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.
Zarys treści: Artykuł analizuje "pomniki smutku" w konfl iktach gruzińskich. Przedstawiono ogólny opis sytuacji ukazujący główny trend, w którym pomniki pogłębiają granice między społeczeństwami dotkniętymi konfl iktami. Zajmuje to ważne miejsce w tworzeniu stereotypów zachowań w okresach przedkonfl iktowych, konfl iktowych i pokonfl iktowych. Jednocześnie pokazano potencjał "pomników smutku" jako elementów budowania pokoju. Outline of contents: Th e article analyzes "monuments of sorrow" in Georgian confl icts. Th e work presents a general description of the situation revealing the main trend, in which monuments are intended to deepen the dividing lines in societies aff ected by confl ict. Th is practice occupies an important place in the formation of stereotypes of behavior in the periods immediately before, during, and aft er the confl ict. At the same time, the article emphasises the potential of "monuments of sorrow" as elements of peacebuilding. Słowa kluczowe: polityka pamięci, konfl ikty w Gruzji, pomniki wspólnego smutku, architektura pokoju.
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).As part of the study, the task was to assess those political technologies that were not used in the process of resolving the Abkhazian conflict. The study identified that such a peacemaking resource as the recognition by the conflicting parties of “common threats” and the consolidation of common efforts to prevent or eliminate them, was not used to an adequate extent. Based on this, the Concept of Awareness of the Common Threat System (CACTS) were formulated and presented as a methodological basis for reinforcing the Security Community Theory created by Karl Deutsch.CACTS was described in the article “Abkhazian crisis: from the Concept of Awareness of Common Threats to the Building of an “Abkhazian Security Community”” published in the Scientific and Theoretical Almanac "Grani", Volume 23 №3, 2020.As a basis for creating an initial level of trust between the parties to the conflict, we take their policy of recognizing the system of common threats and identifying ourselves (and each other) with possible victims of these threats. The level of trust can grow as both parties gain satisfaction from the process of cooperation.In this article, which is the second of a series of articles devoted to the recognition of common threats and the construction of a security community by the parties to the conflict, we present one of the practical possibilities for strengthening the modeling process of a new multidimensional peacemaking format.In particular, this is the development of cooperation between the participants in the Abkhazian political crisis to reduce nuclear and radioactive threats. The research drew attention not only to physical, but also to psychological dangers posed by nuclear and radiation threats. Based on the analysis, a number of specific initiatives were identified for the possible development of cooperation between participants in the multidimensional Abkhazian political crisis.Particular attention in the article is paid to the role of scientific diplomacy in the positive transformation of the crisis and the integration into the peacemaking process representatives of natural sciences, in particular physicists, power engineers and ecologists.As one of the resources of the peace process, the prospects of cooperation between civil society institutions expressing the interests of victims of nuclear and radiation disasters from different sides of the conflict community are considered.The article focuses on the creation of common approaches on energy policy for the countries of the Caucasus region, especially, regarding nuclear energy. Despite the fact that the initiative is aimed at resolving the Abkhazian conflict, the measures to bring the parties closer, presented in the framework of this project, could positively affect the development of the level of trust in other conflicts of the post-Soviet space.The work is based on a holistic approach, which involves revising the reductionist approach that dominates the scientific and political discourses, distorting the real picture of the conflict and reducing its image to the quasi-scientific concept of the “Abkhaz-Georgian” resolution. Our vision of the complex and multidimensional structure of the Abkhazian political crisis is given in the first article of the mentioned cycle.The structure of this article consists of three main parts.The first part of the article is an introduction, which presents the idea of anti-nuclear and anti-radiation consolidation of participants in the Abkhazian political crisis on the basis of the Concept of Awareness of the Common Threat System (CACTS) and the concept of Karl Deutsch, adapted for the Abkhazian Security Community (ASB). One of the CACTS subsystems (in this article) is nuclear, radiation, and related to them information-psychological threats.The second part of the article presents an analysis of the situation associated with nuclear, radiation, information and psychological threats. This analysis aims to demonstrate the importance of the topic under consideration and the variety of real threats.Nuclear threats. The authors divide them into threats of a military nature, as well as threats associated with the construction, operation, conservation and liquidation of reactors and other nuclear facilities.Radiation threats. Statistics of incidents related to illegal operations in the transportation/sale of radiation/radioactive substances based on open sources are proposed. Examples of threats associated with the illicit trade of irradiated food products are given.Information and psychological threats. When considering information and psychological threats related to nuclear and radiation threats, special attention is paid to such a question as hiding of reliable information from citizens or manipulating information, which is the basis for the formation of distrust towards one’s own state and the psychosomatic problems arising from this.The third part of the article offers a model of a fragment of the peacemaking process to resolve the Abkhazian political crisis, in which a component is involved that includes a discussion of (CACTS) on nuclear and radiation safety and the construction of the Abkhazian Security Community as a subsystem of the Caucasian and Black Sea-Caspian Sea Security Community.
The main goal of this study is to search for new effective mechanisms to assist in preventing the internationalisation of armed conflicts using conventional weapons and the creation of more weapons of mass destruction in the geostrategic region, the Greater Black Sea Region, which includes the countries of the "Five Seas" (Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Arabian Sea, and Mediterranean Sea), positive transformation of conflicts and the creation of a "Black Sea Security Community". The methodological approach taken is based on the theory of meta-cognitive management, which implies a qualitative expansion of the dimensions for solving those problems that are unsolvable in the dimensions given today; a holistic approach focused on the multi-level and democratic participation of all participants in the process; and the method of geopolitical modelling being applied to discuss new forms and platforms for cooperation between those involved in confrontation in the Black Sea space. Innovation represents a return to the concept of syncretism in the scientific discourse for describing political and geopolitical tasks. The idea of creating a syncretic meta-model of Black Sea security is one way to improve cooperation between parties that have incompatible positions but are aware of common threats and the need to prevent them. Measures need to be taken for the countries of the Five Sea region to be fully integrated into the process and a new architecture created for the Black Sea Security Community. Scientific support is also necessary for the planning and implementation of peacekeeping processes in the Greater Black Sea Region.
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