How the White House Is Keeping Russia out of the South Caucasus
After successfully expanding US influence in Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Trump administration should set its sights on Georgia.
South Caucasus
Vance Visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan Signals U.S. Push Into Region Dominated by Russia
The U.S. is using diplomatic and economic carrots to project influence in a region that Russia has long regarded as its backyard. Vice President JD Vance visited Armenia and Azerbaijan from February...
Policy Briefs
Georgian PM’s Visit to China Highlights Beijing’s Growing Footprint in South Caucasus
China is a “role model for modernization” and a “champion of peace,” Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze declared during a visit to Shanghai in early November, where the two countries signed...
Policy Briefs
Georgian Dream’s Power Grab Sets Stage to Outlaw Opposition
The Republic of Georgia continues its democratic backslide under Georgian Dream, the country’s authoritarian ruling party, which is sympathetic to Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran and antagonistic to Washington...
Policy Briefs
Armenia–Azerbaijan deal worries Iran
Washington brokered an agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan on August 8 aimed at opening a transit corridor through the South Caucasus. The new agreement replaces the original Zangezur...
Op-eds
In the Caucasus, Donald Trump Has an Opportunity
With Azerbaijan defying Russia, the region has the opportunity to clinch a historic peace deal.
Op-eds
US International energy policy toward the 2024 elections
While international energy policy is not on the ballot in the 2024 US elections, the election outcome will profoundly impact the U.S. role in international energy developments. Current U.S. energy policies have determined new rules of American engagement in the international arena. ...
Op-eds
Israel’s Role in the Second Armenia-Azerbaijan War and Its Implications for the Future
Excerpt For a quarter of a century, Israel and Azerbaijan have maintained deep strategic cooperation that touches on national security issues of the highest importance to both sides. The defense relationship...
Op-eds
The Trigger for War: Energy in the 2020 Armenia-Azerbaijan War
Excerpt Traditionally, militaries at war seek to meet their operational energy1 needs, gain access to energy supplies, and deny energy supplies to their adversaries. However, in the 2020 Armenia—Azerbaijan...
Op-eds
Collusion or Collision?
Turkey-Russia Relations Under Erdogan and Putin
Monographs
Armenia’s nuclear power plant is dangerous. Time to close it.
In late 2020, the Armenian government announced that its Metsamor nuclear power plant would close for five months in 2021 to attempt significant upgrades. Soon after, the EU urged Armenia to make the closure...
Op-eds
More than Just Friends? New Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan Agreement on Joint Energy Production in the Caspian Sea
On January 21, 2021 the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan signed an intergovernmental Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for joint development of the newly named Dostluq (friendship in Azerbaijani...
Op-eds
The Armenia-Azerbaijan War: Downgrading Iran’s Regional Role
The security architecture emerging in the South Caucasus following the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan led to significant changes for the region’s three main powers: Russia and Turkey gained increased...
Op-eds
The Iran Factor in Talks Between U.S., Azerbaijan, and Armenia
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will host the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia for apparently separate meetings in Washington this Friday to discuss the ongoing fighting between their two countries....
Policy Briefs
Unfinished Business
How a Department of Justice forfeiture complaint may be an opening gambit against Iranian sanctions’ evasion.
Op-eds
Occupied Elsewhere
Selective Policies on Occupations, Protracted Conflicts, and Territorial Disputes
Monographs
Snap-Back: A Journey Through Iranian Sanctions Evasion in Georgia
Two Iranian truck drivers sat idly in the parking area of the Poti Free Industrial Zone(FIZ), waiting for customs authoriti...
Op-eds
The Sanctions on Iran Are Already Falling Apart
The Obama administration insists that the November 2013 interim nuclear deal with Iran gave Tehran’s economy only limited sanctions relief and that it can respond to Iranian misbe...
Op-eds
How Iran Uses Dual Citizenship in the Caribbean to Skirt Sanctions
St. Kitts and Nevis (SKN) is a miniscule Caribbean nation whose biggest employer is the state sugar corporation and whose currency features wading sea turtles and the visage of Queen Elizabeth II...
Op-eds
How Iran Is Skirting Sanctions in the Southern Caucasus
Proxies and agents, merchants and middlemen, peddlers and enablers of the Iranian regime have been scouring the globe for years in search of ways to evade U.S. sanctions and help Iran acquire nuc...