Prisoner of the Caucasus?

Abstract

For much of the past three decades, the South Caucasus has been internally fragmented, with former imperial hegemon Russia attempting to manipulate the region’s multiple conflicts to keep Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia from spinning too far out of Moscow’s orbit. Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine therefore created a fundamentally new reality. Russian distraction both provided the three South Caucasus states new freedom of action and created opportunities for other regional and non-regional actors to bolster their political, economic, and security presence. These include the United States, which now has occasion to rethink its approach to a strategically significant region that has, arguably, been less of a priority in recent years.

Document Type

Article

Topic(s)

Great Power Competition, National Security

Region(s)

Eastern Europe, North Asia

Publication Date

12-17-2024

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