Several events have put the Caucasus on the modern world map after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Firstly, the break up of the USSR brought independence to the previous Soviet Union Republics. The wars fought about the Autonomous regions (Chechnya, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Nagorno- Karabakh) within the Union Republics, drew media attention, unlocking an area which had been almost sealed for seventy years. Secondly, the Georgian Revolution of Roses in November 2003 received global media attention. Thirdly, the short, shocking ‘peace enforcing’ war between Russia and Georgia about the separatist region South Ossetia in August 2008 irrevocably put the Caucasus in the minds of the EU-public at large. Finally, the 2009 memorial of twenty years since the Fall of the Berlin Wall, reinforced the focus on this region, its problems of transition from a closed society based on planned economy and socialism, towards an open society based on a free market economy and democracy.

Since the early nineties, the themes concerning the Caucasus in the public debate have pivoted around transition, energy, Islam, security, and authoritarianism. In the aftermath of the first Iraq war in 1991, the United States of America became interested in Azerbaijan for its strategic geopolitical position and for its energy resources. If not for the force of persuasion by the administration in Washington D.C., the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, connecting the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean, may not have been built. It was opened in May 2005 and since then, a war and a financial crisis later, various other pipelines are in the making.

September 11 unleashed discussions on Islam and on possible threats from Islamic fundamentalists. Specifically related to the Caucasus, the discussion focused on the possible harboring of ‘terrorists’ or ‘freedom fighters’ in the Georgian Pankisi gorge, more of a valley really, bordering with Chechnya. These suspicions were an incentive for American training of Georgian border security which was later expanded into a more general training of the Georgian army. With the election of President Saakashvili in January 2004, and his wish to turn westward, the theme of security included negotiations about possibly joining NATO in the future. The necessary preparatory steps thereto also concerned reforms, especially of the judicial system.