The New Geopolitics of the South Caucasus: Prospects for Regional Cooperation and Conflict Resolution

(Hardback)

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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.

Reviews

Shireen T. Hunter has brought together a truly international team of experts to examine the complex geopolitics of the South Caucasus. The breadth and depth of analysis on key questionssuch as state-building, democracy, and USRussian rivalrypresent the reader with a rich and textured account of the region. This volume is a tour de force on the interplay of global and regional dynamics which have made the geopolitics of the South Caucasus a continuing source of challenges and opportunities. -- Shahram Akbarzadeh, Professor of Middle East and Central Asian Politics, Deakin University
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 republicsArmenia, 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. -- Ronald Grigor Suny, William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History and Political Science, University of Michigan
This study puts today's volatile South Caucasus in its proper historical and geopolitical context. Readers new to the subject will become conversant with the main issues; old hands will find much to ponder and discuss. Shireen T. Hunters own unique perspective is especially valuable. -- John Evans, former US ambassador to Armenia

Author Bio

Shireen T. Hunter is research professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.