Contested Statehood

This is the first critical analysis of the international attempts to settle the Kosovo crisis, written from first hand insights of the settlement attempts. It covers several strands of analysis, including the tension between state sovereignty and humanitarian concerns, and the role of the threat or use of force in coercive international diplomacy.

The Europeanisation of Contested Statehood: The EU in northern Cyprus acts as a case study of the impact of the EU on institutions, political parties and civil society in 'contested states', self-declared states which remain unrecognised in world politics. Research drawn from qualitative analysis of official documents, public discourse and interviews with various officials and political and social elites within the EU and at a local level provides new insights as to the impact of the EU on northern Cyprus as well as a fresh understanding of the relevance of the EU to contested states in general. By doing so, the book reflects on what contested statehood means for Europeanisation and lays out a conceptual template for the study of contested states of the wider European periphery, such as those in the Caucasus, Transnistria, Kosovo or the occupied Palestinian territories, which continue to represent specific challenges to the international affairs of the EU.

In 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. Was this the final chapter in the break-up of Yugoslavia and the successful conclusion to the Balkan Wars of the 1990s? Or was it just one more wrong turn in the path to stability in the Balkans which has set a dangerous precedent for regional conflict throughout the world? When the UN Security Council authorised negotiations to determine the final status of Kosovo in October 2005, most observers confidently expected the Serbian province to become an independent state by the end of the following year. However, the process did not go as planned. After two years of discussions, conducted by two different sets of mediators, the two sides had still not reached an agreement. With the risk of violence in Kosovo increasing, Western leaders appeared to be left with no choice but to accept a unilateral declaration of independence - despite the destabilising effects that this might have on regional and international security. James Ker-Lindsay here charts the course of Kosovo's path to independence. He points out the serious flaws in the way the talks were conducted and shows how the discussions became caught up in renewed East-West tensions. This clear and perceptive account will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in the recent history of the Balkans or in international conflict resolution.

This book investigates a phenomenon in world politics that is largely overlooked by scholars, namely entities lacking international recognition of their status as independent states. It includes case studies on the Eurasian Quartet, Kosovo, Somaliland, Palestine, Northern Cyprus, Western Sahara and Taiwan.

Hamas and Palestine: The Contested Road to Statehood analyses the Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas, between 2005 and 2017. The book expounds how Hamas has employed a dual resistance strategy, consisting of political and armed resistance, as a mechanism to achieve, maintain, and defend its continued political viability. Hamas entered politics to transform the role of the Palestinian Authority from an administrative institution into one driving the Palestinian quest for independence. To achieve this the analysis explains how Hamas implemented a process of soft-Islamisation in Gaza. This was intended to build the institutional capacity of the Authority based on the bureaucratisation and professionalisation of key institutions, while selectively increasing the role of Islam in society. The book provides a detailed explanation of key shifts in Hamas’s political behaviour as it adapts to the vagaries and vicissitudes of governing Gaza, despite the imposition of Israel’s political and economic siege. Employing the Inclusion-Moderation theoretical framework, the book traces Hamas’s transformation from a non-state armed group into a legitimate actor in Palestinian politics. The book’s analysis also highlights the key role that Hamas’s national liberation agenda has on shifting its behaviour towards adopting more moderate and inclusive policy stances. Specifically, the analysis demonstrates how Hamas has made measurable shifts in it political behaviour towards accepting the primacy of the two-state solution, and its dealings with Israel and the Peace Process. The book provides a comprehensive assessment of Hamas’s time in government and its capacity to deal with the vicissitudes of governing. It is a valuable resource for students and researchers interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Middle East Politics.

This thought-provoking book addresses the legal questions raised by areas of limited statehood, in which the State lacks the ability to exercise the full depth of its governmental authority. Featuring original contributions written by renowned international scholars, chapters investigate key issues arising at the junction between both domestic and international rule of law and areas of limited statehood, as well as the alternative modes of governance that develop therein.

Why do conflict-generated diasporas mobilize in contentious and non-contentious ways or use mixed strategies? This book develops a theory of socio-spatial positionality and its implications for the individual agency of diaspora entrepreneurs. A novel typology features four types of diaspora entrepreneurs—Broker, Local, Distant, and Reserved—depending on the relative strength of their socio-spatial linkages to host-land, original homeland, and other global locations. A two-level typological theory captures nine causal pathways unravelling how diaspora entrepreneurs operate in transnational social fields and interact with host-land foreign policies, homeland governments, parties, non-state actors, critical events, and limited global influences. Non-contention often occurs when diaspora entrepreneurs act autonomously and when host-state foreign policies converge with their goals. Dual-pronged contention is common under the influence of homeland governments, non-state actors, and political parties. The most contention occurs in response to violent events in the original homeland or adjacent to it fragile states. The book is informed by 300 interviews among the Albanian, Armenian, and Palestinian diasporas connected to de facto states, Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Palestine respectively. Interviews were conducted in the UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Brussels in Belgium, as well as Kosovo and Armenia in the European neighbourhood.

This edited volume examines asymmetric conflict dynamics through the politics of recognition vis-à-vis armed non-state actors. It explores a diverse range of case studies and considers the risks and opportunities that (non-)recognition may involve for transforming armed conflicts.