ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the transnational security challenges facing the South Caucasus states and the impact these have on regional co-operation efforts. It analyses the National Security Concepts of the states in order to understand how each one perceives the contemporary security environment and how this impacts on their attitude towards regional initiatives. The chapter analyses how some form of established regional co-operation could alleviate some of these problems and the effectiveness of regional groupings in tackling certain challenges. The considerable number of common problems confronting the South Caucasus states leads to an expectation of some form of regional, state-level co-operation. In an era of increasing interdependence, security challenges are often transnational in nature and require a regional. Nagorno-Karabakh is an enclave within Azeri territory, which is populated predominantly by ethnic Armenians. The stability of the South Caucasus is undermined by Georgia's secessionist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a threat exacerbated by Russian backing for the separatist territories.
