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An Endless War: The Russian-Chechen Conflict in Perspective
Babak Rezvani
Online publication date: 19 May 2011
To cite this Article Rezvani, Babak(2011) 'An Endless War: The Russian-Chechen Conflict in Perspective', Middle Eastern
Studies, 47: 3, 555 — 557
To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/00263206.2011.557898
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00263206.2011.557898
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Middle Eastern Studies,
Vol. 47, No. 3, 555–567, May 2011
Book Reviews
Downloaded By: [Rezvani, Babak] At: 19:33 19 May 2011
An Endless War: The Russian–Chechen Conflict in Perspective
Emil Souleimanov, with a preface by Antol Lieven
Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien, Peter Lang,
Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2007, Pp. 366. e39.20/£29.40/US$43.83,
ISBN 978-3-631-56040-2
The preface to this book is written by Anatol Lieven, the author of Chechnya:
Tombstone of Russian Power, one of the frequently cited books about Chechnya,
who pleads for a better understanding in the West of the Chechen conflict and the
Caucasus in general (p.15). Indeed the Chechen conflict is generally misrepresented
in the Western and non-Western media. The misrepresentation of the Chechen
conflict is in fact not only a misrepresentation of its nature and explanations but also
of factual errors, which cast doubt on the reliability of analyses by respective authors
and journalists. Very disturbing is the fact that the Western scholars, and more so
journalists, have not distinguished fairly between the many parties involved in this
conflict. For them the Chechen ethno-nationalists, traditional Islamic groups, and
Jihadists were almost the same. Since 9/11 the Chechen conflict has been framed in
the ‘war against’ terror narratives. Contributions in which Chechens’ religious and
linguistic affiliations are wrongly mentioned are not rare. A common mistake among
accounts about the Chechen conflict and Chechens in general stems from the lack of
proper understanding of Islam by these authors. They too often believe that Sufism
is another branch of Islam, next to Sunnism and Shi’ism. Whereas the truth is that
Sufism is the mystical dimension of Islam, which can get along or clash with either
Sunnism or Shi’ism. This book by Souleimanov, however, cannot be accused of such
gross mistakes.
Souleimanov has added a glossary to the end of the book (pp.357–60), which is
commendable. However, he makes many mistakes. For example, Zindan (Zendan)
(p.360) does not mean chains in Persian but jail, Ustaz (p.360), or better Ustad/
Ostad, is from Persian not Arabic, and Amanat (p.357) is not Turkic at all but is
simply Arabic.
It is also unfortunate that the author does not present accurately the political
history of the South Caucasus, which is largely irrelevant to this study anyway. For
example, he writes (p.44) that the Caspian west coast had been only ‘formally’ part
of the Safavid empire. It should be noted that not the entire western Caspian sea has
ever been part of the Safavid or any other Iranian empire, but only its south-western
and southern coast, roughly corresponding to the coasts of contemporary Iran and
the republic of Azerbaijan. Moreover, they were not only ‘formally’ but truly and
effectively part of it. The existence of so many constructs built by them is its
evidence. He writes (p.48): ‘by 1828 it [i.e. the Russian empire] had displaced its
ISSN 0026-3206 Print/1743-7881 Online/11/030555-13
DOI: 10.1080/00263206.2011.557898
Downloaded By: [Rezvani, Babak] At: 19:33 19 May 2011
556 Book Reviews
border southwards, right down to the Arax River’. This sentence suggests that
Russia gained these territories from a country called the Caucasus. The author
refrains from mentioning the Russian treaty with Iran called Turkamanchay (1828)
by which Russia’s conquest of (northern) Talysh, Nakhichevan and Yerevan from
Iran was finalized.
Two issues should be addressed in any explanation of the Chechen conflict: the
conditions or factors which are responsible for the outbreak of a violent conflict, and
the timing of the conflict, notably that of the first Chechen war (1994), almost four
years after the Chechen separatist enterprise.
Souleimanov’s book suggests that cultural factors are the main factors which
explain the Chechen conflict. In addition Souleimanov’s descriptive style suggests that
many aspects of the Chechen conflict rely upon contingencies, without offering
political scientific theoretical explanations. Interestingly, according to the author,
many aspects of the Chechen conflict, not necessarily cultural values, stem from older
times. For example, Turkic tribes used to raid the Chechens in order to enslave them
and sell them in Crimean, Golden Horde or Central Asian slave markets (p.19). As a
result the Chechens (and other Caucasians) used to retreat into the mountains.
Mountains were nearly impenetrable for these Turkic tribes and gave the Caucasians a
safe haven, from where they prepared sudden attacks on their enemies in the lowlands.
These tactics were (and are) still in use in their battles against the Soviets and Russians.
Although Souleimanov occasionally mentions the fact that Chechens (and
Caucasians in general) have been able to have a peaceful life (even with Russians),
his emphasis on their ‘culture of violence’ (p.24.), ‘fatalism’ (p.30), ‘blood feuds’
(p.26), the importance of shaving beards and moustaches for peace and conflict in
the Caucasus (p.29), the abduction of women as a Chechen cultural practice (p.38),
‘pillaging and rape’ as an ‘integral part of European warfare’ (p.66), and last but not
least the book’s title, an ‘endless war’ give this book an essentialist nature, and above
all create a misleading image of Chechens and Caucasians, who are generally
hospitable and peaceful people.
Souleimanov’s book suggests implicitly (if not explicitly) that Chechen cultural
values explain the emergence of the Chechen conflict. Chechen values might indeed
have played a role in their resistance against the Russian imperialists. Nevertheless,
Chechen values are similar to those all over the North Caucasus. Other ethnic groups
in the North Caucasus, notably the Avars and the Circassians, have also had a history
of resistance against, and bloodshed caused by, Russians. Nevertheless, it was only
Chechnya that undertook a war of liberation against Russia. Therefore, a purely
culturalist explanation of this conflict does not sufficiently explain its eruption.
Such explanations cannot, in any case, account for the eruption of the Chechen
war in 1994, more or less three years after the declaration of Chechen sovereignty
(1991) and independence (early 1992). Souleimanov connects the Russian invasion of
Chechnya (1994) to oil politics. This argument is advanced by many. It has its own
merits but one can also cast doubts on it, in certain respects. A shift in the Russian
geopolitical orientation from a western towards a Eurasianist one around 1994,
however, is arguably a more accurate reason and deserves further discussion and
attention which is lacking.
Souleimanov’s book is not a systematic analytical study of the Chechen conflict.
Such studies are usually comparative in nature, which this clearly is not. Nevertheless,
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Book Reviews 557
it does offer factual description and discussion of the conflict. Although a political
scientist (International relations), in his analytic discussions Souleimanov relies on the
discussion of facts and rarely frames them in the political scientific concepts;
representing accurate facts rather than giving a dry abstract discussion based on or
framed in theoretical concepts is not necessarily a bad thing. His neglect of political
scientific concepts and theories, and use of secondary (e.g. newspapers and online
articles) rather than either fieldwork or interviews, or systematic analysis of a dataset
is a serious shortcoming however. This book, as a dissertation in the political science,
is weak in theoretical and methodological aspects.
Nevertheless, the book is able to offer valuable, well-documented information on
the course of the Chechen conflict and the rise of Islamic (Wahhabite/Salafi)
militancy in the Caucasus. It refers to many sources of news and information in
different languages. Being born in Yerevan, in the former Soviet Union,
Souleimanov has been able to use many Russian-language sources. The author
should carry on his work in documenting the events and discussing them in a further
volume or a second edition which also covers more recent events. Souleimanov’s An
Endless War: The Russian-Chechen Conflict in Perspective (2007) is recommended to
all scholars of the Caucasus (as well as the Greater Middle East in general), postcommunist world, and conflict studies and geopolitics in general.
It is more than fair to state that this book has serious shortcomings. Caspar Ten
Dam1 rightly notes in his review that other books on this issue are qualitatively much
better and that Souleimanov’s book looks like a ‘pre-final’ draft. Indeed, among the
main shortcomings of this book are the lack of illustrations, maps or even an index.
Good maps are indispensable in such detailed descriptions of affairs in places
unfamiliar to most readers. Also the layout, in general, is poorly done. These basic
concerns should be addressed in any (revised) publication.
BABAK REZVANI
ª 2011 Babak Rezvani
Note
1. C.A. Ten Dam, ‘Review of An Endless War: The Russian–Chechen Conflict in Perspective’,
Ethnopolitics, Vol.8, No.2 (2009), pp.268–9.
Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia
Toby Craig Jones
Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2010, Pp. 320, index, £22.95/
$29.95 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-6740-4985-7
Increasing international interest in Saudi Arabia following 11 September 2001
coupled with the cautious opening of the country to foreign researchers, have both
contributed to a number of new studies on the kingdom’s contemporary history in
recent years. While this research has produced valuable new insights, its foci have
remained traditional: the political economy of oil (Steffen Hertog1), and Islam
(David Commins, Stéphane Lacroix2), albeit with a new emphasis on jihad (Thomas