For the first time ever, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton is calling on the three countries of the South Caucasus. Bolton visited Azerbaijan on Oct. 24, where he met President Ilham Aliyev and highlighted the importance of Azerbaijan's role in the international energy market. One day later, Bolton visited Armenia to meet acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The U.S. official will round out his tour with a visit to Georgia on Oct. 26. The Caucasus is a major energy corridor and a geopolitical fault line at the intersection of Russia, the West and the Middle East; unsurprisingly, numerous external powers have vied for influence in the region. While the Trump administration has been relatively quiet on the region, a variety of factors have put the area on Washington's radar....
