Transitional intervention strategies for conflict transformation in the South Caucasus

Abstract

This article discusses major policy and institutional interventions needed for conflict transformation in the South Caucasus. It examines how different forms of territorialpolitical organisation of government have been used to mitigate both violent and nonviolent conflicts and how international experience could be applied to promote peaceful resolution of the conflicts over Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorny Karabakh. The article shows how the conflicting parties’ mental fixation on final status stalls peace processes, and argues that rather than discussing end-state solutions or end-state models of governance, conflict parties need to focus on interim (transitional) policy and institutional arrangements that would allow them to normalise relations and set out roadmaps for cooperation and gradual reconciliation. The article also underlines the importance of adhering to standards of good governance and human rights, as necessary preconditions for ensuring the legitimacy, and thus, sustainability, of peace processes.