The Third Man

Abstract

This chapter traces host state, separatist movement, and mafia relations in Serbia and Georgia (1989–2012). Kosovo and South Ossetia are the most similar pair of separatist stories in the ex-Yugoslav and ex-Soviet spaces. Their unique mix of wars (foreign and civil), separatist mobilizations (some successful, others less so), and mafia roles (sometimes tearing states, sometimes consolidating them) offers precious lessons on the agency of organized crime. In Serbia and Georgia, war was mafia as much as state business. Borders were made and unmade by smugglers. The black market was not an anomaly; the formal economy was. What separatists achieved depended tremendously on whether organized crime was multiethnic or not, violent or not, strong or not. Different mafia roles gave different results. Though organized crime in both countries began as a rejoicing third, the mafia's role in Kosovo evolved into a divider and conqueror, while in South Ossetia it evolved into a mediator. These differing trajectories account for the greater success of Kosovo's separatist movement.