Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia face a number of shared challenges, including weak rule of law, entrenched corruption, and incomplete democratization.
Ordinary Armenians, Azeris, Georgians, and Abkhaz are growing increasingly estranged from each other as nationalist narratives continue to overshadow local examples of peaceful co-existence.
Twenty years after the end of the Soviet Union, the South Caucasus countries can no longer be considered “in transition,” but questions remain about how well they are faring compared to the democratic countries of the European Union or the rising economies of Asia.
After two decades of existence, the countries of the South Caucasus face the short-term threat of renewed conflict and the longer-term challenge of avoiding a slide into global irrelevance.
Even as the world marked the birth of its seven billionth person last month, a few countries, including Moldova and Armenia, are confronting the problem of insufficient population.
Following the failure to reach a breakthrough at the June 2011 summit in Kazan, formal negotiations between political leaders in Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorny Karabakh conflict are again deadlocked.
Vladimir Putin's return to the Russian presidency will have a significant impact on Moscow's relations with the South Caucasus, but the nature of that impact remains unclear.
At a time of uncertainty and change in the South Caucasus, Armenia must find a way to resolve the Nagorny-Karabakh conflict and normalize its relations with Turkey.
The Nagorny Karabakh peace process is entering an unusually difficult phase following the disappointing meeting in Kazan between Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev.
Moscow needs to drop the notion of creating an exclusive power center in the post-Soviet space. Like other former European empires, Russia has no choice but to reinvent itself as a global player and as part of a wider community.
