Nagorno Karabakh Conflict: Problems and Possibilities for Political Resolution

The argument that democratic states do not go to war with one another, better known by political scientists and international relations theorists as the democratic peace proposition, remains one of the most difficult to dispute phenomena in state's relations with one another. Immanuel Kant argued over two hundred years ago that three components were necessary in order for dyads to behave peacefully toward one another: institutionalized democracy, closely intertwined economies, and international organizations. In this thesis, I analyze a specific dyad, Armenia and Azerbaijan, which in the early 1990s, had a war over the territory of Nagorno Karabakh. A cease-fire was brokered in 1994; however, still in 2009 a political solution is far from being rendered. The thesis will begin with a brief introduction to the Nagorno Karabakh territorial dispute as well as a section on democratic peace literature and theory. In the main chapters, I will discuss each leg of the Kantian tripod for peace and the problems and possibilities in achieving each of these individual requirements in the Karabakh case. The paper will conclude by examining whether Armenia and Azerbaijan have a chance at realizing democracy.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts in Social Sciences (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis (open access)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Year dc:date.available

2009

Author dc:creator

• Williams, Jessica

Contributors dc:contributor

• Krista Wiegand
• Richard Pacelle

• ETD
• Karabakh
• Nagorno
• Democratic peace theory
• Territorial disputes
• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Economic interdependence
• IGOs
• Peace
• Pacific settlement of international disputes

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/615

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu:etd-1615