JOB- Central Asia & Caucasus Research Project, Freie Univ. Berlin

Position Opening

The Institute for East European Studies and the Institute for Ethnology and
Social Anthropology at the Freie Universitaet Berlin plan to offer three PhD
research positions in the core-group of the project "Accounting for
State-building, Stability & Violent Conflict:  the Institutional Framework
of Caucasian and Central Asian Transitional Societies".

The aim of the project is to arrive at a comparative analysis of (official
and informal) institutions in Central Asia and the Caucasus and of their
capacity to control, prevent or promote conflict.

The comparative analysis will draw on case studies prepared by PhD students
in cooperation with local researchers during extensive fieldwork in the
first stage of the project. The project is financed by the VW-foundation
over a period of three years. Compensation will be based on the German
standard MTV II a/2 for two positions. The remaining position will be a PhD
grant.

The ideal applicant would
-        be ready to define the subject of his/her PhD thesis in accordance
with the research-agenda and theoretical framework of the project;
-        be enthusiastic about working in and on the project's target
regions: North Caucasus, South Caucasus, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kirgistan,
Kazakhstan
-        be enthusiastic about working towards innovative and shared results
in an interdisciplinary and multinational research-team;
-        be experienced in fieldwork and the methods of empirical social
science;
-        be responsible and self-supportive in the field, but also be a team
player;
-        have managerial skills (supervision of local researchers in the
field);
-        have excellent command of English oral and written, good knowledge
of Russian or at least working knowledge of one more language spoken in the
region.

Inquiries regarding applications should be submitted no later than
01.06.2002 to
Dr. Christoph Zurcher at:
[email protected]
and Jan Koehler at:
[email protected]

The positions will begin in Autumn 2002.
 For further information please consult
 http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~jkoehler/Index.htm


Short description of the project:

This comparative, cross-societal project explores the conditions for success
and failure in defusing the potential for conflict in the Caucasian and
Central Asian societies. The analysis is placed within the context of
successful / failed state-building. The analysis begins with the assumption
that weak states with low capacities and scarce provision of public goods
serve as a breeding ground for violent conflict. Such conflict, on the other
hand, is often a means to establish regime stability and may thus serve as a
precondition for state-building.
Regionally, the project focuses on the 19 successor polities that have
emerged in the Caucasus and in Central Asia after the collapse of the Soviet
Union[1] ("the CCA-Societies").

From this sample, the project selects at least case studies from Tajikistan,
Kirgistan, Uzbekistan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Georgia and Northern Caucasus.

Some of these post-socialist societies have successfully managed the
transition and have avoided violence. Others have succeeded in polity
building, but only at the price of conflict and violence. Some of the new
countries have completely failed: they have lost their statehood and
internal violence has become endemic.

Thus, it is not conflict that needs to be explained, rather the different
responses of the various post-socialist societies to the potentials for
conflict that arose after the collapse of the central state.

Methodologically, the project will rely on a multidisciplinary approach,
combining political science, social anthropology and contemporary social
history.

The institutional framework of the successor states will serve as the focal
point in the multidisciplinary approach to analysis. "Institutional
framework" refers to the hybrid of institutions derived from the official
Soviet institutions (the Soviet legacy), from the unofficial institutions
that have emerged as a reaction to the organizational deficits of the Soviet
system (such as black market economy or networks of patronage) and from the
"traditional" institutions that have survived the Soviet system.

By focusing on the institutional framework, the project can depict and
understand the incentive structures of local actors engaged in organising or
defusing violence. Further, through this focus, the project can understand
the micropolitics of local conflict and place them in the wider context of
successful or failed state building.

The project aims at filling a considerable gap in academic writing on the
region. A considerable literature on the region exists, mainly because of
its geopolitical importance and of ongoing interstate rivalries.  Most of
the literature on the Caucasus and on Central Asia, however, stems either
from the field of international relations (with limited local knowledge) or
from the field of regional studies (which lack an understanding of
comparative analyses). The project is founded on the belief that a sound
understanding of the political process in the regions must start at the
societal level and has to be analysed in a comparative approach.

Specifically, the findings of the project will provide valuable insights on
the following: (i) the impact of unofficial, non-state institutions on
conflict escalation and defusion; (ii) the impact of highly
institutionalised networks of patronage; (iii) the conditions for success or
failure of ethnic entrepreneurs in weak post soviet states; (iv) the
state-building capacities of networks of patronage; (v) the impact of the
Soviet institutional legacies for conflict escalation and defusion and (vi)
the organisation of sustained violence in weak states.

To this end, all case studies will closely take into consideration (i) the
heritage of official and unofficial soviet institutions and their capacity
to adapt, (ii) local social institutions that emerged as a result of the
organisational deficits of the state and (iii) newly invented or imported
institutions. Case studies will be investigated through extensive fieldwork
and executed by scholars from both Western Europe and from CCA-Countries.
The project will be one of the few contemporary research projects that will
gather empirical data by means of fieldwork and will not entirely rely on
secondary material.

Data collected in connection with the project will considerably add to
knowledge of the 19 transitional societies and of ongoing conflicts, as well
as contribute to theory building, especially in the realm of conflict
theory. The results of the project will be published in two volumes: one
volume will encompass the case studies, while the second volume will
integrate the results of the case-studies into a theoretical framework on
post-socialist conflicts.

The project will establish and strengthen scientific contacts between
researchers in Germany and in the CCA-Countries, thus strengthening the
academic capacities in both the CCA-Countries and Germany. Workshops,
training sessions, elements of distance learning, jointly-held seminars and
jointly conducted fieldwork will prove highly beneficial for both sides. The
project aims specifically to integrate research results from the
CCA-countries in theory building. Within the framework of the project, at
least four PhD students (which positions are open for applicants from all
countries) will receive training.




[1] For the purpose of this study we define 19 successor polities:
Former Soviet Republics / first order units within the Soviet Union:
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia , Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, Kirgistan
Second order units:
Within Georgia:  Abkhazia, Ajaria, South Ossetia
Within Azerbaijan: Nagorno Karabakh
Within the Russian Federation: Chechnya, Adygeja, Dagestan, Ingushetia,
Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachayevo-Cherkessia and North-Ossetia.