With increasing urban population density, conflicts in cities erupt more frequently and violently. Cities have become hotspots for armed combat, highlighting the urgency of understanding the impact of local communities and urban factors on the development of violent conflict.
Joldon Kutmanaliev presents a novel approach to analyzing communal violence and armed conflicts in urban zones. Drawing from fieldwork in cities of southern Kyrgyzstan, he explains local-level variations in violence across neighbourhoods during the most intense and violent episode of urban communal violence in Central Asia – the clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in June 2010. Kutmanaliev explains why armed violence affects some urban neighbourhoods but not others, why local communities react differently to the same existential threat, how they deal with a deteriorating security environment and interethnic fears, and how different types of urban planning and urban landscapes influence the spread of violence. Importantly, the book identifies key factors that help local communities and their leaders to negotiate non-aggression pacts and control local constituencies, and therefore successfully prevent violence.
Intercommunal Warfare and Ethnic Peacemaking explains communal war and ethnic peacemaking on the level of neighbourhood communities – a perspective that is largely absent in previous studies.

Joldon Kutmanaliev is researcher at the University of Tübingen.

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“Joldon Kutmanaliev argues for an approach to urban violence that pays attention to microdynamics within cities. Highlighting two main mechanisms – intergroup non-aggression pacts and within-group policing – the book applies and develops existing theoretical arguments to a new unit of analysis, considers the role of spatial dynamics in shaping these theoretical mechanisms, and explores a largely understudied case.” Emma Elfversson, Uppsala University and co-editor of The Spatiality of Violence in Post-war Cities

“This book is a major contribution to our knowledge of political violence. Combining rich data with an innovative methodological approach, grounded in rigorous theory, Intercommunal Warfare and Ethnic Peacemaking is the first in-depth study of the 2010 violence in Kyrgyzstan to be published in English. Recognizing the limitations of his data, Kutmanaliev avoids making causal claims where the evidence is lacking, which allows him to come to a more convincing conclusion about the determinants of peace and violence.” Edward Lemon, Texas A&M University and editor of Critical Approaches to Security in Central Asia