Summer School 2009
The summer school Conflict and Transformation in the South Caucasus: State Building between Naitonal Identity and Europeanization, which took place from 6 to 10 October 2009 in Bakuriani, Georgia, focused on central questions revolving around the political and social transformation processes of the countries of the South Caucasus.
The summer school was geared towards up-and coming young scientists form the South Caucasus as future opinion makers and decision-makers of the region. Assuming a mediating function between state institutions, international actors and societal organizations they play a key role in the transformation process and conflict management in the region. The main objective of the summer school was to bring together empirical findings and fieldwork in the societies and politics of the South Caucasus with broader theoretical frameworks and comparable research from other regions. The summer school brought together twenty participants from academia but also from the NGO sector with experts from the region as well as from Germany, Russia and the Netherlands.
The event was jointly organized by the Institute of Political Science/Chair in International Relations and Development Policy and the Institute for Development and Peace (INEF) as well as the Regional Office South Caucasus of the Heinrich Boell Foundation. It was funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), within the program on "Conflict Prevention in the South Caucasus, Central Asia and Moldova".
Program 2009
Conflicts in the South Caucasus have often been labeled as “frozen conflicts”. They have contracted due to their durable “non-settlement”. Within grey zones of inexistent or weak statehood, “vested interests” have been generated at a local and regional level, which are more interested in the continuation of the conflict than in a constructive solution. Political and social transformation is either blocked or deficient. State building remains a fragile process, in which the significant question of national identity is continuously exploited and monopolized by interest groups. This is even more problematic with view to the fact that the state assumes a key role in the interplay with important social actors concerning the management of conflicts and tensions.
A functioning statehood could hence not only contribute to the solution of ethno-national conflicts, but also induce the transformation of conflict potentials within society, which, for example, become apparent in social disparities and the marginalization of refugees or dissidents.
To embrace the characteristics and inner dynamics of “frozen conflicts”, peace, conflict and transition studies have to interlock. Thereby ethnicity is not considered as the reason of the conflict, but as a mobilizing category and source of legitimacy for the use of non-civilian instruments. An alternative is offered by the consolidation of statehood and the development of a nation based on citizenship. Here, Europe constitutes a central framework of reference. Presumably the “frozen conflicts” will only be transformed, if they can be imbedded in the changed normative and political context.
The summer school primarily aimed at imparting methodical, theoretical and empirical knowledge in the above subject areas but also individual practical trainings took place in order to test the concrete implementation of the theoretical concepts and to acquaint the participants with the practical skills of crisis prevention and conflict management.
Altogether, the following five subject areas were covered:
- Methods of social sciences, with main emphasis on comparative and regional studies
- National identity and social transformation
- Political transformation and state building
- Conflict and conflict management (including a practical training)
- The Caucasus and Europe(an integration)
Staff
- Prof. Dr. Tobias Debiel, University of Duisburg-Essen
- Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wim van Meurs, Institute for Development and Peace (INEF), University of Duisburg-Essen; Radboud University Nijmegen
- Prof. Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Axt, University of Duisburg-Essen
- Dr. Iris Kempe, Heinrich Böll Foundation
- Levan Gigineishvili, Ilia Chavchavadze State University, Tbilisi
- Malkhaz Saldadze, Ilia Chavchavadze State University, Tbilisi
- Paata Zakareishvili, Center for Development and Cooperation, Tbilisi
- Dr. Sergey Rumyansev, Scientific Institute for Philosophy, Politics and Law, Baku
- Dr. Alexander Iskandaryan, Caucasus Institute, Yerevan
- Dr. Viktor Voronkov, Centre for Independent Social Research, St. Petersburg
- PD Dr. Barbara Christophe, European Univesity Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder
- PD Dr. Ingrid Oswald, Humboldt University, Berlin
- Dr. Andrea Gawrich, University of Kiel
- Giorgi Gvakharia, Theatre and Film University, Tbilisi
- Badri Kochoradze, PhD, Institute for European Studies, Tbilisi
- Marietta König, Institute for Peace Research and Security Studies, Hamburg
- Dr. Gayane Shagoyan, Institute for Archaeology and Anthropology, Yerevan
- Prof. Dr. Lado Vardosanidze, International Georgian Technical University, Tbilisi