft it and use it. Finally, it examines to what ends economic leverage is exploited, if at all. Generally, economic leverage can translate into a considerable form of power. This thesis scrutinizes how this occurs in more specific contexts post-ceasefire agreement conflict protraction, and what the finalities of the actors concerned are. It does so by focusing on a number of relevant actors, and by treating conflict protraction as the specific context in which economic power is exploited. Two cases are examined, namely those of the South Ossetian and the Abkhaz protracted conflicts. This thesis does not focus on the historical conditions and political events that caused the separatist conflicts in Georgia, but on their consequences and on the periods following the ceasefire agre...
It is usually the full-intensity phases of conflicts that draw most scrutiny, and this is true fo... more It is usually the full-intensity phases of conflicts that draw most scrutiny, and this is true for the conflicts of the Caucasus too. Much has been written on the wars that took place in Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the early 1990s, on the two Chechen conflicts, and on the more recent (2008) conflict in Georgia. While a cessation of full-scale hostilities does not necessarily entail the establishment of order and stability, attention fades away. This is why the mechanisms t...
The Caucasus & Globalization, 2012
During 2014–15, the South Caucasus entered a new phase of its post-Soviet development. Georgia’s ... more During 2014–15, the South Caucasus entered a new phase of its post-Soviet development. Georgia’s conclusion of an Association Agreement with the European Union in June 2014 and Armenia’s accession to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union in January 2015 crowned a decade of efforts to engage the South Caucasus with the parallel integration projects.Conflict in the South Caucasus has been an important driver of these integration processes. The 2008 Georgia–Russia war provided a particularly strong impetus both to European Union and Russian efforts to link the South Caucasus to wider regional projects. In 2009, the EU established its Eastern Partnership to strengthen relations with its eastern neighbours, including the states of the South Caucasus. Since Vladimir Putin’s return in 2012 as the Russian president, Eurasian integration has been a priority for Russia. The EEU is seen as the means to establish Russia as an economic and political centre in an emerResolution of the South Cau...
During 2014–15, the South Caucasus entered a new phase of its post-Soviet development. Georgia’s ... more During 2014–15, the South Caucasus entered a new phase of its post-Soviet development. Georgia’s conclusion of an Association Agreement with the European Union in June 2014 and Armenia’s accession to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union in January 2015 crowned a decade of efforts to engage the South Caucasus with the parallel integration projects.Conflict in the South Caucasus has been an important driver of these integration processes. The 2008 Georgia–Russia war provided a particularly strong impetus both to European Union and Russian efforts to link the South Caucasus to wider regional projects. In 2009, the EU established its Eastern Partnership to strengthen relations with its eastern neighbours, including the states of the South Caucasus. Since Vladimir Putin’s return in 2012 as the Russian president, Eurasian integration has been a priority for Russia. The EEU is seen as the means to establish Russia as an economic and political centre in an emerResolution of the South Cau...
Review of the book: Simona E. MERATI. Muslims in Putin’s Russia: Discourse on Identity, Politics... more Review of the book: Simona E. MERATI. Muslims in Putin’s Russia: Discourse on Identity, Politics, and Security. New York, NY: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2017
Review of the book: Simona E. MERATI. Muslims in Putin’s Russia: Discourse on Identity, Politics... more Review of the book: Simona E. MERATI. Muslims in Putin’s Russia: Discourse on Identity, Politics, and Security. New York, NY: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2017
Frontiers in International Relations
This chapter examines the issue of establishing viability for de facto states. It looks into what... more This chapter examines the issue of establishing viability for de facto states. It looks into what it means for a de facto state to be viable; what the interplay is between viability on the one hand, and the need to secure de facto secession, de facto statehood, and internal legitimacy on the other; and how viability is fundamentally linked to the ability of de facto states to establish relationships with the wider world. The latter point, especially, is illustrated by unpacking cases from the Caucasus (Abkhazia and South Ossetia) and the Horn of Africa (Somaliland).
Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology
Connexe : les espaces postcommunistes en question(s)
This article traces the trajectories of Russia’s projection of its external power in its neighbou... more This article traces the trajectories of Russia’s projection of its external power in its neighbourhood through the analysis of its bordering and de-bordering practices. It looks specifically at what happened in Abkhazia between 1993 and 2013, focusing on its role in managing the international border along the Psou River and on its impact on the Georgian-Abkhaz ceasefire line along the Inguri River. It argues that, while the appreciation of borders is often limited to symbols of sovereignty, Russia aptly employed bordering and de-bordering practices as policy tools to expand its clout much further than its national external borders. It also illustrates the importance of the implementation component of border regimes. By looking at macro- and micro- dynamics, as well as underlining the gap between official discourse and practice, this article explicates some of the mechanisms underpinning Russia’s cycles of retreat and expansion in the Caucasus.
ULB Institutional Repository, 2015
This thesis focuses on a key component of societal relations, namely the creation and exploitatio... more This thesis focuses on a key component of societal relations, namely the creation and exploitation of economic leverage. It explores how, in the context of protracted territorial conflicts, relevant actors craft it and use it. Finally, it examines to what ends economic leverage is exploited, if at all. Generally, economic leverage can translate into a considerable form of power. This thesis scrutinizes how this occurs in more specific contexts post-ceasefire agreement conflict protraction, and what the finalities of the actors concerned are. It does so by focusing on a number of relevant actors, and by treating conflict protraction as the specific context in which economic power is exploited. Two cases are examined, namely those of the South Ossetian and the Abkhaz protracted conflicts. This thesis does not focus on the historical conditions and political events that caused the separatist conflicts in Georgia, but on their consequences and on the periods following the ceasefire agre...
ULB Institutional Repository, 2015
This thesis focuses on a key component of societal relations, namely the creation and exploitatio... more This thesis focuses on a key component of societal relations, namely the creation and exploitation of economic leverage. It explores how, in the context of protracted territorial conflicts, relevant actors craft it and use it. Finally, it examines to what ends economic leverage is exploited, if at all. Generally, economic leverage can translate into a considerable form of power. This thesis scrutinizes how this occurs in more specific contexts post-ceasefire agreement conflict protraction, and what the finalities of the actors concerned are. It does so by focusing on a number of relevant actors, and by treating conflict protraction as the specific context in which economic power is exploited. Two cases are examined, namely those of the South Ossetian and the Abkhaz protracted conflicts. This thesis does not focus on the historical conditions and political events that caused the separatist conflicts in Georgia, but on their consequences and on the periods following the ceasefire agre...
It is usually the full-intensity phases of conflicts that draw most scrutiny, and this is true fo... more It is usually the full-intensity phases of conflicts that draw most scrutiny, and this is true for the conflicts of the Caucasus too. Much has been written on the wars that took place in Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the early 1990s, on the two Chechen conflicts, and on the more recent (2008) conflict in Georgia. While a cessation of full-scale hostilities does not necessarily entail the establishment of order and stability, attention fades away. This is why the mechanisms t...
The Caucasus & Globalization, 2012
During 2014–15, the South Caucasus entered a new phase of its post-Soviet development. Georgia’s ... more During 2014–15, the South Caucasus entered a new phase of its post-Soviet development. Georgia’s conclusion of an Association Agreement with the European Union in June 2014 and Armenia’s accession to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union in January 2015 crowned a decade of efforts to engage the South Caucasus with the parallel integration projects.Conflict in the South Caucasus has been an important driver of these integration processes. The 2008 Georgia–Russia war provided a particularly strong impetus both to European Union and Russian efforts to link the South Caucasus to wider regional projects. In 2009, the EU established its Eastern Partnership to strengthen relations with its eastern neighbours, including the states of the South Caucasus. Since Vladimir Putin’s return in 2012 as the Russian president, Eurasian integration has been a priority for Russia. The EEU is seen as the means to establish Russia as an economic and political centre in an emerResolution of the South Cau...
During 2014–15, the South Caucasus entered a new phase of its post-Soviet development. Georgia’s ... more During 2014–15, the South Caucasus entered a new phase of its post-Soviet development. Georgia’s conclusion of an Association Agreement with the European Union in June 2014 and Armenia’s accession to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union in January 2015 crowned a decade of efforts to engage the South Caucasus with the parallel integration projects.Conflict in the South Caucasus has been an important driver of these integration processes. The 2008 Georgia–Russia war provided a particularly strong impetus both to European Union and Russian efforts to link the South Caucasus to wider regional projects. In 2009, the EU established its Eastern Partnership to strengthen relations with its eastern neighbours, including the states of the South Caucasus. Since Vladimir Putin’s return in 2012 as the Russian president, Eurasian integration has been a priority for Russia. The EEU is seen as the means to establish Russia as an economic and political centre in an emerResolution of the South Cau...
Review of the book: Simona E. MERATI. Muslims in Putin’s Russia: Discourse on Identity, Politics... more Review of the book: Simona E. MERATI. Muslims in Putin’s Russia: Discourse on Identity, Politics, and Security. New York, NY: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2017
Review of the book: Simona E. MERATI. Muslims in Putin’s Russia: Discourse on Identity, Politics... more Review of the book: Simona E. MERATI. Muslims in Putin’s Russia: Discourse on Identity, Politics, and Security. New York, NY: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2017
Frontiers in International Relations
This chapter examines the issue of establishing viability for de facto states. It looks into what... more This chapter examines the issue of establishing viability for de facto states. It looks into what it means for a de facto state to be viable; what the interplay is between viability on the one hand, and the need to secure de facto secession, de facto statehood, and internal legitimacy on the other; and how viability is fundamentally linked to the ability of de facto states to establish relationships with the wider world. The latter point, especially, is illustrated by unpacking cases from the Caucasus (Abkhazia and South Ossetia) and the Horn of Africa (Somaliland).
Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology
Connexe : les espaces postcommunistes en question(s)
This article traces the trajectories of Russia’s projection of its external power in its neighbou... more This article traces the trajectories of Russia’s projection of its external power in its neighbourhood through the analysis of its bordering and de-bordering practices. It looks specifically at what happened in Abkhazia between 1993 and 2013, focusing on its role in managing the international border along the Psou River and on its impact on the Georgian-Abkhaz ceasefire line along the Inguri River. It argues that, while the appreciation of borders is often limited to symbols of sovereignty, Russia aptly employed bordering and de-bordering practices as policy tools to expand its clout much further than its national external borders. It also illustrates the importance of the implementation component of border regimes. By looking at macro- and micro- dynamics, as well as underlining the gap between official discourse and practice, this article explicates some of the mechanisms underpinning Russia’s cycles of retreat and expansion in the Caucasus.
Security, Society and the State in the Caucasus, 2019
This chapter looks at the role of war economies in the protraction of conflict in Abkhazia and So... more This chapter looks at the role of war economies in the protraction of conflict in Abkhazia and South Ossetia from the early 1990s to 2008. It mobilizes the existing literature on boundary activation, borderlands, sanctions and the transformation of war economies to map the complexity of the two cases, while relying on extensive fieldwork to elucidate the economies of the Abkhaz and South Ossetian protracted conflicts. As a result, it unveils some of the incentives in increasing or decreasing levels of violence and protracting or ending conflict.
This chapter explores the informal practices of residents of the Romanian Danube Delta, particula... more This chapter explores the informal practices of residents of the Romanian Danube Delta, particularly those connected to the most important local activity, fishing. We show that locals come under the scrutiny of a labyrinth of regulations, designed such that nobody can abide by all of them simultaneously. We argue that this regulatory complexity is the way through which the state controls marginal territories. Dissent is minimized by the possibility of always having one foot in illegality. This adds a new dimension to the scholarship on informality in Romania, bringing the Danube Delta into the debate on the proper relationship between legality, criminality, and informality.
Security by Simona E. Merati is a thorough, well-written account of an extremely multifaceted com... more Security by Simona E. Merati is a thorough, well-written account of an extremely multifaceted community in a composite country. The book opens a door on the often-forgotten complexity that characterizes both Russia and Islam. Not only it contributes to our understanding on the importance of Muslims in today's Russia, but also on Russia's nature and composition, thanks to an analysis of its struggle between integration and rejection of one of its oldest communities. The book is broadly divided in two parts, which complement and support each other. The first part centers on two sets of triangular relationships, namely identity, the community, and the state on the one hand, and Islam, the Church and the Russian state on the other. The second part focuses on a much more widely debated aspect of Islam in Russia, that is security. This order means that the discussion on security is informed by the preceding analysis and de-construction of Islam in today's Russia, as well as its complexity, its contributions to the state, and the synergies with the other actors that surround it. On the basis of this dual structure, the book builds around two components that regularly link back to the debate on the Russian state.
![Research paper thumbnail of Book review: “Aude Merlin and Silvia Serrano (Ed.), Ordres et désordres au Caucase [Orders and Disorders in the Caucasus]”. The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies, Issue 12, 2011](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/37910541/thumbnails/1.jpg)
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