Eurasianism and the Concept of Central Caucaso-Asia

Rethinking Central Eurasia 47
territory – Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia – which
undermine the political and economic stability of the entire Central
Caucasus. The situation worsened after Russia invaded Georgia in August
2008 and recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The
problem of instability in the Central Caucasus is also compounded by the
fact that the conflict territories themselves are becoming a bastion of
terrorism and refuge for criminals engaged in drug trafficking and the drug
trade, as well as zones for money laundering, kidnapping, and human
trafficking. 145 Thus, the idea of achieving unity in the Central Caucasus (and
in the Caucasus as a whole) can be considered an ideal the residents of this
region should really be striving for. 146
The international relations of the Central Caucasian countries are largely
determined by historical roots. These roots influence significantly the
International Affairs, 2001); Svante E. Cornell, Small Nations and Great Powers. A Study
of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus (Surrey: Curzon Press, 2001); Svante E. Cornell,
“Autonomy as a Source of Conflict: Caucasian Conflicts in Theoretical Perspective,”
World Politics, Vol. 54, No. 2 (2002), pp. 245-276; Tamara Dragadze, “Ethnic Conflict as
Political Smokescreen: The Caucasus Region,” in Håkan Wiberg and Christian P.
Scherrer, Ethnicity and Intra-State Conflict (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999), pp. 262-279;
Shireen Hunter, The Transcaucasus in Transition: Nation-Building and Conflict
(Washington, D.C.: CSIS, 1994); Ivlian Khaindrava, “Karabakh and Abkhazia: The
Dynamics of Non-Settlement,” Central Asia and the Caucasus, No. 1 (13) (2002), pp. 80-
91; Charles King, “The Benefits of Ethnic War: Understanding Eurasia’s Unrecognized
States,” World Politics, Vol. 53, No. 4 (2001), pp. 524-552; Dov Lynch, Engaging Eurasia’s
Separatist States. Unresolved Conflicts and De Facto States (Washington, D.C.: United
States Institute of Peace Press, 2004); Edgar O’Ballance, Wars in the Caucasus, 1990-1995
(New York: New York University Press, 1997); Christopher Panico and Jemera Rone,
Azerbaijan: Seven Years of Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh (New York: Human Rights
Watch, 1994); Vladimir Socor, “Frozen Conflicts: A Challenge to Euro-Atlantic
Interests,” in Ronald D. Asmus, Konstantin Dimitrov and Joerg Forbrig, eds., A New
Euro-Atlantic Strategy for the Black Sea Region (Washington, D.C.: The German
Marshall Fund of the United States, 2004), pp. 127-137; Thomas de Waal, Black Garden.
Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War (New York: New York University
Press, 2003); Alexei Zverev, “Ethnic Conflicts in the Caucasus 1988-1994,” in Bruno
Coppieters, ed., Contested Borders in the Caucasus (Brussels: VUB University Press,
1996), pp. 13-71.
145 Alla Yaz’kova, “Iuzhniy Kavkaz: uravnenie so mnogimi neizvestnymi” [Southern
Caucasus: the Equation With Many an Unknown], Vestnik analitiki [Analytical
Herald], No. 2 (20) (2005), pp. 57-58.
146 Gajiev, Geopolitika Kavkaza, p. 92.