Managing conflict and integration in the South Caucasus : [electronic resource] a challenge for the European Union / Neil Melvin (SIPRI) and Giulia Prelz Oltramonti (ULB)

SIP1511

"November 2015"

Parallel extra-regional integration projects in the South Caucasus culminated in June 2014 with Georgia’s conclusion of an European Union (EU) Association Agreement and in January 2015 with Armenia’s accession to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union. Azerbaijan remains outside either project. The implementation of these projects risks an increase in regional fragmentation and a further destabilization of the South Caucasus, notably the protracted conflicts of Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia. To counter the potential negative impacts of its integrationist policies in the South Caucasus, the EU should increase political and diplomatic engagement to mitigate conflict dynamics, and seek ways to lessen the destabilizing aspects of EU–Russia competition in the South Caucasus. To this end, this policy brief offers four recommendations to strengthen the EU’s conflict-resolution and stability-building policies in the region.

CASCADE is an international EU-funded research project designed to explore the linkages between societal challenges, political developments and confl icts in the Caucasus region. A particular focus is the relationship between security and democratization. SIPRI is leading the work on the conflicts of the Caucasus within CASCADE. The project runs from 2014 to 2017