This paper describes the ethnopolitical conflict between Russia and Chechnya, and explores thecauses of the war and violence between these two nations that started in the early 1800s andcontinues today. The accurate analysis of conflict is important for a number of reasons, butabove all, because without its accurate diagnosis, suggestions for successful resolution wouldpractically be impossible. The Russo-Chechen conflict is one of the most long-lastingethnopolitical conflicts in the world. Its over two hundred years of history is replete withviolence and atrocities that escalated and deescalated this conflict from time to time. Many booksand articles are written about this conflict to explain its origins and causes relating to one ormore of the factors of nationalism, religion, interests, and geopolitics. This paper, however,employs a multidimensional approach to its analysis by employing a number of theories ofconflict and violence without specifying priority to any causal factors as it is impossible to weighthe causative factors to identify the hierarchical interrelationship among them. This paper arguesthat a multidimensional and multilevel approach to conflict analysis is needed to understand rootcauses of complex conflict correctly that is important for making effective policies of conflictresolution
