Abkhazia Institute for Social and Economic Research

General Conflict Development Since Independence 

Since before independence, the South Caucasus region has been plagued by conflict and instability. The ethnopolitical conflicts in the region that raged in the early 1990s led to the death of over 50,000 people, great material destruction, and contributed significantly to the political instability, economic hardships, and the increase in transnational organized crime that has characterized the region in its first decade of independence. In short, ethnopolitical conflict was the root of the problem of state weakness that has continued to plague the South Caucasus; and the failure to resolve the conflicts has forced the region into a deadlock impeding the building not only of durable peace but also of accountable and functioning state institutions. 

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