The North Caucasus: Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia

[Fuchs]

The Economist: Film in Georgia
Hollywood's take on the Russia-Georgia war
Jun 21st 2011, 14:34 by G.E. | TBILISI



http://www.economist.com/blogs/easte...6/film-georgia

[bourbon]

Author Q&A: ‘The Insurgency in Chechnya and the North Caucasus’, by C. J. Chivers. NYT.com, January 20, 2012.

Today, for those who follow the North Caucasus or who keep up with books on conflict, we have a treat: a guest appearance on the blog from Lt. Col. Robert W. Schaefer, a Green Beret specializing in the Russian-speaking world.

Colonel Schaefer gave himself a task when he set out to research and write his first book, a deep dive on a long-running and inadequately covered war. It was this: He wanted to lift the latest Chechen war above the common descriptions that have defined it — as Exhibit A of an upstart population seeking independence from post-Soviet Russia, or as Exhibit B of a separatist struggle made toxic by a latter-day brand of militant Islam, or as Exhibit C in a war that had smoldered into dormancy. It is not that these descriptions do not contain elements of fact; it is that they are incomplete. They misapprehend the war by looking back only a few decades. Colonel Schaefer’s book, “The Insurgency in Chechnya and the North Caucasus: From Gazavat to Jihad,” (Praeger, 2011) places the war within the broader cyclical history of Chechen-Russian conflict, a history that goes back 400 years. In this, his book succeeds.

This book has gotten great reviews; looking forward to reading it.