Lexington Books The New Geopolitics of the South Caucasus: Prospects for Regional Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (Contemporary Central Asia: Societies, Politics, and Cultures)

This collection surveys the three South Caucasian states' economic, social and political evolution since their independence in 1991. It assesses their successes and failures in these areas, including their attempts to build new national identities and value systems to replace Soviet-era structures. It explains the interplay of domestic and international factors that have affected their performance and influenced the balance of their successes and shortcomings. It focuses on the policies pursued by key regional and international actors towards the region and assesses the effects of regional and international rivalries on these states' development, as well as on the prospects for regional cooperation and conflict resolution. Finally, it analyzes a number regional and international developments which could affect the future trajectory of these states' evolution. Review Shireen T. Hunter has brought together a truly international team of experts to examine the complex geopolitics of the South Caucasus. The breadth and depth of analysis on key questions--such as state-building, democracy, and US-Russian rivalry--present the reader with a rich and textured account of the region. This volume is a tour de force on the interplay of global and regional dynamics which have made the geopolitics of the South Caucasus a continuing source of challenges and opportunities.--Shahram Akbarzadeh, Professor of Middle East and Central Asian Politics, Deakin University Shireen T. Hunter, herself an expert in Caucasian and Central Asian affairs, has gathered an exceptional team of specialists on the local histories, recent experiences, and geopolitics affecting the three South Caucasian republics--Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Geography may be destiny, but surviving and thriving in an area contested for centuries by Iran, Russia, and Turkey requires both diplomatic and political skills as well as good luck. In essays written with deep local knowledge and exceptional clarity, leading specialists guide the reader through the intricacies and complexities of the region. If you want to understand the past, present, and the future of the South Caucasian peoples, this is the book with which to begin.--Ronald Grigor Suny, William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History and Political Science, University of Michigan This study puts today's volatile South Caucasus in its proper historical and geopolitical context. Readers new to the subject will become conversant with the main issues; old hands will find much to ponder and discuss. Shireen T. Hunter's own unique perspective is especially valuable.--John Evans, former US ambassador to Armenia About the Author Shireen Hunter is a Research Professor at the School of Foreign Service and affiliated with the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. From 2007 to 2014 she was a Visiting Professor at the Center and from 2005 to 2007 a visiting scholar working on a project on Reformist Islam funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Before joining the Center she was the director of the Islam Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies with which she had been affiliated since 1983. She has also had appointments at the Harvard Center for International Affairs (Research Fellow, January to August 1979) and Brookings Institution (Visiting Fellow, August 1979-January 1980.) From 1965 to 1979 she was with the Iranian foreign service serving in London, Geneva and Tehran. She attained the rank of Counselor. Hunter is the author of 10 books and 5 monographs and the editor of 6 books and 4 monographs. Her latest publications include: God On Our Side: Religion and International Affairs , Rowman & Littlefield, forthcoming December 2016; Iran Divided: The Historical Roots of Iranian Debates on Identity , Culture and Governance, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014; Iran's Foreign Policy in the Post-Soviet Era: Resistin