Russia, the United States, and the Caucasus

📖 The Scoop

In the post-Soviet period, the Caucasus region has been a source of chronic instability and conflict: Unresolved "frozen conflicts" in Abkhazia, Southern Ossetia, and Nagorno Karabakh; continuing armed resistance in secessionist Chechnya and associated Islamic radicalism; the "Rose Revolution" in Georgia and Tbilisi's subsequent efforts to realign with the West; competition for access to the oil and natural gas reserves of the Caspian basin these kinds of factors and more have ensured that the region would become and remain a source of significant international engagement and concern. Professor R. Craig Nation's monograph highlights the kind of conflicting interests that have made Russian-American relations in the region highly competitive. But he also addresses areas of shared priorities and mutual advantage that provide a potential foundation for more benign engagement that can work to contain conflict and head off further regional disintegration. However they are resolved, regional issues emerging from the Caucasus will have a significant impact upon the larger climate of U.S.- Russian relations in the years to come. Professor Nation's monograph was presented at a conference in Washington, DC, held on April 24 26, 2006, jointly sponsored by the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI); the Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies at the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington; the Pacific Northwest Center for Global Security; and the Institute for Global and Regional Security Studies. It is the latest in a series of papers prepared from this conference published by SSI. We are pleased to present it as a significant addition to the series, and a timely contribution to the broad reconsideration of the factors defining the U.S.-Russian relationship that is currently underway.

Genre: Political Science / Political Freedom (fancy, right?)