War in the Caucasus is Inevitable

摘要

Behind the frozen status of the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict lurks a massive disaster that could lead to a third world war. Yet who has ever heard of Nagorno-Karabakh. The south Caucasus is home to a delicate arrangement of dominos, lined up, one after another, with the potential of causing a chain reaction with slightest disturbance. The media has steered clear from this active conflict, but this paper will shed light to its potential destructive force by demonstrating the sources of tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh and how Russia, Turkey, Iran, and the United States play into the mixture. Doused with ancient enmity and ethnic hatred, the collective memory of the Armenian genocide is at the heart of the current Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. For these reasons, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict may be the catalyst for the next world war.