Soft and Hard Security in the South Caucasus and Nagorno-Karabakh: A Euro-Atlantic Perspective

Abstract

Historically, the South Caucasus region, comprising the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, has long served as an arena for competing powers and rival empires, hostage to the intense competition between much larger regional powers, as neighbouring Russia, Turkey and Iran have jockeyed for supremacy and influence. And those very same historic powers continue to exert influence today as dominant actors in the region, even as more distant world powers, such as the United States and the European Union, have each become more interested and engaged in the South Caucasus.