全球智库信息集成服务系统

Religion's Role in Promoting Opposition to or Support for Governments Varied Substantially Based on the Local Context

• Religion has been used to increase social cohesion and support for the state within the population (e.g., Kazakhstan, Russia).
• Opposition groups and nonstate actors have also marshaled religion to mobilize supporters of their causes (e.g., in the North Caucasus).

Religion Has Sustained or Intensified Conflict in Some Parts of the FSU, but It Has Not Been the Original Source of Conflict

• Most conflicts have stemmed from territorial disputes, domestic and international power struggles, aspirations for self-determination, and economic challenges — not religious disagreements.
• Despite religion's secondary role, its use in the region's conflicts has frequently been destabilizing; the infusion of religion in grievances has exacerbated existing tensions and encumbered progress toward peace.
• Religious life is particularly susceptible to manipulation in FSU countries, which share the Soviet legacy of disrupted religious traditions and relatively weak religious knowledge, along with the growing demand for religiosity and the view of religion as the source of morality, identity, and certainty.

State Policies That Restrict or Regulate Religion Appear to Have Contributed to Stability or Conflict in Different Circumstances

• Relatively loose controls over religion led to concerns about foreign influences on state stability in Russia and Kyrgyzstan.
• In Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, religious restrictions have been maintained more consistently and appear to have helped uphold state control over society.
• These restrictions may also have damaging longer-term effects, leading to social and intellectual marginalization of independent Islam and cycles of radicalization.

Despite the rise of religion as a visible force in the sociopolitical life of post-Soviet countries, little is known about how religion has contributed or may yet contribute to tensions or peace in this region. An improved understanding of the relationship between religion and conflict in the former Soviet republics can fill a critical gap and help inform policymakers and other actors working to bring peace and stability to this volatile region.

This volume of essays takes a multidisciplinary and cross-domain look at religion and how it affects the stability of the former Soviet republics. Contributions by a range of international researchers and policy experts on religion and conflict and the post-Soviet region address the dynamics among religion, conflict, and stability in the South and North Caucasus, Central Asia, Ukraine, and Russia. The authors found that while the role of religion varies across contexts, religion has not been the original source of conflict in the former Soviet Union (FSU). Religion has, however, increasingly been used by both states and nonstate groups to mobilize supporters, and the infusion of religion in existing grievances has exacerbated existing tensions and encumbered progress toward peace.

While broad in scope, this volume of essays provides an improved understanding of the role of religion in conflict and stability in the FSU. Further inter- and multidisciplinary work and scholar-practitioner collaborations will be crucial to developing comprehensive and nuanced recommendations for how to approach religion when working toward building sustainable peace in the FSU and beyond.

• Chapter One

  Religion, Conflict, and Stability in the Former Soviet Union

  Katya Migacheva and Bryan Frederick

• Chapter Two

  Armenia-Azerbaijan: Rethinking the Role of Religion in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

  Artyom Tonoyan

• Chapter Three

  The North Caucasus: How Islam and Nationalism Shaped Stability and Conflict in the Region

  Sufian N. Zhemukhov

• Chapter Four

  Central Asia: Where Did Islamic Radicalization Go?

  Svante E. Cornell

• Special feature

  Religion and Intergroup Conflict: A Social-Psychological Approach

  Steven L. Neuberg and Gabrielle Filip-Crawford

• Chapter Five

  Kazakhstan: Islamic Revival and Trajectories of State-Society Relations

  Nargis Kassenova

• Chapter Six

  Ukraine: Religious Confessions in Competition Under the Dominance of Political Discourse

  Vadym Vasiutynskyi

• Chapter Seven

  Russia: The Stability Implications of State Policies Toward Religion and the Russian Orthodox Church

  Irina du Quenoy

• Chapter Eight

  Religion and Stability in the Former Soviet Union: Policy Implications of Analysis

  Jonah Blank

• Note: You must have a PDF browser plug-in installed to skip to the linked chapter in the PDF. Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 7.0 or higher for the best experience.