ABSTRACT
Azerbaijan’s importance for European energy security, the dangers of renewed war and Russia’s less prominent role in the conflict could all make the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh a top priority for the EU in the South Caucasus. Despite this, Nagorno-Karabakh is the conflict in post-Soviet space in which the EU is least involved. Despite the relatively modest scale of EU interventions in conflict settlement processes in Transnistria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, EU policies toward Nagorno-Karabakh pale even in comparison with the other cases. Nagorno-Karabakh (along with Western Sahara) is perhaps one of the two secessionist conflicts in the European neighbourhood that the EU deals with hardly at all. Understanding why this is the case has explanatory value for understanding what drives and constrains the EU as a crisis management actor.
