The International Institute for Strategic Research «Vector» initiates and supports the development of strategies and innovative projects in overcoming crises in contentious regions of the world directed on strengthening the international safety and expanding different forms of cooperation.
Doctor of Economics, professor O. Kotolupov (Moscow, Russia), Doctor in Sociology, professor P. Khrienko (Simferopol, Ukraine), Ph.D. in Economics A. Semenenko (Moscow, Russia) and a number of other specialists have developed the Conception “Socio-economic fundamentals for overcoming crises in contentious regions”, in which they substantiated regulations for negotiating the contentiousness of regions through market transformations by creating “the territories for priority economic cooperation”. The theses of the journalistic variant of the conception are presented below.

The last decades testify that those methods which had been undertaken by the international community to resolve the regional and, first of all, interethnic problems were fruitless. It is obvious that the presence of the peacemaking contingents such as the UN, NATO and other organizations and countries doesn’t resolve the problems of contentiousness in the areas of their dislocation, but transforms them to the stage of “chronic disease”.
The way to solve the regional conflicts through, according to the accepted definition, the methods of democracy turned out to be untenable too. For example, the vast majority of Transdniestria citizens on the referendum voted for joining Russia, but still they are not allowed to exercise it. The results of the referendum on the Russian status of Sevastopol have been ignored. Almost all the population of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and other regions are failing to make their countries a part of Russian Federation. And it is not only on the territory of the former USSR where nearly the same processes occur.
The present practice of resolving the interregional conflicts shows its ineffectiveness that specifies the necessity of looking for the new innovative approaches that, in the authors’ opinion, should be stated first of all on the grounds of basic social relations in the economic sphere.
Considering the economies of contentious regions, it is necessary to note its extremely backward level. Statistical data that define the economic situation in Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and other problem regions show us that their development of market relations is rudimentary. Productive industries are mainly disorganized. The level of real unemployment involves about a half of the able-bodied population. Poverty and increasing social diseases make these regions unsafe to live in not only for local people. All these factors considerably determine the contentiousness of such regions which generally takes the form of interethnic or interstate confrontation. To overcome such the situation is the most important condition for eliminating or considerable lessening the contentiousness of regions in general.
In the conception “Socio-economic fundamentals for overcoming crises in contentious regions” the authors prove the point that reforming of precisely basic sphere of public life – production of goods – is the prepotent factor in overcoming the existing system crises. In this connection they propose to apply to the practice of organizing and functioning of the economies of “free economic zones” which showed itself to advantage in many countries of the world. Taking into consideration the specific character of contentious regions development on the base of the conditions of “free economic zones”, the authors of the conception prove the appropriateness of creation of “the territories for priority economic cooperation” involving the opposite sides under obligatory international patronage of the UN or another competent organizations. For example, on the territory of Abkhazia there are sufficient reasons to create “a territory for priority economic cooperation” with the part of Georgia and Russia, with the part of Moldova and Russia in Transdniestria, with the part of Albania and Serbia and other concerned countries in Kosovo, etc.
For contentious regions the concession of a right to develop in the conditions of “the territories for priority economic cooperation” can result in:

• for the international community it means switching the vector of overcoming the contentiousness, from power politics to market economies methods. Huge amounts of money spent on so-called “peacemaking actions” will get the chance to «work» for development of the regions’ economies, that is more economically and politically reasonable;
• the acquisition of equal economical preferences promotes overcoming the contradictions between the states that are conjecturally involved in regional conflicts. For example, creation of “a territory for priority Russian-Ukrainian economic cooperation” in Crimea is a special mutually beneficial project that practically takes off the preconditions for interstate opposition about the region. (See: О. Kotolupov, P. Khrienko “The bases of the conception of Crimea revival”, Simferopol, 2007);
• consolidating the international relations. Regional conflicts have mainly ethnic forms while the economic sphere has international character. Its development promotes including former backward regions into the world economic processes. Actually it provides an extremely favourable chance for contentious regions to take their place, to go along with the realities of the globalizing world in a civilized way;
• conditioning the priority development of productive industries considerably stabilizes not only economical, but social situation. Providing employment raises the standard of living, furthermore it makes destructive asocial behavior practically unnecessary;
• Formation of effective territories of priority economic development will inevitably influence both raising common cultural level of local population and its familiarizing with universal values and the civilized standards of the way of life.

Using regularities in the economic sphere of people’s life it is possible to determine the vector of their political, liberal, socio-cultural and other forms of behaviour. Creation of the civilized preferences for overcoming economic crisis is the precondition for shaping more fair forms of relationship between the people where there are no place for development of the deviant forms of behaviour.
In the opinion of the authors of the conception, the offered ways of overcoming regional crises considerably set the contemporary world in economical and political ways, make it more comfortable for people’s living despite their nationality and social position.

The Scientific and Methodical Council of the IISR “Vector”