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101. Nagorno-Karabakh: Viewing the Conflict from the Ground

Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh is the most significant obstacle to peace and stability in the South Caucasus. Eleven years into a ceasefire, the parties have been unable to sign a single document bringing them closer to a settlement. Whatever is being done at the internationally mediated negotiations, at ground level resumed war appears a real possibility. There is need to counter the hate propaganda and demonising engaged in by both sides and unlock the potential for confidence building and dialogue between average Azeris and Armenians before the memories of cohabitation fade and the divide becomes virtually unbridgeable.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Relations, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
Caucasus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and South Caucasus

102. China Brief, The Dragon's Drive for Caspian Oil

Author:
Ahmad Lutfi, John C. K. Daly, Stephen Bank, and Sergei Troush
Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
China's insatiable energy thirst is causing it to undertake a global search for energy supplies to sustain its booming economy. Beijing has injected itself into the complex Caspian chess match to ensure itself as large a share as possible of resources being developed there. This complex political and economic maneuvering forces China to deal with the Caspian's five riparian states - Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
Topic:
International Relations, Government, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Russia, China, Iran, Israel, Kazakhstan, Beijing, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan

103. Azerbaijan: Turning Over a New Leaf?

Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Oil-rich Azerbaijan, which borders Iran, Turkey and Russia and is still scarred from its defeat by Armenia ten years ago, gives cause for both hope and concern. The October 2003 election of Ilham Aliyev to the presidency that his late-father, Heydar, had held almost from independence, highlighted the stark choices which now face the country. Its government is a carefully designed autocratic system, which the father and former Soviet-era politburo member began to construct in the late 1960 s, with heavy reliance on family and clan members, oil revenues and patronage.
Topic:
Development, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Russia, Iran, Turkey, Eastern Europe, Armenia, and Azerbaijan

104. Foreign Policy of Islamic Republic of Iran towards Central Asia and Azerbaijan

Author:
Atay Akdevelioglu
Publication Date:
06-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
While Iran did not have a clearly deliniated policy towards Central Aisa (and Azerbaijan) during the Soviet period and conducted its relations through Moscow, it tried to develop constructive engagement with the regional states since the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the same time, Iran clearly came to accept the dominant postion of Russia in the region. Although it avoided involvement in internal affairs of the regional countries, Iran's political relations with them have not develop into a satisfactory level. In this, American discouragement of the regional countries to enter close relations with Iran, their identification of political Islam as domestic threat and Iran as its external hub, as well as Iran's own economic and technological weaknesses played important roles. Despite this political weaknesses and US pressures, however, Iran, with its suitable geographic location and acceptance of trampa with the energy reach countries, has emerged as an importan regional economic partner and alternative transit route.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Islam
Political Geography:
United States, Iran, Central Asia, Asia, and Azerbaijan

105. The Unique Evolution of the State in the Turkic Republics of the Caspian Sea

Author:
Mert Bilgin
Publication Date:
12-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
Post-Soviet countries are either passing through a transition period, or have already completed it, as an outcome of the neoliberal pressures of international actors. The attempts have focused on reconstruction of the state because of its being conceived as an impediment in front of political and economic liberalization. The states of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan resemble other transition economies in the sense that they share a similar Soviet legacy. Nevertheless, they deviate from the rest by the virtue of natural resources which endow the state the ability to re-produce itself. The state of Azerbaijan has liberated itself from the society by using the natural resource rents, which in turn outmode taxation as an instrument of revenue. Despite Kazakhstan's discernible progress in launching economic reforms, the state has politically kept its solid structure. The Kazakh state has preferred to allocate the natural gas revenues for economic transformation with no political liberalization. Under an autocratic regime, the Turkmen state has strengthened its positioning vis-à-vis the society with no economic and political transformation.
Topic:
Communism, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:
Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Soviet Union, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan

106. Former Soviet Union: Security Sector Reform in the Southern Caucasus

Author:
Philipp Fluri
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
The countries of the Southern Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) experienced seventy years of one-party centralized management of the security sector – a heritage they share with all other former Soviet Republics (though precise time spans vary). Independent state-building can be expected to be slow, and it has further been vexed by armed conflicts which are far from being permanently settled and which have led to considerable numbers of IDPs and refugees in Georgia and Azerbaijan. This specific situation has naturally slowed the build-up of security sectors much different from the local post-Soviet replica of the once union-wide complex of security services.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and Government
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia

107. The South Caucasus: a challenge for the EU

Author:
Dov Lynch
Publication Date:
12-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:
The South Caucasus contains three states that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union: Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Geographically, the region is populated by some fifteen million people, links the Caspian Sea basin to the Black Sea on an east-to-west axis, and is the juncture between the greater Middle East, Turkey and Iran, and the Russian Federation. This chapter will introduce a number of themes that run through this Chaillot Paper. The first part examines the nature of the 'transition' that the three South Caucasian states have undergone with a view to understanding the scale of their transformation. A second part discusses dimensions of state weakness across the region. Next, the chapter considers the impact of third parties on regional security/insecurity, and finally it outlines the structure of the volume.
Topic:
Security and International Organization
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Iran, Central Asia, Turkey, Caucasus, Middle East, Soviet Union, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia

108. Resolving Conflicts In The Caucasus And Moldova: Perspectives On Next Steps

Publication Date:
05-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
On 6-7 May 2002, the National Intelligence Council and the Department of State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research sponsored a conference that examined the prospects for resolving regional conflicts involving four states of the former Soviet Union: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Moldova. The conference brought together outside scholars, regional experts and officials to discuss the conflicts in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Transnistria. The purpose was not to arrive at a consensus but to deepen understanding of the complex geopolitical dynamics at work in the region.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Relations, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
Moldova, Eastern Europe, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia

109. International Involvement in the South Caucasus

Author:
Natalie Sabanadze
Publication Date:
02-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
The South Caucasus represents one of the most diverse and conflict-ridden regions in the world. It includes the three former Soviet states Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, as well as numerous ethnic minorities and small nations within these states. The term South Caucasus is relatively new and has been used to replace the older term Transcaucasia. According to Valery Tishkov, there is a strong drive of national elites to separate the region from Russia and dismantle old ties to the point of changing names. "It is noteworthy," wrote Tishkov, "that the historical name of the region Transcaucasus has been questioned by the proponents of new political correctness who wish to create a mantle distance from Russia. Consequently, the region is being renamed the South Caucasus" (Tishkov 1999:4). It is, however, worthy of mention that the earlier name Transcaucasus (Za Kavkazye in Russian) reflected the Russian geographical position and literally meant 'beyond or behind the Caucasus', as the three republics were seen from the northern perspective of Russia. Recently, the term South Caucasus has came into use in order to more accurately describe the region and as Tishkov rightly points out, to de-link it from Russia.
Topic:
Ethnic Conflict, International Organization, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Russia, Eastern Europe, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia

110. Shusha's Pivotal Role in a Nagorno-Karabagh Settlement

Author:
Elchin Amirbayov
Publication Date:
12-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
Peace in Nagorno - Karabagh will demand painful compromises from both Armenia and Azerbaijan. A “winner's peace” — one that only reflects the military gains of one side — will not foster long - term resolution of the conflict. The Shusha region of Nagorno - Karabagh has special symbolic meaning for Azerbaijanis. A key element in obtaining Azerbaijani acceptance of a peace agreement is the return of the Shusha region to Azerbaijani control and the guaranteed right of internally displaced Azerbaijani persons to return to the Shusha region.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Democratization, and Energy Policy
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Asia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan