Separatist states and post-Soviet conflicts

This article examines why the conflicts in Moldova, Georgia and Azerbaijan in the former Soviet Union have not been resolved in the last ten years, whereas a peace agreement has been reached in TaJikistan. The analysis centres on the role of the self-declared separatist states that have emerged in the midst of the post-Soviet states: the Pridnestrovyan Moldovan Republic inside Moldovan borders, the Republic of South Ossetia and the republic of Abkhazia within Georgian borders, and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic of Azerbaijan. The argument is divided into four parts, starting first with a brief discussion of the reasons that allowed a fragile peace to arise in TaJikistan. The article then defines the concept of a de facto state, that is, a state without international recognition but with empirical existence. The main part of the article examines the range of forces, internal to the de facto states as well as external to them, that weave together to sustain the current status quo of non-resolution.