At the end of August, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited Yerevan and signed an agreement extending Moscow’s lease on a military base in Armenia and committing Russia to defend that country.  Then, less than two weeks later, the Russian leader made his third visit to Baku, the latest effort by Moscow to maintain its difficult balancing act among the countries of the South Caucasus even as the Russian government exploits its growing power there in the wake of the Russian-Georgian war of two years ago particularly relative to powers outside the region.  It remains unclear...

In 2011, Azerbaijan will mark the 20th anniversary of the recovery of its independence, and during that period, it has had close ties with the United States, despite all the vicissitudes of the international system.  The United States was among the first to recognize Azerbaijan’s independence (December 25, 1991) and to establish bilateral ties (February 28, 1992).  Later in 1992, each country opened an embassy in the capital of the other.  Since that year, there have been 74 bilateral agreements signed between Azerbaijan and the United States, and these provide the basis...

Despite the increasing attention the European Union is devoting to the South Caucasus, the EU’s current approach is not capable of influencing the countries in that region to a significant degree.  And that has proved to be the case despite the interest of all the countries in that region of developing closer ties with the EU and other European institutions and despite the evolution of EU policy over the course of the last 20 years from one that accepted Moscow’s predominance in the region to an approach predicated on the ultimate integration of the three South Caucasus countrie...