scholarly journals Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict in the Context of Changing Regional Geopolitics

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-360
Author(s):  
S. I. Chernyavskiy
Keyword(s):  
World Politics ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Noticeable Increase ◽  
Ethnopolitical Conflict ◽  
Political Interests

The article analyzes the changes in the South Caucasus associated with the results of the Armenian-Azerbaijani hostilities in the fall of 2020. According to the author, a radical breakdown of the geopolitical configuration of the region took place. The long-term ethnopolitical conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is a thing of the past, the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Republic of Artsakh) practically ceased to exist. For the first time in 30 years, Russian peacekeepers have returned to these lands. The role of Turkey, a longtime arbiter of Caucasian affairs, has been revived. An end has been put in the most important of the interethnic conflicts that have destroyed the USSR since the late 1980s. And it was Russia who did it.As a result, each of the two republics controls only its internationally recognized territories, while Karabakh continues to exist de facto under the control of Russian peacekeepers. The decisiveness of V. Putin, who took upon himself the rescue of the civilian population and the settlement of the conflict, his ability to “persuade” irreconcilable enemies to stop the war and agree with the subsequent “peacekeeping intervention” contributed to a noticeable increase in Russia’s prestige in the region. However, the role of an independent arbiter capable of solving “insoluble” problems is impossible without strong political, legal, economic and military positions in the region. Therefore, the expansion of the Russian presence in the Transcaucasus is a factor of strategic importance that meets the national interests of Russia. The author believes that given the dismissive and consumerist attitude of the ruling elite of Armenia towards Russia, the time has come to adjust the choice of strategic partners in the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan is actively cooperating with Russia in key areas of world politics. One of the examples is the creation on the initiative of I. Aliyev of new formats of trilateral diplomacy in the composition of Azerbaijan-Turkey-Russia and Azerbaijan-Iran-Russia. An equally significant example is cooperation with Baku within the framework of the “Caspian Five”.Taking into account the specifics of the “multi-vector” nature of the South Caucasian states, it is advisable to conduct constant monitoring of Russian approaches to relations with them from the point of view of equal and pragmatic cooperation. This will make it possible to avoid that the resulting vacuum will be occupied by other powers that have been making themselves known more and more in recent years. Therefore, it is vitally important for Moscow that the authorities of the South Caucasus take into account its political interests.

scholarly journals Iranian Foreign Policy in the South Caucasus: Identity and National Interests

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-48
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Atrisangari
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Islamic Republic ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Policy Strategy ◽  
Western Asia ◽  
Patterns Of Behavior

Any foreign policy decision of a country is formed on the basis of certain principles and norms that constitute the identity and determine the role of this country. In case with Iran, although the norms that form the identity of the Islamic Republic are diverse and each of them can determine the role of the country outside its geographical borders, none of these norms totally dominates Iran’s foreign policy. Iran is a country located within (or neighboring to) several strategic regions, and in each of these regions it demonstrates different foreign policy strategy based on different norms. For example, Iran’s foreign policy in Transcaucasia is determined by principles and norms which, in some cases, are similar to the principles and norms of Iran’s foreign policy in Western Asia and, in other cases, are different from them. These divergent patterns of behavior can be accounted for by two concepts: identity and national interests. The article aims at clarifying the role of identity in determining Iran’s national interests in Transcaucasia and studies Iran’s foreign policy in the region within the mentioned framework. At the same time, the article seeks to examine the challenges associated with the principles and norms determining foreign policy, as well as identify the shortcomings of Iran’s foreign policy in the Transcaucasian region.

scholarly journals Political-military relations in the South Caucasus in the context of the Iran-Russia-Turkey Triangle

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Vladimir Alekseevich Avatkov ◽  
Aleksandr Vladimirovich Kasianenko
Keyword(s):  
Regional Security ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Research Subject ◽  
Technical Cooperation ◽  
Conflicts Of Interests ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military

The research subject is the peculiarities of modern political-military relations in the South Caucasus in the context of the Iran-Russia-Turkey Triangle. The author considers political-military relations in the region through the prism of national interests of regional actors, such as Russia, Turkey, and Iran; analyzes military and technical cooperation in the South Caucasus based on the example of Armenia and Azerbaijan; studies military expenditure of the countries of the region and military budgets of Armenia and Azerbaijan, which are one of the hotbeds of tension and conflicts of interests of Russia, Turkey and Iran. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the systematization of ideas about the modern state of political-military relations in the South Caucasus in terms of the regional actors’ influence on the regional security system. Based on the documents, facts and research works, the author formulates a conclusion about the condition and the prospects of development of modern political-military relations in the South Caucasus in the context of the Iran-Russia-Turkey Triangle. The success of Turkey in terms of strengthening its positions in the South Caucasus against the background of rising competition in the region is undoubtable. Turkey has managed not only to position itself as a strong regional actor, which is able to indirectly influence regional disputes settlement, but also to promote the military triumph of Azerbaijan, its key ally in the region. It will result in further extension of export of Turkish weapons to Azerbaijan, and deeper cooperation between these two countries in other spheres. It concerns Russia and Iran, which are interested in maintaining the balance of powers in the region.  

OSCE IN GEORGIA: IN SEARCH FOR A NEW FORMAT

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-114
Author(s):  
FEDOR N. BUGAEV ◽  
◽  
GEORGE M. TURAVA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Retrospective Analysis ◽  
Comprehensive Assessment ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Regional Stability ◽  
Caucasus Region ◽  
Peaceful Settlement ◽  
High Conflict

his article examines the activities of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to resolve the Georgian-Abkhaz and Georgian-Ossetian conflicts. The OSCE is one of the most important structures in ensuring regional stability and security, but in the current conditions it does not use the set of tools at its disposal to an adequate extent. The high conflict potential of the South Caucasus region and the specificity of the contradictions between the parties do not allow the use of identical formats for the settlement. This article conducts a retrospective analysis of the OSCE's participation in the conflicts in Georgia, identify the weak and strong sides of the organization's existing tools and propose new mechanisms and initiatives for the region under consideration that are in the OSCE's arsenal, but need more flexibility and adaptability to specific cases. Thus, the paper is aimed primarily at rethinking the role of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the peaceful settlement of conflicts in Georgia in the current geopolitical conditions through a comprehensive assessment of the OSCE's potential in the specified region.

Peaceful Nuclear Tests, Eco-friendly Reactors, and the Vantage Point of Tamasha

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-223
Author(s):  
Fathima Nizaruddin
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The South ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Nuclear Tests ◽  
Asian Context ◽  
Epistemological Violence

The article analyzes the role of the documentary form in building pronuclear narratives around the Indian nuclear project. It situates the nuclear films made by two state institutions, Films Division of India (Films Division) and Vigyan Prasar, as part of a network of expert statements, documentary assertions, and state violence that bring into being a pronuclear reality. Through the insights gained from my practice-based enquiry, which led to the production and circulation of a film titled Nuclear Hallucinations, I argue that the certainty of the pronouncements of such documentaries can be unsettled by approaching them as a tamasha. I rely on the multiple connotations of the word tamasha in the South Asian context and its ability to turn solemn assertions into a matter of entertainment or a joke. This vantage point of tamasha vis-à-vis the Indian nuclear project builds upon the strategies of antinuclear documentaries that resist the epistemological violence of pronuclear assertions. In this article, I explore the role of comic modes and irony in forming sites of tamasha to create trouble within the narratives that position nonviolent antinuclear protestors as “antinational” elements. The article also expands on how the point of view of tamasha can engender new solidarities, which can resist the violence of the Indian nuclear project by forming new configurations of possibilities.

The Oil Deal: Nariman Narimanov and the Sovietization of Azerbaijan

Slavic Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 372-394
Author(s):  
Sara Brinegar
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Soviet Power ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Russia

This essay, with a focus on Baku, Azerbaijan, demonstrates that the need to secure and hold energy resources—and the infrastructures that support them—was critical to the formation of the Soviet Union. The Azerbaijani statesman Nariman Narimanov played a pivotal role in the establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan by attempting to use Baku's oil to secure prerogatives for the Azerbaijan SSR. In part, Narimanov gained his position by striking a deal with Vladimir Lenin in 1920, an arrangement that I am calling the oil deal. This deal lay the foundations of Soviet power in the south Caucasus. Lenin charged Narimanov with facilitating connections between the industrial stronghold of Baku and the rural countryside of Azerbaijan and Narimanov agreed to do what he could to help supply Soviet Russia with oil. Lenin put Narimanov in charge of the Soviet government of Azerbaijan, with the understanding that he would be granted significant leeway in cultural policies. Understanding the role of the south Caucasus in Soviet history, then, is also understanding how the extraction and use of oil and other natural resources were entangled with more familiar questions of nationalities policy and identity politics.

The Civilization Machine in the Early Bronze Age

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam T. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Benedict Anderson ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Material Things ◽  
Homo Faber

This chapter examines the role of things in the reproduction of a public—the first condition of sovereignty defined in Chapter 2—during the Early Bronze Age in the South Caucasus. “A public” here means a self-recognizing community that is not maintained exclusively through face-to-face interaction. It is thus in large part an assembly of strangers who are made familiar to one another through an assemblage of publicity—forms of mass mediation and sites of encounter, such as those Benedict Anderson described as fundamental to the imagination of modern nations. The suggestion that material things are critical to the creation of a public follows closely Hannah Arendt's conception of humanity as Homo faber.

scholarly journals Georgian Direction of Russian Foreign Policy: Negative Scenario

2012 ◽  
pp. 34-39
Author(s):  
A. A. Suchentsov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Main Trend ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Russian Foreign Policy ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Policy Orientation ◽  
Low Intensity ◽  
Ruling Elites

Correction of the assessments of Russian national interests in international low intensity conflicts is particularly relevant with regard to Russian policy in the the South Caucasus. Replacement of the ruling elites in Georgia expands the space for dialogue with Tbilisi, but the main trend in the foreign policy orientation of Georgia's - Euro- Atlantic integration - seems to remain unchanged. Due to the fact that "political legacy" of Saakashvili's government continues to influence Georgia's policy it is reasonable to refer to the possible strategy of indirect actions of Russia to win sympathies of the Georgian society and inhibit the "Atlantic" tendency “from below”.

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