Publication

This report examines the stability in Azerbaijan brought about by the consolidation of authoritarian rule under Ilham Aliyev's presidency. With a marginalized and demoralized opposition, little independent media and rent-seeking elites who have vested interests in the preservation of his power, Ilham Aliyev has a level of control over society that his father never possessed. The international community has little leverage with which to pressure the regime, but it should do more to persuade the leadership to see that even its own self-interests lie in gradual but genuine liberalization.