Dagestan: Russian Hegemony And Islamic Resistance In The North Caucasus

Manufacturer

M.e. Sharpe

The book "Dagestan: Russian Hegemony And Islamic Resistance In The North Caucasus" discusses the ongoing struggle for power between Moscow and Islamic groups in the republic of Dagestan, a majority Muslim region in southern Russia. The authors, experts on Dagestan, provide a comprehensive analysis of the region's history, geography, and current political and social dynamics. They highlight the unique system of power relations among ethnic groups and with Moscow, which has been disrupted by the wars in neighboring Chechnya, recruitment efforts by Wahhabi and Islamist groups, and Moscow's efforts to reassert control. The authors also discuss factors such as underdevelopment, high birthrates, and the presence of transiting pipelines that contribute to the volatile situation in Dagestan. Drawing on decades of research, the book offers a unique perspective on the clash of civilizations taking place in the Caucasus region.

Like other majority Muslim regions of the former Soviet Union, the republic of Dagestan, on Russia's southern frontier, has become contested territory in a hegemonic competition between Moscow and resurgent Islam. In this authoritative book the leading experts on Dagestan provide a path breaking study of this volatile state far from the world's gaze. The largest and most populous of the North Caucasian republics, bordered on the west by Chechnya and on the east by the Caspian Sea, Dagastan is almost completely mountainous. With no majority nationality, the republic developed a distinctive system of calibrated power relations among ethnic groups and with Moscow, a system that has been undermined by the spillover of the wars in Chechnya, Wahhabi and Islamist recruiting efforts targeting youth, and Moscow's reassertion of the 'power vertical'. Underdevelopment, high birthrates, transiting pipelines, and the rising incidence of terrorist violence and assassinations add to the explosive potential of the region. Authors Ware and Kisriev combine analysis of the dynamics of domination and resistance, and the distinctive forms of social organization characteristic of mountain societies that may be applicable to other areas such as Afghanistan. They draw on decades of field research, interviews, and data to offer unique perspective on the civilizational collision course under way in the Caucasus today.