No abstract

The process of postwar reconstruction in Iraq since 2003 has revolutionized the significance of Arab and other tribes in policy approaches toward the Middle East. However, much attention directed at tribal structures during this period has focused on engagement with influential sheikhs with the aim of promoting stability rather than identifying tribes' role as informal organizations in a context of altered Iraqi state formation. This study instead conceptualizes tribal confederations and sub-tribes as state-like actors that function at both the international and the domestic level. I examine historical precedents of tribal alliance formation, conflict resolution and security mechanisms, coalitions and political participation, and variations in interactions across ethnic groups, and consider their implications for present-day Iraq and its neighboring states.

In the years since the 2003 Rose Revolution, the popularly elected leadership of the Republic of Georgia has responded to organized protests with a variety of repressive tactics. These reactions suggest that former challengers to authoritarian elites may utilize similar methods of retaining power during crisis periods. Yet, the alleged involvement of agencies of the Russian Federation in fomenting domestic instability has also occupied a central position in the national security policies of the outgoing Saakashvili government. These conditions both preceded and were reinforced by the South Ossetia War of August 2008. This article proposes a theoretical model that represents the intervening effect of interstate conflicts on state-society relations in Georgia from 2003 to present. It presents several hypotheses and possible indicators, data sources, and techniques for analyzing the interaction between characteristics of opposition groups, external threats, and the domestic security practices of contemporary Georgian political elites.

The effective measurement of natural gas consumption has become a central component of energy sector development in resource-dependent post-Soviet states such as Armenia and Georgia. Yet, while policy assessments have often emphasized the significance of technology upgrades in increasing the efficiency of gas distribution in Central Eurasia, it is necessary to consider other types of exogenous political and economic influences upon sourcing and adoption of measuring devices by national industries and their resultant impact upon energy sector performance. This study presents empirical data collected in northern Armenia and Tbilisi, Georgia, as well as from secondary sources, in order to examine the effect of both domestic and international factors upon the technology-performance relationship in the natural gas industries, and compares their relative implications for energy sector development in both countries since independence.

Abstr actThe Turkmen population of Iraq is a significant factor in linking the greater Caucasus region to Northern Mesopotamia. However, in the post-Saddam Hussein era, much conventional discourse has identified them as a politically and culturally marginalised group in relation to the Arab and Kurdish majorities. This study presents an alternative assessment of the Turkmen situation based on a survey of changes in the Iraqi political context over the past decade. This is applied in order to determine the precedents for Turkmen democratic activity in northern Iraq, as well as impediments to accommodation between Turkmen and other regional identities. These patterns are analysed at both the domestic level, including geographic distribution, popular mobilisation and party formation, and at the international level, which examines the impact of Turkey's external influence and sponsorship on these internal conditions. Several tentative conclusions are reached. First, the Iraqi Turkmen exhibit both high levels of mobilisation and pluralistic political organisation that contrast with other ethnic and sectarian minorities in Iraq. Second, sectarian and ideological cleavages within the Turkmen population along with sporadic violent attacks have motivated assimilation with the coalition politics that has evolved since the first post-Saddam national elections, rather than armed insurgency. Finally, the role of Turkey as a primary external patron has presented both obstacles and potential advantages for the political welfare of the Iraqi Turkmen community since 2003.