Recent political history of the south Caucasus in the context of transition

The chain of events since the South Caucasus Republics gained independence in 1991 inspired authors to write about the region using different themes. Some focus on history and nation building, 2 taking the breaking out of the Russian empire as a central theme. 3 Still others focus on nationalism, 4 or on scouting the trail of different colored revolutions. 5 Following the scent of oil in geopolitics 6 is another favorite topic and publications on the August 2008 war in the Caucasus are beginning to appear. 7 In this case I am interested in reflecting on the recent political history of the South Caucasus Republics using transition as a leading concept. This chapter also serves as a general frame for the next chapters all dealing with either Georgia, Azerbaijan and/or Armenia.