Recursive secession of trapped minorities: A comparative study of the Serb Krajina and Abkhazia

Recursive secessions are attempts at secession from a seceding state (or a state emerging from a secession). This article compares attempts at recursive secession of the Serb Krajina from Croatia and of Abkhazia from Georgia and the use of force and violence in these two attempts at recursive secession. While remarkable similarities are found in the political strategies of the secessionist leaders in these two cases, there are significant differences in the use of military force both by the secessionists and their host-state authorities. The difference may be explicable by the greater dependence of the Serb Krajina secessionist leadership on the military and logistic assistance of its protector state, Serbia.