Policy research project that seeks to develop a better understanding of the dynamics of the conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and their implictions for third-party mediation/facilitation. The key issues include why the conflicts remained frozen over the last decade, the risks of renewed conflict in the past and now and the identification of a policy niche for Switzerland.
These issues are approached from the perspective of the political economy of conflcit which considers conflict not as a breakdown of political, legal, economic or social ordering principles but shows that conflict is part of a process of social transformation from which some actors derive great benefits. This perspective is particularly important for the frozen conflicts because of the political and economic interests in perpetuating the status quo. Identifying these interests may open new avenues for third-party mediation/facilitation of the frozen conflicts.
