Settlement of “Identity Conflicts”: The Case of Transnistria

The collapse of the Soviet Union led to a number of legal, political, and territorial disputes in the former Soviet republics, as well as encouraged the decay of the Soviet ideology and the shaping of nation states and ethno-national identities. This caused a wave of internal ethno-national conflicts – the ‘identity conflicts’ – which are based on the problem of peoples’ self-identification. Meanwhile, a detailed study of the present state of these conflicts demonstrates that it is more relevant to talk about a supranational or supraethnic identity, rather than a national or an ethnic one. The Transnistrian conflict is a vivid example in this respect. At the same time, it is of high importance that efficient negotiations are organized to allow the parties concerned to come up with optimal solutions in the conflict settlement processes. This, first and foremost, requires the key elements of the conflict to be defined and carefully classified. Otherwise, there is a risk that the existing differences may be perceived by different parties in a different way, which is a huge obstacle to any negotiations. It can be vividly illustrated by the examples of a number of unsettled and ‘frozen’ conflicts, including the Transnistrian one. However, there still is no mutual understanding in the international expert society of what are the key prerequisites for ‘identity conflicts’. At the same time, the Transnistrian example clearly demonstrates that its specific identity, which has taken shape throughout the years among failed attempts to settle the dispute, is one of the main factors that cannot be neglected in the settlement process today.

The article studies the distinctive features of ‘identity conflicts’ through the example of the Transnistrian conflict and an analysis of different theoretical approaches on this issue. The article examines aspects of the current interaction among the actors involved in the negotiations, and analyses possible preconditions that could allow for an increased efficiency in reaching a settlement. The author concludes that the most important of the distinctive features of the Transnistrian conflict is that it combines identity, status, and territorial elements. The author believes that a settlement of this conflict that takes into consideration its complex nature may help to work out an efficient model for the settlement of identity conflicts’, which can then be applied to other conflicts of this type.

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