Since independence, the South Caucasus region has suffered greatly from instability and economic hardships, largely as a consequence of ethnopolitical conflicts raging in the early 1990s. A deeply rooted legacy of defining national identity on the basis of ethnic, rather than civic, belonging has continued to breed tensions between ethnic groups in the region and has complicated the governments’ relationship with national minorities.

Three regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia and Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, have been separated from the control sphere of the Georgian and Azerbaijani governments and continuing occurrences of ethnic clashes, especially in Georgia, prove that tensions between ethnic groups remain a threat to the overall stability of the region.

The Joint Center’s project on Conflict Management in the South Caucasus aims at bringing about understanding of the roots of ethnic controversies, with a view to build capacity internationally as well as among state institutions in the region, ultimately to reduce conflict potentials. The Center’s research emphasizes the role of civic, as opposed to ethnic, national identity in state-building in the region.

The research also analyzes the way state policies have balanced the promotion thereof with internationally recognized rights of national minorities, and how minority issues interact with wider issues such as the role of external powers in the South Caucasus.

The Joint Center’s work aims at increasing dialogue between the governments and national minority groups with a view to raise awareness on deficits in the relationship between the South Caucasian governments and national minorities and to identify fruitful ways of improving it. Thus, in addition to research exchange initiatives and publications, the Center brings, through workshops and conferences, key actors together to discuss avenues for capacity-building and conflict prevention. The Center has an established network of regional partners who facilitate the effective implementation and outreach of the project.

Current activities:

In Spring 2006, the Joint Center conducted specific research on national minorities in Georgia and Azerbaijan, focusing on the situation in Georgia, the most multi-ethnic country of the Caucasus. This was conducted in cooperation with the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies. Within this framework, a workshop was held in Uppsala in May 2006 (Click here for Workshop report), and a conference was held in Tbilisi in June 2006. (Click here for conference program).

Current Publications:

Johanna Popjanevski, Minorities and the State in the South Caucasus: Assessing the Protection of National Minorities in Georgia and Azerbaijan, Washington & Uppsala: CACI&SRSP Silk Road Paper, September 2006, 88 pp.

Johanna Popjanevski and Niklas Nilsson, "National Minorities and the State in Georgia", Report of Joint Conference with Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, Tbilisi, June 30, 2006.

Johanna Popjanevski and Niklas Nilsson, Conflict Management and Ethnic Relations in the South Caucasus: National Minorities in Georgia, Workshop Report, Uppsala, May 2006.

Earlier Publications:
Kenneth S. Yalowitz and Svante E. Cornell, “The Critical but Perilous Caucasus”, in Orbis, vol. 47 no. 4, Winter 2003.

Svante Cornell et.al., The South Caucasus: Regional Overview and Conflict Assessment, Stockholm: SIDA, 2002 (96 pp, large file.)

Svante Cornell, “Autonomy as a Source of Conflict: Cases in the Caucasus in Theoretical Perspective”, World Politics, vol. 54 no. 2, February 2002.

Svante Cornell, Autonomy and Conflict: Ethnoterritoriality and Separatism in the South Caucasus – Cases in Georgia, Uppsala: Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Report no. 61, 2002. (260 pp.)

Svante E. Cornell, "The Devaluation of the Concept of Autonomy: National Minorities in the former Soviet Union", Central Asian Survey, vol. 18 no. 2, June 1999.