01 July 2007
The Political Economy of "Frozen Conflicts" in ex-Soviet States: Challenges and Prospects for the U.S. and Russia
Author:
Dr.
Ceslav
Ciobanu
Publisher:
Institute for Public Policy, Chisinau, Moldova
Str. Puşkin 16/1
2012 Chisinau
Moldova
Tel: +37322 276785
Fax: +37322 276786
http://www.ipp.md
In this paper Dr. Ceslav Ciobanu, an eminent economist and Moldova's former ambassador to the United States, Mexico, and Canada, examines regional conflicts in the Balkans and in secessionist regions of ex-Soviet countries, such as Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, and Transnistria in Moldova, and discusses their implications for wider relations between Russia and the West.
The end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007 were marked by harsh disputes between the West and Russia and by the return to our vocabulary of an almost-forgotten expression - “Cold War”. Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the Soviet Union and my former boss for whom I worked during the tumultuous times of “perestroika” (from January 1987 till August 1991), recently emphasized: “There is a real danger of a new division of the world; the possibility of a new cold war is being widely discussed…The unprecedented scale of international terrorism and the proliferation of ethnic and religious conflicts are disturbing signs of troubles to come”.
Regional conflicts and disputes on their possible solution – be it Kosovo in the Balkans or secessionist regions of ex-Soviet countries, such as Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, or Transnistria in my native Moldova - represent some kind of mini “cold wars” between the West, led by the United States, and Russia. That’s why it is so important to understand the political economy of the “frozen” conflicts, and to prevent their evolution into another cold war.
