US Policy Towards the South Caucasus

How to Move Forward

Author(s): Fariz Ismailzade
Editor(s): Iris Kempe, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic, Lili Di Puppo
Series: Caucasus Analytical Digest (CAD)
Issue: 13
Pages: 5-8
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Jefferson Institute, Washington D.C.; Heinrich Böll Foundation, Tbilisi; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen
Publication Year: 2010

Since the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, many in the South Caucasus, as in the rest of the world, wonder what the new administration's vision and policy toward their respective region will be. The reset of US-Russian relations and the seemingly soft foreign policy of President Obama raise concerns among South Caucasus citizens that the United States is gradually distancing itself from this strategically important region. Although the US legitimately has other foreign policy priorities, such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, disengagement from the South Caucasus/Caspian region would offset the geopolitical, economic and energy gains made in the past decade as well as leave the South Caucasus nations in a security vacuum.

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