The North Caucasus, which is bordered by two regional states, Azerbaijan and Georgia, is strategically important to Russia.  For the preservation of peace in the southern portion of the country, the federal center along with the use of force is conducting economic reforms meant to provide new work places, an improvement in the standard of living of the population, and a reduction in the amount of out-migration. Economic weakness and a lack of social development in such a strategically important region represent a serious danger for the state integrity of Russia, because among the re...

The visit to Baku last summer by a leading Armenian intellectual, Gerard Libaridian, a professor at the University of Michigan and chief advisor to Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the first president of Armenia, to take part in a conference on “Joint Efforts in the Name of the Future of the Caucasus” is only the highest profile indication that Armenian intellectuals increasingly recognize that the resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh will result in the return of the Azerbaijani population to that region.  That visit was a positive factor and it would be a goo...

A joint Iranian-Armenian project to build a new hydro-electric station on the Araz River could have serious ecological and political consequences for Azerbaijan, according to experts in Baku.  And those consequences would compound the wounds that Armenia has already inflicted on the Azerbaijani environment through its occupation of more than 20 percent of the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan. On November 8, Iranian and Armenian officials installed a ceremonial cornerstone marking the beginning of work on a project that is slated to produce 1,700 gigawatts of electric power an...