Existing negotiation formats for post-Soviet protracted conflicts have failed to reach their ultimate objective of...
De-facto States
Enhancing the Robustness of Causal Claims Based on Case Study Research on Conflict Zones
Focusing on process tracing and using the example of fieldwork in Donbas, I develop an argument in this article...
Trade as a confidence-building measure in protracted conflicts: the cases of Georgia and Moldova compared
Published in 2019 in Eurasian Geography and Economics, my colleague Nino Kemoklidze and I investigate the extent to...
The Dynamics of Emerging De-Facto States: Eastern Ukraine in the Post-Soviet Space
What are the causes and consequences of the crisis in Ukraine, and what has been the nature of local, national, and external actors’ involvement in it? These are the questions that my colleague Tetyana Malyarenko and I examine in this book which represents...
The logic of competitive influence-seeking: Russia, Ukraine, and the conflict in Donbas
In this article, published in Post-Soviet Affairs in 2018, my colleague Tatyana Malyarenko and I argue that the crisis in Ukraine since late 2013 has seen four successive internationally mediated agreements that have been at best partially implemented. Drawing on...
Institutional Outcomes of Territorial Contestation: Lessons from Post-Communist Europe, 1989–2012
Co-authored with Zsuzsa Csergő and Philippe Roseberry and published in Publius, this article starts with the observation that, since 1989, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have experienced major institutional transformations. As part of that process,...
Linkage and leverage effects on Moldova’s Transnistria problem
Co-authored with John Beyer and published in East European Politics, this article asks what the impact is of geopolitical competition on conflict resolution and democratisation in the context of extensive and multi-directional linkages and leverage? Our analysis...
The Transnistrian Issue: Moving beyond the Status Quo
Analysing the current context of the Transnistrian conflict and drawing on an analysis of existing proposals for conflict settlement, this study offers a number of suggestions how a sustainable settlement could be achieved.
Guarantee Options for a Settlement of the Conflict over Transnistria
Any meaningful consideration of guarantee options requires some assumptions about the nature of the underlying settlement. With this in mind, the following discussion draws on comparative experience in two ways. First, it considers the nature of the conflict over...