The development of the information and technology sector is a key aspect of Azerbaijan’s future, according to the 2012 “Azerbaijan 2020: Future Look” concept paper.  That sector has been growing at an annual rate of more than 20 percent over the last decade, a trend that is projected by the Communication and Information Technologies Ministry to continue.  Indeed, it may at some point become a more important source of national income than the oil and natural gas sector. The Azerbaijan government has been actively promoting this latter trend through a variety of agencies an...

The attitudes of a country’s population to foreign countries both affect and are affected by that nation’s foreign policy, but measuring such attitudes is almost always problematic.  That is nowhere more true than in the South Caucasus.  But a study prepared by the Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC) on the basis of massive polling in all three of the countries here provides some interesting data on these underlying attitudes. Azerbaijanis are less interested in NATO and EU membership than are Georgians.  In Georgia, 67 percent and 72 percent say they want their c...

As the Syrian crisis continues, ever more foreign jihadis have joined the opposition.  That phenomenon like the crisis itself has passed through several stages.  It began when during the winter months of 2011-2012, the Gulf States have intensified efforts to strengthen military capabilities of the Free Syrian Army by transferring to Syria seasoned fighters from the just ended Libyan civil war.  By May 2012, the Liwa al-Umma, a “volunteer” formation within the ranks of FSA, was formed, led by Mahdi al-Harati, a former deputy chief of the Tripoli Military Council, a part...