Faultlines and Western Engagement in the South Caucasus

Research focuses on the relationship between territorial disputes in the Caucasus and wider geopolitical and geoeconomic considerations.

The politics of the countries of the South Caucasus, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, remain turbulent and unpredictable. The region's transition from Soviet pseudo-federalism to a system of nation states left open questions on ethno-territorial autonomy, many of which remain unanswered.

Whilst Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia have moved to consolidate their states, the prospects for conflict resolution, reconciliation and political reform remain weak.

To what extent are these states free to shape their own political and strategic destinies? Can peaceful settlements to the territorial disputes in the region be found, or was the war between Russia and Georgia of 2008 the first act in a prolonged confrontation between Russia and the West? The Programme examines both the internal political dynamics of the states of the South Caucasus, and the region's role in broader questions of the future of European security, Trans-Atlantic integration, energy transit, and the West's role in the post-Soviet space.

Topics examined include:

• The internal dynamics of the states of the South Caucasus
• The region's role in broader questions of the future of European security
• The potential for conflict resolution, or escalation, in the region
• The impact of oil and gas production and transit on the political economies of Azerbaijan and Georgia
• Turkey's relations with the countries of the South Caucasus
• The role of Western institutions and the future of trans-Atlantic partnership and integration in the region
• The implications of political developments in the North Caucasus for the countries of the South Caucasus.

Resources

Azerbaijan: External Relations, Internal Realities
Meeting Summary, January 2013

Contrasting Electoral Lessons from Georgia and Belarus
Meeting Summary, January 2013

Post-Revolutionary Georgia on the Edge?
Briefing Paper
S. Neil MacFarlane, March 2011

How to Get a Georgia-Russia Dialogue
Programme Paper
Neil MacFarlane, November 2010

The South Caucasus: Drama on Three Stages
(in Ready to Lead: Rethinking America's Role in a Changed World)
Chatham House Paper
James Nixey, May 2010

The Geopolitics of Azerbaijan
Roundtable Summary, April 2010

Georgia's New Strategic Approach to Conflict Resolution
Roundatable Summary, April 2010

Turkish-Armenian Diplomacy: Bilateral and Regional Implications of Efforts to Normalize Relations
Seminar Summary, March 2010

Turkey, Russia and the Caucasus: Common and Diverging Interests
Briefing Paper
Gareth Winrow, November 2009

The Implications of the Russia-Georgia War for European Security
(in The Guns of August 2008: Russia's War in Georgia, edited by Svante E Cornell and S Frederick Starr)
James Sherr, 2009

Contact

For more information please contact Lubica Pollakova

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