Requiem for the Unipolar Moment in Nagorny Karabakh

Abstract

In the wave of self-determination conflicts that became a hallmark of the Soviet dissolution in the Caucasus, the Armenian–Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorny Karabakh was always an outlier. It certainly shared formative attributes with subsequent conflicts in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Chechnya: contested Soviet border delimitations, nationalist movements sweeping decrepit communist power structures aside, and the weak, fractious statehood of the republics that succeeded Soviet rule in December 1991. The secessionist victory in the first Karabakh war of 1992–94 was also consistent with the wider post-Soviet trend. With Armenia’s support, the Armenians of Nagorny Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan and established their own, unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR).