The New Geopolitics of the South Caucasus

Prospects for Regional Cooperation and Conflict Resolution

Contributions by Bulent Aras, Richard Giragosian, Mohammad Homayounvash, Shireen T. Hunter, Richard D. Kauzlarich, Sergey Markedonov, Eldar Mamedov, Mohaiddin Mesbahi, Nona Mikhelidze, Ghia Nodia Edited by Shireen T. Hunter

Not available to order

Publication date:

22 September 2017

Length of book:

304 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498564977

This collection surveys the three South Caucasian states’ economic, social and political evolution since their independence in 1991. It assesses their successes and failures in these areas, including their attempts to build new national identities and value systems to replace Soviet-era structures. It explains the interplay of domestic and international factors that have affected their performance and influenced the balance of their successes and shortcomings. It focuses on the policies pursued by key regional and international actors towards the region and assesses the effects of regional and international rivalries on these states’ development, as well as on the prospects for regional cooperation and conflict resolution. Finally, it analyzes a number regional and international developments which could affect the future trajectory of these states’ evolution.

Introduction, Shireen T. Hunter
Part I: Country Studies
Chapter 1: Twenty-Five Years On: Armenia’s Difficult Period of State-Building, Richard Giragosian
Chapter 2: Azerbaijan Twenty-Five Years after Independence: Accomplishments and Shortcomings, Eldar Mamedov
Chapter 3: Georgia’s pro-Western Policies: An Obsession or a pragmatic Choice, Ghia Nodia
Part II: Policies of International and Regional Actors
Chapter 4: US Policy towards the South Caucasus: Reform, Prosperity, Democracy, Richard Kauzlarich
Chapter 5: Russian Policy towards the South Caucasus: Security, Unity, and Diversity, Sergey Markedonov
Chapter 6: The South Caucasus in the European Union’s Perspective: Not a Single Region, Nona Mikhelidze
Chapter 7: Turkey’s Policy towards the South Caucasus: Expectations, Failures and Achievements, Bulent Aras
Chapter 8: Iran and the Changing Geopolitics of the South Caucasus, Mohaiddin Mesbahi and Mohammad Homayounvash
Chapter 9: Middle East Actors and Politics: Impact on the South Caucasus, Shireen T. Hunter
Conclusion, Shireen T. Hunter

Shireen T. Hunter, herself an expert in Caucasian and Central Asian affairs, has gathered an exceptional team of specialists on the local histories, recent experiences, and geopolitics affecting the three South Caucasian republics—Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Geography may be destiny, but surviving and thriving in an area contested for centuries by Iran, Russia, and Turkey requires both diplomatic and political skills as well as good luck. In essays written with deep local knowledge and exceptional clarity, leading specialists guide the reader through the intricacies and complexities of the region. If you want to understand the past, present, and the future of the South Caucasian peoples, this is the book with which to begin.