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181. 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

182. Promoting security sector governance in the EU's neighbourhood

Author:
Heiner Hänggi and Fred Tanner
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:
With the European Union's enlargement eastwards and southwards, its neighbourhood now stretches from the Balkans to the south Caucasus, and from Russia to the southern Mediterranean. The EU's eastern and southern neighbourhood is composed of areas which, to a greater or lesser extent, have serious deficits in security, development and democracy. There are many types of security problems, ranging from weak states and rampant international crime to spoilers in post-conflict reconstruction and unpredictable authoritarian leaders who pursue regime security often at the expense of national or regional security. In terms of socio-economic development, most of the countries in the EU's neighbourhood are fragile, often struggling with the effects of black market economies and cronyism, and burdened by bloated defence and security sectors that escape any accountability. As regards political systems, the EU's neighbourhood is composed of regime types ranging from new but weak democracies to regimes with authoritarian features and limited political participation.
Topic:
Security, Development, and Government
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Caucasus, and Balkans

183. Turkish – Armenian Relations in the Aftermath of the USSR

Author:
Ali Faik Demir
Publication Date:
03-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
Following the collapse of the USSR, Turkey acquired a new opportunity concerning its foreign policy: Caucasus. In this whole region and especially in the southern Caucasus composed of three independent states, Armenia occupied the most critical and the most sensitive issue. Turkey, despite the historical negative legacy, tried to establish a different base for its relations with Armenia, succeeding the dissolution of the Soviet Union. According to this, it is possible to observe positive steps undertaken by the two sides under the presidency of Petrosian, but the Nagorno-Karabakh question became the decisive factor of the bilateral relations during this same period. During the presidency of his successor Kocharian, other than Nagorno-Karabakh problem, Diaspora communities gained influence. This led the so-called “genocide” issue to constitute an important subject of the international agenda in bilateral relations as well as in other international platforms. Despite the Kocharian's hawkish rhetoric in the beginning, which caused the deterioration of the bilateral relations, during the second term of his presidency, a certain détente has been observed. Apart from official relations and negotiations, the Turkish-Armenian Peace Commission, founded in 2001 with the intention to establish a positive, peaceful and free of prejudice platform constitutes an important step.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Genocide
Political Geography:
Russia, Turkey, Caucasus, and Armenia

184. Chechnya Weekly: Rebels Launch Large Raid On Nalchik

Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
Rebels in Kabardino-Balkaria on October 13 tried to seize all of the buildings of the republic's power structures in the capital, Nalchik. The attack was carried out by large group of what the authorities called "religious extremist-Wahhabis." According to official estimates, 150-300 rebels were involved the attack. Kavkazky Uzel website reported, however, that up to 600 were involved in the raid. The separatist Daymohk website reported that the raid was carried out by "mujahideen" of the "Caucasus Front." As newsru.com noted, the "Caucasus Front" was established along with five others_the Dagestani, Eastern, Western, Northern, and Grozny fronts_on the orders of Chechen separatist leader Abdul- Khalim Sadulaev.
Topic:
Security, Civil War, and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Russia, Caucasus, Chechnya, and Kabardino

185. New Horizons in United States Relations with South Asia

Author:
Christina Rocca
Publication Date:
07-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for the Advanced Study of India
Abstract:
Good afternoon and welcome. Those of you who have received the invitation will know what Ms. Rocca is engaged in and what her background is. I simply want to express my personal appreciation and delight that we are able to host Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Christina Rocca this afternoon. Ms. Rocca has specialized in issues relating to some of the most complex cultures and political conflicts affecting United States foreign policy right now, and as you might have noticed, her range goes from the Middle East, to Central Asia, to the Caucasus, to South Asia—and I know she has many stories she could tell us that we would love to hear.
Topic:
International Relations and Politics
Political Geography:
United States, South Asia, Caucasus, and Middle East

186. U.S.-Turkish Cooperation against New Maritime Threats in the Mediterranean Basin

Author:
Orhan Babaoglu
Publication Date:
12-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On November 23, 2004, Gen. James Jones, NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, praised Operation Active Endeavour (OAE) for its role on the war on terror. OAE is NATO's post-September 11 answer to the question of naval security in the Mediterranean Sea. With the threat of terrorism on the open waters gaining increasing attention, especially in the aftermath of the 2000 USS Cole bombing in Yemen and the September 11 attacks, the Mediterranean basin (including the Black Sea) has become a new focal point for policymakers. The basin lies between three dangerous conflict areas -- the Middle East, the Balkans, and the Caucasus. Moreover, as a passageway between developed and underdeveloped nations, with access to three strategically important sea passages -- Gibraltar in the west, the Suez Canal in the south, and the Turkish Straits in the north -- the Mediterranean gives terrorists, human traffickers, and drug and arms smugglers easy access to the long and difficult to patrol coastlines of Europe. Is the West doing an adequate job of confronting the new threats in the Mediterranean? What role does the U.S.-Turkish alliance play in this enterprise?
Topic:
Security and Religion
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, Turkey, Caucasus, Middle East, Yemen, Arab Countries, and Balkans

187. Chechnya Weekly: Turkish Demonstrators Denounce Putin

Author:
Emil Pain and Lawrence Uzzell
Publication Date:
12-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
Two thousand demonstrators marched in Istanbul, Turkey to protest President Vladimir Putin's visit to Ankara, Newsru.com reported on December 7. The demonstrators carried placards reading “Murderer Putin!” and “Get Out of Turkey!” A group of protesters from among Turkey's large community with roots in the Caucasus laid wreaths at the Russian consulate in Istanbul.
Topic:
Security and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Turkey, Caucasus, Asia, and Istanbul

188. 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

189. Autonomy and Ethnic Conflict: Experiences from the Caucasus

Author:
Svante Cornell
Publication Date:
08-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
Abstract:
Ethnopolitical conflict has, especially since the early 1990s, been a growing source of concern in the international arena. Having grown since the 1960s, it culminated after the cold war with the eruption of conflict in the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Ethnic mobilization among minority populations in multiethnic states has often led to demands for self-rule or to secession. Especially in defined geographical areas where minorities are compactly settled, the creation of a separate state is seen as a feasible goal and control over territory often becomes a chief issue of conflict. Many theorists have found that solutions involving regional autonomy are effective in dealing with ethnic conflict. Ted Gurr, for example, has argued that "negotiated regional autonomy has proved to be an effective antidote for ethnopolitical wars of secession in Western and Third World States." Regional autonomy implies the introduction of ethnoterritoriality - linking territorial control to ethnicity. This is the case either when a region is explicitly created as a homeland for an ethnic group or when a minority group constitutes a large majority of the population of an autonomous state structure and perceives it as its own. Advocates of ethnofederalism argue that autonomy solutions are effective conflict-resolving mechanisms and that further federalization of multiethnic states along ethnic lines will help prevent ethnic conflict. In some of the literature, ethnofederalism has been characterized as what David Meyer terms a "cure-all prescription" for ethnic tensions. There is, however, considerable reason to argue that the institution of territorial autonomy may be conducive not to interethnic peace and cooperation but may in fact foster ethnic mobilization, increased secessionism, and even armed conflict.
Topic:
Ethnic Conflict and Sovereignty
Political Geography:
Europe, Caucasus, Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia

190. Armament and Disarmament in the Caucasus and Central Asia

Author:
Zdzislaw Lachowski, Björn Hagelin, Sam Perlo-Freeman, Petter Stålenheim, Dmitri Trofimov, and Alyson J. K. Bailes
Publication Date:
07-2003
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
Abstract:
The international attention paid to the nations of the South Caucasus region and Central Asia—a group of post-Soviet states beyond Europe's conventional frontiers but included in the Conference on/Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE/OSCE)—has been fitful at best over the past decade. During the last years of the 20th and at the start of the 21st century, after the conflicts in Georgia and Nagorno-Karabakh became (at least partly) 'frozen', security concerns about the regions tended to decline and to become overshadowed both by 'oil diplomacy' and by concern about developments within Russia itself, in Chechnya and Dagestan. In 2002–2003 a constellation of changes in the outside world has started to reverse this pattern. Chechnya is no longer a regular topic of high-level political debate between Russia and the West, and President Vladimir Putin has played the anti-terrorist card with some success to secure his freedom to deal with it as an internal security matter. The factors prompting greater international attention to Russia's south-western and southern neighbours, by contrast, have the potential to undermine—perhaps for good—any Russian pretension to decisive influence or an exclusive droit de regard in these regions. At the time of writing, however, this latest shift could again be called in question by a new diversion of focus to the 'greater Middle East' following hostilities in Iraq.
Topic:
Defense Policy and Arms Control and Proliferation
Political Geography:
Russia, Iraq, Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, Middle East, Asia, and Soviet Union