The Conflict in the Caucasus: Geopolitical Implications
The Conflict in the Caucasus: Geopolitical Implications
November 9, 2020
11:00am – 12:00pm
Zoom Webinar
In late September 2020, the twenty-six-year-old frozen conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh heated back up. Beyond the battlefield, the conflict has been punctuated by attacks on non-military targets. For example, the ballistic missile attacks on the Azerbaijani city of Ganja resulted in civilian casualties. Seven weeks into the current conflict, Azerbaijan made some gains in capturing its occupied lands from Armenia. In the meantime, several ceasefires have been agreed upon but failed. It remains to be seen whether the most recent ceasefire will hold and we will return to the ‘frozen conflict’ status quo. What are the implications of the recent conflict for the geopolitical dynamics in the region? How do Russia and Turkey’s roles come into play? What are some of the likely scenarios lying ahead?
The SETA Foundation at Washington DC is pleased to host an expert panel discussion on the geopolitical implications of the conflict in the Caucasus.
Speakers
Thomas de Waal, Senior Fellow at Carnegie Europe
Luke Coffey, Director, Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation
Moderator
Kadir Ustun, Executive Director, The SETA Foundation at Washington DC
Bios
Tomas de Waal is a senior fellow with Carnegie Europe, specializing in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus region. He is the author of numerous publications about the region. The second edition of his book The Caucasus: An Introduction (Oxford University Press) was published in 2018. He is also the author of Great Catastrophe: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide (Oxford University Press, 2015) and of the authoritative book on the Nagorny Karabakh conflict, Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War (NYU Press, second edition 2013). From 2010 to 2015, de Waal worked for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC. Before that he worked extensively as a journalist in both print and for BBC radio. From 1993 to 1997, he worked in Moscow for the Moscow Times, the Times of London, and the Economist, specializing in Russian politics and the situation in Chechnya. He co-authored (with Carlotta Gall) the book Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus (NYU Press, 1997), for which the authors were awarded the James Cameron Prize for Distinguished Reporting.
Luke Coffey is the director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. Coffey, named to the post in December 2015, oversees foreign policy and international affairs issues. Coffey previously was Heritage’s Margaret Thatcher fellow, focusing on relations between the United States and the United Kingdom and on the role of NATO and the European Union in transatlantic and Eurasian security. Before joining the think tank’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom in 2012, Coffey had served at the UK Ministry of Defence since 2010 as senior special adviser to then-British Defence Secretary Liam Fox. Coffey received a master of science degree in the politics and government of the European Union from the London School of Economics. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in political science from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and studied African politics as a visiting undergraduate at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa.
Kadir Ustun is the Executive Director at the SETA Foundation at Washington, D.C. Previously, Dr. Ustun was the Research Director at SETA DC and Assistant Editor of Insight Turkey. Dr. Ustun holds a PhD in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies from Columbia University and a Master’s degree in History from Bilkent University. He has contributed to various SETA reports and his writings have appeared in various publications such as Insight Turkey, Al Jazeera English, Hurriyet Daily News, Daily Sabah, Mediterranean Quarterly, and Cairo Review of Global Affairs among others. He is also co-editor of edited volumes History, Politics and Foreign Policy in Turkey, Change and Adaptation in Turkish Foreign Policy, Politics and Foreign Policy in Turkey: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, and Trump’s Jerusalem Move: Making Sense of U.S. Policy on the Israeli Palestinian Conflict.
