”Implications of Russia’s recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states for international conflict management”. Paper presented at an international conference on Caucasus Studies: Migration, Society, Language. (original) (raw)

Lying at the crossroads between East and West and South and North, the South Caucasus is situated at the intersection of Eurasia's major energy and transport corridors. An important geostrategic region, for centuries it has been the theatre of competition between regional powers, including the Persian, Russian, and Ottoman Empires. While these empires may have disappeared, their successor states continue to jostle for influence along with new players, including the US, NATO, EU and China. Hence, despite being independent for more than two decades, the three South Caucasus states – Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia – continue to feel the influence and, in some cases, threat, of external actors The South Caucasus is a complex region. Despite the pre-existing interdependence between the three states under the Soviet umbrella via economic, infrastructural and cultural ties, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia not only broke away from Russia with the collapse of the Soviet Union but from one another too, resulting in an immediate fragmentation of the region. The collapse of a centralised economy and the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh played a significant role in the isolation of these countries from one another. More than two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the region has not yet been politically or economically integrated. Furthermore, it is also plagued by a range of political, security and economic challenges, including separatist conflicts (South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Nagorno-Karabakh), closed borders, weak state institutions, issues with the rule of law and underdeveloped economies. While the main reasons behind the region's fragmentation are undoubtedly internal, certain external players have also acted to maintain the status quo, which allows them to maintain a strong influence there.