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This talk is based on the author’s newly published book, Mobilizing in Uncertainty: Collective Identities and War in Abkhazia. Drawing on nearly two hundred in-depth interviews with participants and nonparticipants in the Georgian-Abkhaz war of 1992–1993, the book explores Abkhaz mobilization decisions from fleeing to fighting in the war. In contrast to explanations that assume individuals know the risk involved in mobilization and make decisions based on that knowledge, it shows that the Abkhaz perceived anticipated risk in different ways affected by their earlier experiences of conflict and by social networks at the time of mobilization. To make sense of the violence, Abkhaz leaders, local authority figures, and others relied on shared understandings of the conflict and their roles in it—collective conflict identities—developed before the war. Through this detailed analysis of Abkhaz mobilization from prewar to postwar, the book sheds light on broader processes of violence, which have lasting effects on societies marked by intergroup conflict.
