The development of cooperation between the South Caucasus countries in the field of railway transport. The role of the international regime after the Karabakh war

Abstract

The subject of research is the mutual influence of the development of the South Caucasus countries’ transport system, and international political and economic cooperation of actors. The author emphasizes that, despite all contradictions, the “international regime” system allows the Russian Federation to participate in the work of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway transport corridor. Based on the complex mutual influence theory, the author focuses on the problem of this system influencing the development of transport networks after the Nagorno-Karabakh war. The research methodology is based on the case study method which helps the author not only to analyze the activities of the parties to the conflict, but also to forecast the strategy of each of political actors of the “international regime” in the South Caucasus in the field of railway transport cooperation. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the institutional approach to the problem of conflict settlement by means of cooperation between the South Caucasian states involved in the area of interest in the field of transport logistics. Based on the research, the author concludes that for Russia, joining the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars transport corridor gives a new opportunity for mutually beneficial cooperation. Moreover, transport corridors, created by other countries in the South Caucasus, are not “competitors” within the international regime. The transformation of the movement of goods with the optimisation of routes, linking the actors, will directly or indirectly promote the economic capacity development and the interdependence of participants, which will lead to the decrease of security problems. Thus, in the long-term perspective, it can be seen that the unification of transport networks in the region will help the actors to mute conflicts and contradictions.