The Insurgency in Chechnya and the North Caucasus: From Gazavat to Jihad
Writer: Robert W. Schaefer
Publisher: Praeger; 1 edition (October 22, 2010)
ISBN-10: 031338634X
ISBN-13: 978-0313386343
303 pages

An expert on both Russia and insurgency offers the definitive guide on activities in North Caucasus, explaining how the Russian approach to counterinsurgency is failing and why the conflict will continue to escalate.

Review

“This work is perhaps the most current book on this Russian-Chechen war and is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the nuances of the conflict in the Caucasus. Schaefer’s work cuts through much of the anti-Chechen disinformation of other works and succeeds in providing a masterful overview of the ongoing Chechen insurgency in Russia with applications for those studying insurgencies in other areas such as Iraq or Afghanistan.” Brian Glyn Williams, Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and author of The Crimean Tatars: The Diaspora Experience and the Forging of a Nation, 8/16/2010

“A most interesting approach to understanding the Chechen and North Caucasus insurgency in the light of Western thinking about insurgency and counterinsurgency. The author rightly sees these phenomena as a single linked pattern and exposes Russia’s strategic operations and their failures to the unforgiving light of day. Western students of the Russian-Chechen wars and of counterinsurgency and insurgency alike will benefit from this work that brings Russia’s hidden war into the open.” Professor Stephen Blank, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College, 8/18/2010

“Are you curious why Chechnya’s 400 year-old insurgency persists and the Sochi Olympics will likely ‘bomb’? The answers are here. With laser-like precision, a matter-of-fact clarity and an adept pen, this Special Forces practioner demystifies our longest running graduate-level conflict. A practiced `COIN eye’ will recognize the nature of the Russian-Chechen war as the ensuing chapters move back and forth between the Maoist stages of protracted warfare and a ‘bez predel’ (without limits) conflict. Col. Andrew N. “Nick” Pratt, USMC (Ret.), Director, Program on Terrorism and Security Studies and Professor of Strategy and International Politics, George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, 9/8/2010

“Incisive, insightful — in short, invaluable”. Liz Fuller, analyst, journalist, editor, and author of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Caucasus Report, 11/3/2010