The demographic challenges faced by the Turkish minority in North Macedonia restrict their ability to play a significant role in the national parliament and broader political landscape, thereby limiting their capacity to protect their political and cultural rights. Nevertheless, the Framework Agreement (OFA) has afforded them some advantages at the local administration level, alleviating concerns about assimilation or forced emigration. Although they are disheartened by the latest census results, a power-sharing democracy, backed by institutionalized ethnic patronage, unexpectedly provides the Turkish community in North Macedonia with considerable political and economic benefits.
While the desire of major powers for spheres of influence in smaller states has been extensively researched, the formation of public opinion in such states remains understudied. Using a series of Central Asian Barometer surveys, this study explores the factors associated with individuals' foreign policy preferences among lesser powers neighbouring larger powers. We focus on the role of ethnic identity, language, and information sources in shaping individuals' views of major powers-China, Russia, and the United States. Our findings suggest that Russian-speaking members of ethnic titular groups view Russia and China less favourably and the US more favourably than other social strata, when the Russian language operation is confined to the elite groups. Consumption of Russian and national news is associated with more favourable views of China and Russia, and less favourable views of the United States. We attribute these outcomes to the China-Russia political alignment and the effect of the Russian media campaign. We conclude that social hierarchies, path dependencies, and exposure to foreign media influence individual perspectives on major powers.
Subnational autocratization presents a significant challenge to liberal democracy, particularly in autonomous minority regions. We explore whether power-sharing institutionalreforms (PSI) foster democratic attitudes among ethnic minorities in autocratizing autonomous regions. Consociational theory suggests PSI alleviate grievances and reduce polarization, thereby strengthening democracy, yet causal evidence remains scarce. Using a pre-registered survey experiment in Gagauzia (Moldova), we test the impact of PSI on democratic attitudes. Our results indicate that while PSI mitigate grievances and polarization, they exert a negative influence on democratic attitudes. Our findings challenge core assumptions of consociationalism and suggest that PSI may yield unintended consequences in the short term.
This article offers a relational analysis of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) in Pakistan. Moving beyond static frameworks, it conceptualizes PTM as an emergent assemblage constituted through evolving social relations. Examining movement-generated sources and digital traces, it traces how relational mechanisms-such as transforming private grief into collective claims and performative protest-shape its identity and agency. The analysis highlights the roles of embodied action, non-human actors, and internal tensions, revealing dynamics obscured by conventional approaches. It contributes to debates on non-violent ethnopolitical mobilization under militarized governance, demonstrating the value of a relational lens for understanding social movements.
This article questions whether sub-national movements seeking ethno-territorial empowerment can effectively challenge political exclusion. Examining the cultural, economic and spatial logics that shape ethno-territorial organising, the article discusses the case of the Madhesi movement in Nepal and its campaign for ethno-federalism and political inclusion. The case study demonstrates the power of ethno-territorial identity in enabling cross-class mobilisation to challenge centralised political control and gain greater rights and representation. However, the study finds that ethno-territorial organising is limited if the political interests and economic structures giving rise to a movement undermine its ability to challenge redistributive injustices.
A body of critical feminist literature has shown that mothers have played pivotal roles in bringing about peace in conflict zones. This article draws from these studies and examines how women use the motherhood frame to become the agents of conflict resolution and peace negotiations in violent insurgent conflicts. The article documents how women in India's Northeast participate in maternal activism through organizational platforms to transform their victimhood into agency. Grounded in interview narratives of women in Assam and Nagaland, the article attempts to provide an understanding of 'mothers as mediators,' making efforts to prevent further aggravation of violence.
This article analyses the election of & Zcaron;eljko Kom & scaron;i & cacute; as the Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina across four electoral cycles (2006, 2010, 2018, and 2022) and considers the implications of his election for the nature of power-sharing in the country. The article utilizes quantitative analysis of election data and interviews with local politicians and international diplomats. The results suggest that Kom & scaron;i & cacute; was overwhelmingly elected four times by Bosniak rather than Croat voters. The Kom & scaron;i & cacute; issue has serious consequences for power-sharing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the deterioration of Bosniak-Croat relations and the suppression of Croat political plurality.
The article examines how and why the quest for greater autonomy unfolded in Ladakh's Union Territory (UT). The author argues that the recognition of Ladakh as a new political entity by the Indian state in 2019 has created a sense of marginalisation and deprivation and identity loss. It was found that the Apex Body Leh (ABL) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) are mobilising people for constitutional safeguards in the region, and it has opened up a new site of contestation in the Indian polity. Thus, the article explores the changing contours of Ladakh politics after it got UT status.
This paper explores how animistic cosmology-a worldview that views rivers, forests, and mountains as sentient beings with moral authority-constitutes a form of environmental justice. Through ethnographic fieldwork conducted among the Mro and Pangkhoa communities, it examines rituals, spiritual taboos, and environmental ethics as culturally embedded responses to environmental degradation. For indigenous peoples, climate change is not just a technical problem but a moral catastrophe-inseparable from spiritual responsibility. They see deforestation, pollution, and exploitative development as violations of their relationship with spiritual beings. The article urges an inclusive, morally resonant approach towards climate justice in the Anthropocene.
The article discusses the intellectual processes taking place within the sphere of national minority activism during the 1930s, focusing on the illiberal re-negotiation of nationalities law (Nationalit & auml;tenrecht, Volksgruppenrecht). A legal discipline aiming at accommodating minorities with collective rights, nationalities law was not necessarily an illiberal endeavour. The 1930s, however, saw a popularization of new forms, which rested on v & ouml;lkisch theoretical tenets and were adjusted to the needs of radically nationalist politics. Underpinned by an organicist, total and politicized conception of nationality and distinguished by the essential subordination of the individual to the national community, it also entailed the idea of ethno-national groups as original sources of sovereignty.
The article challenges conventional views in peace studies portraying local responses to violence as spontaneous and unstructured. Drawing on cases from Colombia (Guardia Ind & iacute;gena) and Somalia (Ma'awisley), we demonstrate how local actors can autonomously shape security through systematic, coherent, and long-term strategies. The article shifts attention to a hitherto neglected form of purposive local agency amid conflict, whose marginalisation in the literature has been reflected in terminological inadequacy. To address this gap, we advance conflict management from below as a conceptual tool for analysing locally grounded, organised practices of violence mitigation beyond both state-centric paradigms and spontaneous grassroots initiatives.
In this article, I examine ethnic and distributive politics in southern Kyrgyzstan from the perspective of state performance. Salient intergroup differences in perceived access to public goods persist due to underrepresentation of ethnic minorities in public institutions and a strategy of state avoidance among this community following violent ethnic conflict in June 2010. Within-group variation in informal network integration among ethnic Kyrgyz and formal education among non-Kyrgyz additionally contributes to perceived differences in access to public resources. My findings provide grounded evidence to complement extant discussions of ethnic and distributive politics and highlight the subjective foundations of state capacity.
Kidnapping in Nigeria has received extensive scholarly attention. Yet, its entanglement with identity politics remains underexplored. This paper argues that ethnic, religious, and regional identities shape both the practice and consequences of kidnapping, conceptualized as the ethno-religio-regional dimensions of kidnapping (ERRDK). ERRDK captures how kidnapping is linked to identity groups, mobilised to advance group interests, or used to threaten rivals, provoking counter-responses. These dynamics intensify intergroup competition, heighten conflict, and influence state policy. Drawing on identity-politics literature and Nigerian cases, the paper shows how kidnapping becomes a site of struggle over power, resources, and security.
