Ramesh Ganohariti – författare

This book explains how the phenomenon of citizenship has been constructed in three contested states in the former Soviet space.Citizenship is a source of (legal) identity that provides access to resources, rights, and recognition. However, the disputed nature of contested states leads to their citizens being subject to multiple (conflicting) citizenship regimes. Drawing on legal analysis, interviews, and survey data, this book sheds light on the complex relationship between contested statehood, sovereignty, state recognition, citizenship regimes, and the politics of belonging. Using the lenses of multiplicity and human/state security, the book explores and explains how the phenomenon of citizenship has been constructed in three post-Soviet contested states: Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria. The book finds that the contested nature of these states require their citizens to navigate between the citizenship regimes of the contested, claimant, patron, and third states. Experiences of citizenship change depending on physical location, determinations by different states as to what legal status(es) an individual holds, and legislative and political changes. Meanwhile, at the state level, citizenship is used as a state- and nation-building tool to enhance ethnodemographic security by excluding undesired groups and including desired ones. Lastly, the book emphasises the normalisation discourse among (citizens of) contested states regarding their citizenship and security. This discourse evidences a broader pattern among contested states, highlighting that their state- and nation-building projects are not markedly different from those of recognised states.This book will be of much interest to students of statehood, de facto states, citizenship, Eastern European politics and International Relations.

This book examines the rise of sub-state recognition in the theory and practice of international relations and diplomacy. Sub-state recognition occurs when non-sovereign entities, such as regions, cities, or local governments, recognize or support an aspirant state or entity seeking independence or international recognition. Drawing on original empirical data, the book conceptualizes sub-state recognition as a pluriversal diplomatic approach and traces the actors, justifications, and effects in practice. We argue that sub-state recognition manifests as a compensatory and remedial engagement between aspirant states and sub-state entities that shape the dynamics of contested statehood, alter the conservative international recognition regime from the bottom up, and streamline the formation of decentralized approaches to diplomatic recognition. We find that sub-state recognition is a co-constitutive practice that helps aspirant states compensate for the lack of external sovereignty and enables sub-state entities granting such recognition to consolidate their foreign policy identity and regional autonomy. While sub-state recognition does not legally establish an aspirant entity as a state, it may emerge as a crucial symbolic and performative step towards building national consensus for formal recognition by the central government and the international community. Accordingly, the book contributes to expanding and decentring scholarly and policy focus on state recognition by demonstrating that the agency and pathways to diplomatic recognition are more dispersed and decentralized than previously acknowledged.