States and conflict in the former USSR

Many would characterise the international politics of the former Soviet Union as being fraught with competition and beset by weakness, war and chaos associated with contestations between nations and identities but this has paradoxically not generated a great deal of violent conflict since the end of the USSR. Most violent conflict experienced in the post-Soviet space have their roots in the struggles that took place as the USSR collapsed – such as the frozen conflict in South Ossetia – and new conflicts have been rare and small in scale. This paper asks why there have not been more wars in this sub-region.