More Diplomacy, Not Minefields, Needed to Secure Peace in the South Caucasus

More Diplomacy, Not Minefields, Needed to Secure Peace in the South Caucasus

On August 8, 2025, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia signed a joint declaration for peace at the White House, with President Donald Trump as witness. Their foreign ministers also initialed, pending “further actions” before signing, an Agreement on Establishment of Peace and Inter-State Relations. Despite the summit theatrics […] The post More Diplomacy, Not Minefields, Needed to Secure Peace in th…

‘Trump Corridor’ to bisect Armenia under ‘peace’ deal

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan signed a joint declaration at the White House on Aug. 8, with Donald Trump boasting that the US-brokered deal ends decades of conflict between the Caucasus neighbors in the US-brokered deal. Critically, the agreement calls for a new transport corridor across Armenian territory, linking Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan, which lies between Armenia and Iran. T…

From the Balkans to the South Caucasus: How Trump’s “peace deals” serve U.S. and Israeli interests

After brokering the peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan on August 8, U.S. President Donald Trump managed to portray himself as a “peacemaker”—at least, in the eyes of his supporters. It is a role he has been eager to claim on more than one occasion. While Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev were signing the “Agreement on Establishment of Peace and Inter-State Relations” between their countries, Tr…