After Violence - Russia''s Beslan School Massacre and the Peace That Followed

In 2004, Russia experienced its most appalling act of terrorism in history, the 53-hour seizure of School No. 1 in Beslan, North Ossetia. Approximately 1,200 children, parents, and teachers were taken hostage, and over 330 were killed, hundreds more seriously wounded, and all severely traumatized. In After Violence, Debra Javeline analyzes the aftermath of this large-scale violence with evidence from almost all direct victims. Despite widespread predictions of retaliatory ethnic violence, the massacre instead triggered unprecedented peaceful political activism. After Violence provides insights into this unexpected but favorable outcome.

List of contents

• Tables


• Figures


• Acknowledgments


• Glossary of individuals


• Introduction: Peace after violence in Beslan


• Part I: The Beslan school hostage taking


• Chapter 1: Grievances against ethnic rivals


• Chapter 2: Political grievances


• Chapter 3: The surprisingly nonviolent aftermath


• Chapter 4: The surprisingly political aftermath


• Part II: Why politics and nonviolence?


• Chapter 5: Anger and other emotions


• Chapter 6: Ethnic prejudice


• Chapter 7: Political alienation and blame


• Chapter 8: Social alienation versus social support


• Chapter 9: Self-efficacy and political efficacy


• Chapter 10: Biography (demographics, prior harm, and prior activism)


• Chapter 11: A portrait of political activists and violent retaliators


• Part III: Generalizing findings from Beslan victims


• Chapter 12: Should results apply to nonvictims?


• Chapter 13: Should results apply to victims in other places and times?


• Conclusion: Peace after violence


• Appendix A: Chronology of activities after the Beslan school hostage taking


• Appendix B: Survey and focus group methodologies


• References


• Index

About the author

Debra Javeline is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame and a fellow of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Nanovic Institute for European Studies, Russian and East European Studies Program, and Environmental Change Initiative. Her research interests include mass political behavior, survey research, Russian politics, sustainability, environmental politics, and climate change. She focuses on the decisions of ordinary citizens, whether in response to violence or climate impacts, and she is currently exploring coastal homeowner motivations to take action to reduce their risk from rising seas, hurricanes, and other hazards.

Summary

A novel analysis of the aftermath of the most appalling terrorist act in Russian history, the seizure of a school and the violent deaths of hundreds of hostages, and insights into why it triggered unprecedented peaceful political activism instead of the widely predicted retaliatory ethnic violence.

Starting on September 1, 2004, and ending 53 hours later, Russia experienced its most appalling act of terrorism in history, the seizure of School No. 1 in Beslan, North Ossetia. Approximately 1,200 children, parents, and teachers were taken hostage. Over 330 were killed, hundreds more seriously wounded, and all severely traumatized. When does such violence fuel greater acceptance of retaliatory violence, and when does violence fuel nonviolent participation in politics?

In After Violence, Debra Javeline addresses this crucial question by exploring the motivations behind individual responses to violence. The mass hostage taking was widely predicted to provoke a spiral of retaliatory ethnic violence in the North Caucasus, where the act of terror was embedded in a larger context of ongoing conflict between Ossetians, Ingush, and Chechens. Politicians, journalists, victims, and other local residents asserted that vengeance would come. Instead, the hostage taking triggered unprecedented peaceful political activism on a scale seen nowhere else in Russia. Beslan activists challenged authorities, endured official harassment, and won a historic victory against the Russian state in the European Court of Human Rights. Using systematic surveys of 1,098 victims (82%) and 2,043 nearby residents, in-depth focus groups, journalistic accounts, investigative reports, NGO reports, and prior scholarly research, Javeline provides insights into this unexpected but favorable outcome.

The first book to analyze the aftermath of large-scale violence with evidence from almost all direct victims, After Violence offers novel findings about the influence of anger, prejudice, alienation, efficacy, and other variables on post-violence behavior.

Additional text

The hostage taking at School No. 1 in Beslan, in Russia's multinational North Caucasus, in 2004, was a horrendous act of terrorism, brought to an end by security forces with heavy casualties. Many expected the siege to be followed by a wave of intercommunal violence, but the wave did not materialize. Debra Javeline's exhaustively researched and elegantly written study explains why this was so and draws lessons for broader understandings of life and politics after conflict.

Product details

• Authors: Debra Javeline, Debra (Associate Professor of Political Javeline, Debra (Associate Professor of Political Science Javeline, Javeline Debra
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.05.2023
• EAN: 9780197683347
• ISBN: 978-0-19-768334-7
• No. of pages: 600
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / General, Geopolitics, Peace studies and conflict resolution, Peace studies & conflict resolution