The Policy of the United States in the South Caucasus

Dr. Gayane Novikova
April  20, 2019

Any discussion regarding the current stage of U.S. foreign policy contains more questions than answers. The more recent trend has been determined by the slogan “America First!”, which means on the one hand that the U.S. is moving toward a more isolationistic policy. Steps which aim to serve only American interests can be to some extent provocative and unpredictable: In many cases they can give an impulse to irreversible changes in the security environment in certain regions. On the other hand, there is both a visible and hidden continuity in respect to the main directions and approaches toward the core issues of the American foreign policy.

Changes and continuity in U.S. foreign policy can be found not only in regard to global issues. The dynamic of developments even in areas of the world peripheral for the U.S. or — at first glance — around “insignificant” or less important issues can provoke the collapse of a very fragile regional security environment to the extent that global peace and security is affected.

This article aims to analyze the frameworks of interaction between the United States and the three main stakeholders of the South Caucasus region: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, through the prism of change and continuity in U.S. regional policy. See more