Conflict Resolution in South Caucasus

Challenges to International Efforts

By (author) Esmira Jafarova

Publication date:

18 December 2014

Length of book:

186 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

239x163mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781498502856

This book aims to highlight the efforts by the international community to facilitate solutions to the conflicts in the South Caucasus, and focuses particularly on the existing challenges to these efforts. The South Caucasus region has long been roiled by the lingering ethno-national conflicts—Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Abkhazia and South Ossetia conflicts within Georgia—that continue to disrupt security and stability in the entire region. Throughout different phases of the conflicts the international community has shown varying degrees of activism in conflict resolution. For clarity purposes, it should be emphasized that the notion of “international community” will be confined to the relevant organizations that have palpable share in the process—the UN, the OSCE, and the EU—and the states that have the biggest impact on conflict resolution and the leverage on the conflicting parties—Russia, Turkey, and the United States.

Chapter 1. South Caucasus in a Perspective: Introduction, Context, and Theoretical Framework
Chapter 2. Background to the Conflicts in South Caucasus
Chapter 3. The United Nations and the OSCE in Action
Chapter 4. Regional Players: Russia and Turkey
Chapter 5. Euro-Atlantic Actors: The EU and the United States
Chapter 6. Theoretical Analysis: Contradictory Narratives, Actors’ InterestsHypotheses,
and the Role of Diaspora in Formation of Interests
Chapter 7. Conclusions

Plagued by long-standing ethnonational conflicts in the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia, South Caucasus has seen little security and stability since Armenia and Georgia declared their independence in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Jafarova focuses her research on this understudied region, and on the efforts of the international community to bring about a resolution to that conflict. The volume’s seven brief chapters provide a summary of the conflict; discuss the input of the UN, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the EU, but also Russia, Turkey, and the US in conflict resolution; and highlight some of the misconceptions that have underpinned international engagement with the region. Jafarova’s understanding of the complex local dynamics and efforts to situate the South Caucasus conflicts within existing theoretical insights make this volume a welcome addition to the literature. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, research, and professional collections.