Conflict Transformation -Articles

Such narratives allow living with those who distrust you because they are not held responsible for this distrust.

After completion of the Scholarship Program, hbs provided its alumni S. Rumyantsev and S. Huseynova with an additional opportunity to implement a joint project with colleagues from Armenia. One of the results of this collaboration was the book Beyond the Karabakh Conflict: The Story of Village Exchange written together with Arsen Hakobyan. Ten years later, the acquired experience has not lost its relevance for the authors. in Russian

After ten years of the August 2008 war - Abkhazia and South Ossetia have been grown more alienated from Georgia, Georgia - from Russia, Abkhazia is even further than ever from its independence. Perhaps South Ossetia is the only territory that is nowadays closer to the aim of its national project, which is to become a part of the Russian Federation.

What does it feel like when you are living on the edge… to be perpetually on the edge of losing, say, a part of your house? Or waking up to find that your house is divided with your living in your own country, but your kitchen now resides within enemy-occupied territory?

The power of Russia’s disinformation campaign via the media and Kremlin-financed and/or supported NGOs have been clearly seen in the West with the Ukraine crisis. However, for the post-Soviet republics, these tactics are familiar. հայերեն

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, independence for Armenia has faced a daunting trade-off of sovereignty for security. With the insecurity from a war with neighbouring Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh that erupted even before independence, Armenia has long relied on Russia as its “strategic partner” and security provider. հայերեն

Five years have passed after the regime change in Georgia, which, many thought, would have diverted the country from its Western course and made it vulnerable to Russia’s influence. These five years saw a surge of Russia’s “soft power” around the world, including in the South Caucasus; however, on the ground, the soft power still remains of limited nature and has failed to achieve major breakthroughs. հայերեն

The case of the frozen conflict of Nagorno-Karabakh unlike other frozen conflicts of the Former Soviet Union is in the backstage of the regional and broader attention. While the recent developments with three other countries of European Union Eastern Partnership – Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova – signing the Association Agreement with the EU  give it  now a formal justification - there are a few more substantial reasons for that, the  main of which is its complexity.

Though in early 2016 policy-makers and policy analysts on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict warned of “un-freezing of the conflict”, there seemed to be a consensus among the majority of observers that a major escalation of the conflict was unlikely. Then, in April 2016, came the “four day war”. Several months later, in summer 2016, some experts warned of a possible repetition of April events. Indeed, since then numerous violent incidents in the zone of conflict took place, however, so far the predictions about a possible repetition of April events have failed to materialize.

From the outset, Germany’s chairmanship of the OSCE, in 2016, promised to be fraught with sizable challenges. One of these challenges came from the recent developments in the South Caucasus, which demonstrated with renewed force that national boundaries in the post-Soviet space, and thus the security situation, are still far from stable.

Is it possible that simplified travel to and from Europe and step-by-step integration with it can help to create a consensus in Abkhaz society that will make it possible for us Georgians to live in a single state with them?

Conflicts in the Caucasus have an unfortunate resemblance to volcanoes. They erupt in short and devastating episodes of violence, then for a long period everything is quiet and nothing moves.

Can a football game change the history of a region? The luck of the draw put Turkey and Armenia in the same qualifying group for the FIFA World Cup of 2010. The countries had been locked in enmity since the 1990s, and the matches promised merely more of the same, if they were played at all. But leaders in both countries had been quietly moving toward a more constructive relationship.

The Georgian-Russian War in August 2008 raised questions towards the strategic configuration of Europe, which are unanswered until today. In Georgia, the HBF is a leading actor running public debates on the August War and its implications for International Politics. The profound discussions which are organized by the Foundation in Tbilisi are an important contribution to democratic development in Georgia.