ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the collapse of a multinational empire like the Soviet Union gave rise to political instability and conflicts over territory as this conforms to a pattern set by the historical experience of the fall of other great empires. In addition to the role of interdependency discussed, the international dimension of post-Soviet conflicts principally consists of the influence and intervention by, states external to the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and international organizations. Furthermore, the Soviet-era legacy made for a particular type of interdependency of institutions and the regimes among the successor states, and this continues to reverberate in the demonstration and contagion effects of conflict, conflict management and strategies of accommodation. Confederal, federal, and common state solutions which promote and institutionally entrench autonomy arrangements at the regional level are widely recognized to be the most productive basis for future accommodations and settlements of conflicts in the FSU.
