North Caucasus: views from within
People's perspectives on peace and security
This research focuses on issues of social difference, such as ethnicity, religion, generational difference and migration, and the challenges arising from these. It considers local perspectives on these challenges; how people seek to address them; and what they consider needs to be done to resolve them. It involved the collaboration of international and Russian experts, including researchers from the North Caucasus, and institutional partnership between the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Saferworld. The work focused on five republics in the North Caucasus: Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Dagestan, and Kabardino-Balkaria.
Our research shows that social and political conditions for people on the ground – particularly for youth, who feel excluded from both economic and political life – do little to defend society against the influence of ideological extremism. More engagement with the problems affecting young people, and improved governance, including in the security and justice sectors, can help build resilience to violence.
The English version of the report is titled, The North Caucasus: views from within People’s Perspectives on Peace and Security. In addition to the main report, the five case studies from the individual republics are also available online.
The Russian version is titled The North Caucasus: views from within - Challenges and problems for social and political development. The five republic case studies are included within the report.
A policy brief on the research is also available.
The research forms part of the EU-funded People’s Peacemaking Perspectives project.
“When perestroika and glasnost gave vent to ethnically-inspired grievances in the late 1980s, long-suppressed issues of contention between different Caucasian nationalities came out. Remarkably little has been resolved since the time of the Soviet breakup, and the same agendas reappear [...] as well as [issues of ]modern politics, such as access to government positions, distribution of federal subsidies and business opportunities.”
'The North Caucasus: views from within'
