Azerbaijan: A Pipeline to Profits and Territorial Tension

As the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline moves toward operational status, the Azerbaijani government stands to make a lot of money very quickly. Most will likely go to President Ilham Aliyev, his clan and the country's defense budget (probably in that order). Meanwhile, hostilities between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which occupies the Nagorno-Karabakh territory within Azerbaijan, will likely escalate and eventually erupt into renewed conflict.