Role of international community and organizations in South Caucasian ethnopolitical conflicts

Abstract

This essay is primarily concerned with the eruption of ethnic conflicts in the South Caucasus; the analysis of the practical and normative dimensions of international involvement and mediation efforts, in which international organizations such as the OSCE and the UN took the lead. The region has attracted increasing international attention and a great deal of effort has been directed at the resolution of the existing ethnopolitical confrontations. Therefore this essay will attempt to compare patterns of international involvement in the three cases of South Caucasian conflicts, identify what the general impact of such involvement has been and examine how it has varied across the cases and across time. Finally, although international involvement has significantly evolved and been enhanced over the past years, it has as yet failed to deliver concrete results. In this respect, the essay will argue that the incorporation of the social-psychological dimensions of ethnic conflicts, which appear to receive marginal importance both in scholarly discourse and actual resolution efforts, should be an integral part of the official diplomacy.