With the region of the Caucasus with its ongoing, and even deteriorating, crisis and instability and its strategic and economic importance increasingly at the front of the world's attention, this volume presents and discusses some of the complexities and problems arising in the region such as Islamic terrorists and al-Qaida.

Scholars from different disciplines who specialise in the Caucasus analyze key topics such as:



discussions of grass root perceptions
the influence of informal power structures on ethnic conflicts in the Caucasus
Russian policies towards Islam and their destabilising influence
the influence of Islamic revival on the legal and social situations
nationalism and the revival of pre- and sub-national identities
shifts in identity as reflected in demography
reasons for the Chechen victory in the first Chechen war
the involvement of Islamic volunteers in Chechnya.

With the situation in Chechnia likely to spread across the entire North Caucasus, this cutting edge work will be of great value in the near future and will interest political scientists and regional experts of Russia, Central Asia, Caucasus, Middle East and Turkey, as well as NGOs, government agencies and think tanks.