Arsen Hakobyan and Marcello Mollica, 2025, Conflict, Space and Transnationalism: An Ethnography of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War

2026/01/01 by Tigran Sarukhanyan
Social Sciences · #Cross-Border Cooperation and Integration #Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics #South Asian Studies and Conflicts

paper · doi:10.4000/16lc2

openalex publication_date 2026/01/01 · openalex created_date 2026/07/18 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/21

Abstract

This review examines Arsen Hakobyan and Marcello Mollica’s Conflict, Space and Transnationalism: An Ethnography of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War (2025). As the first comprehensive anthropological monograph on the 2020 war and its aftermath, the work fills a critical gap in the literature, shifting the focus from geopolitics and regional politics to lived experience. Through multi-sited ethnography, the authors analyse how violence reshapes urban space, weaponises cultural heritage, and activates transnational networks. This review assesses the book’s major contributions to urban anthropology, conflict studies, and the theorisation of cultural cleansing, arguing that it sets a new standard for ethnographies of war and territorial transformation.

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