Esmira Jafarova

Eu and South Caucasus: Prospects and Implications: Assessment of Factors Accounting for the Increase of Eu Attention Towards South Caucasus Region in 2000-2001 Esmira Jafarova

This work is one of the first attempts to analyze EU-South Caucasus relations. The work gives a short overview to the EU-South Caucasus relations in areas like trade, political and legal cooperation. Its main focus, however, is the explanation of the factors accounting for the increase of attention in the South Caucasus dimension of the EU in 2000-2001. This limitation also helped to shed light on EU policy towards the region in different periods: the period of 2000-2001, when the EU started to display more activism in the region, and period of 1994-2000, when the EU's economic and security interests in the region did not, however, trigger more attention towards the republics. The work is also original due to its incorporation of the assumptions of the mainstream International Relations theories in the analysis of the researched phenomenon. Thus, the author explains the increase of EU attention towards the South Caucasus region from the perspective of three theoretical approaches to International Relations: neoliberalism, realism and constructivism.