The EU’s New Foreign Policy and Its Impact on the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

Abstract

For many years, the EU has been working on the creation of a new and more effective foreign policy. Some Member States were more reluctant than others to create the instruments which we have today and which an EU of 27 needs in order to have an impact on the world scene. Europe was largely absent when the war in Nagorno-Karabakh broke out in 1991. This chapter analyses how Europe has changed and outlines the consequences for the South Caucasus and, more specifically, conflicts such as the one regarding Nagorno-Karabakh. Meanwhile, the chapter also explains that the underlying basis for the EU’s foreign policy remains our common values of peace, achieved through economic and political integration, democracy and the rule of law — including international law.