Nuclear and radiation threats as resources for modeling the security community on the example of the Abkhaz political crisis

• Main Authors: Alexander Rusetsky, Olga Dorokhina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Publishing House "Grani" 2020-07-01
• Series: Granì
• Subjects: nuclear-free zones; peacemaking resources; modeling of peace processes; common identity; confidence
• Online Access: https://grani.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/view/1501
• ISSN: 2077-1800; 2413-8738

This article is part of a research conducted as part of the Support Program for Doctoral Studies of Shota Rustaveli Georgian National Science Foundation. Name of the research – “Interdisciplinary analysis of the complex system of the Abkhazian conflict by the method 4D-RAV-17 (grant number – PHDF–18–1147). As part of the study, the task was to assess those political technologies that were not used in the process of resolving the Abkhazian conflict. The study identified that such a peacemaking resource as the recognition by the conflicting parties of “common threats” and the consolidation of common efforts to prevent or eliminate them, was not used to an adequate extent. Based on this, the Concept of Awareness of the Common Threat System (CACTS) were formulated and presented as a methodological basis for reinforcing the Security Community Theory created by Karl Deutsch. CACTS was described in the article “Abkhazian crisis: from the Concept of Awareness of Common Threats to the Building of an “Abkhazian Security Community”” published in the Scientific and Theoretical Almanac "Grani", Volume 23 №3, 2020. As a basis for creating an initial level of trust between the parties to the conflict, we take their policy of recognizing the system of common threats and identifying ourselves (and each other) with possible victims of these threats. The level of trust can grow as both parties gain satisfaction from the process of cooperation. In this article, which is the second of a series of articles devoted to the recognition of common threats and the construction of a security community by the parties to the conflict, we present one of the practical possibilities for strengthening the modeling process of a new multidimensional peacemaking format. In particular, this is the development of cooperation between the participants in the Abkhazian political crisis to reduce nuclear and radioactive threats. The research drew attention not only to physical, but also to psychological dangers posed by nuclear and radiation threats. Based on the analysis, a number of specific initiatives were identified for the possible development of cooperation between participants in the multidimensional Abkhazian political crisis. Particular attention in the article is paid to the role of scientific diplomacy in the positive transformation of the crisis and the integration into the peacemaking process representatives of natural sciences, in particular physicists, power engineers and ecologists. As one of the resources of the peace process, the prospects of cooperation between civil society institutions expressing the interests of victims of nuclear and radiation disasters from different sides of the conflict community are considered. The article focuses on the creation of common approaches on energy policy for the countries of the Caucasus region, especially, regarding nuclear energy. Despite the fact that the initiative is aimed at resolving the Abkhazian conflict, the measures to bring the parties closer, presented in the framework of this project, could positively affect the development of the level of trust in other conflicts of the post-Soviet space. The work is based on a holistic approach, which involves revising the reductionist approach that dominates the scientific and political discourses, distorting the real picture of the conflict and reducing its image to the quasi-scientific concept of the “Abkhaz-Georgian” resolution. Our vision of the complex and multidimensional structure of the Abkhazian political crisis is given in the first article of the mentioned cycle. The structure of this article consists of three main parts. The first part of the article is an introduction, which presents the idea of anti-nuclear and anti-radiation consolidation of participants in the Abkhazian political crisis on the basis of the Concept of Awareness of the Common Threat System (CACTS) and the concept of Karl Deutsch, adapted for the Abkhazian Security Community (ASB). One of the CACTS subsystems (in this article) is nuclear, radiation, and related to them information-psychological threats. The second part of the article presents an analysis of the situation associated with nuclear, radiation, information and psychological threats. This analysis aims to demonstrate the importance of the topic under consideration and the variety of real threats. Nuclear threats. The authors divide them into threats of a military nature, as well as threats associated with the construction, operation, conservation and liquidation of reactors and other nuclear facilities. Radiation threats. Statistics of incidents related to illegal operations in the transportation/sale of radiation/radioactive substances based on open sources are proposed. Examples of threats associated with the illicit trade of irradiated food products are given. Information and psychological threats. When considering information and psychological threats related to nuclear and radiation threats, special attention is paid to such a question as hiding of reliable information from citizens or manipulating information, which is the basis for the formation of distrust towards one’s own state and the psychosomatic problems arising from this. The third part of the article offers a model of a fragment of the peacemaking process to resolve the Abkhazian political crisis, in which a component is involved that includes a discussion of (CACTS) on nuclear and radiation safety and the construction of the Abkhazian Security Community as a subsystem of the Caucasian and Black Sea-Caspian Sea Security Community.