The search for political solutions to ethnic conflicts; the complexities, successes and failures of democratisation in newly independent states; the political economy of the oil wealth of the Caspian: these are some of the most vital issues in the Caucasian region.
The journal Caucasian Regional Studies (1996-2000) aimed to stimulate an inter-disciplinary debate about these issues among academics from the region itself as well as from appropriate departments in the West and the former Soviet Union . It was the journal's policy to publish contributions on a wide variety of topics including collective security, inter-state relations, ethnic conflicts, democratization, civil society and economics. This was the first journal in the English and Russian languages exclusively devoted to the affairs of the Caucasus .
The idea of the journal developed at a conference funded by the European Union and held in Tbilisi in September 1995. The International Association for Caucasian Regional Studies was founded at the same conference and some of the conference papers were published in the first issue of the journal. The last issue appeared in 2000.
