Shifting Security in the South Caucasus

The region of the South Caucasus has long served as a key arena for competing regional players and, for much of the past two centuries, has been hostage to the competing interests of much larger regional powers. Those very same historic powers— Russia, Turkey, and Iran—continue to exert influence as today’s dominant actors in the region. But, most significantly, this combination of historical legacies and current realities now constitutes a rapid shift in regional security. This shift in security incorporates not only several general elements, ranging from the challenges of energy security to the constraints imposed by several unresolved or “frozen” conflicts, but also more specific trends, including a new, deeper level of engagement by both NATO and the European Union. Against the backdrop of a dynamic shift in the security environment, the three states of the South Caucasus region—Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia—each face a difficult course of economic and political reform, systemic transition, and nation building. The region also continues to struggle in overcoming the legacy of constraints and challenges stemming from seven decades of Soviet rule. But it is the more recent