How Socio-Cultural Codes Shaped Violent Mobilization and Pro-Insurgent Support in the Chechen Wars

This work argues that the existing scholarship on asymmetric conflict has so far failed to take into account the role of socio-cultural disparities among belligerents.

In order to remedy this deficiency, this study conceptualizes socio-cultural asymmetry under the term of asymmetry of values.

It proposes that socio-cultural values which are based upon the codes of retaliation, silence, and hospitality - values which are intrinsic to honour cultures, yet absent from modern institutionalized cultures - may significantly affect violent mobilization and pro-insurgent support in that they facilitate recruitment into and support for insurgent groups, while denying such support to incumbent forces.