Hale examines separatism in the USSR and CIS through a new psychological understanding of ethnic identity.

Henry E. Hale (Ph.D. Harvard University, 1998, born February 5, 1966) is Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University. His work on ethnic politics, regional integration, democratization, and federalism has appeared in numerous journals, ranging from Comparative Political Studies to Europe-Asia Studies to Orbis. His first book, Why Not Parties in Russia?: Democracy, Federalism and the State (Cambridge University Press, 2006), was selected a winner of the Leon D. Epstein Outstanding Book Award by the Political Organizations and Parties section of the American Political Science Association (APSA). His Divided We Stand (2004) won two awards, including the APSA Qualitative Methods Section's 2005 Alexander L. George Award for best article in qualitative methods. The National Science Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research have funded his research. He has also been the recipient of a Fulbright research scholarship, a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and a Peace Scholarship from the US Institute of Peace.

Acknowledgements; Note on transliteration; 1. Introduction; Part I. Theory with Worldwide Examples: 2. The need for a microfoundational theory of ethnicity; 3. A relational theory: ethnicity is about uncertainty, whereas ethnic politics is about interests; 4. A theory of national separatism in domestic and interstate politics; Part II. Case Comparisons: Separatism in Eurasia: 5. Ethnicity: identity and separatism in the USSR 1917-91; 6. Central state policies and separatism; 7. Framing: manipulating mass opinion in Ukraine and Uzbekistan; 8. Institutionally mediated interests: the political economy of secessionism; 9. Ethnicity and international integration: the CIS 1991-2007; 10. Quantitative evidence: micro-, macro- and multilevel; Part III. Conclusion: 11. Toward a general theory of ethnic conflict and solutions; Index.