Columbia International Affairs Online
CIAO DATE: 9/5/2007
Addressing the Transnistrian Conflict: Competing Stances of Moldova’s Political Parties and Expert Community
January 2007
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract
The Transnistrian conflict continues to be one of the most important issues facing political parties and the expert community in Moldova. Since the start of the post-communist transition period, political parties have routinely felt the necessity to articulate their approaches to solving the conflict. During both electoral and inter-electoral periods, the Transnistrian issue has occupied a special position on the country's political agenda. This has required political parties to take a stance on the issue. Similarly, the country's expert community, which includes academics, political analysts, and media commentators, has struggled with the need to explain and interpret the conflict to their audiences. In presenting such interpretations for the general public, they could not avoid formulating their own positions on potential causes of and solutions to the conflict.
The authors here employ elite survey techniques as one approach to analyzing the variation in political parties' and expert communities' attitudes towards a host of problems related to the Transnistrian conflict. The paper provides a detailed description of the documented attitudinal differences and similarities on various aspects of the Transnistrian conflict among key Moldovan political parties that has been drawn from a diversified political spectrum. It also attempts to document the differences in parties' attitudes as they change over time.
