ABSTRACT
For centuries, the region today known as the South Caucasus has been on the periphery of bigger and more powerful neighbours, such as Byzantines, Ottomans, Persians and Russians, who all competed for influence. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on religion as one basis, component or factor of external influence. Religion, together with culture and language, can have a transnational dimension that affects the way nations gain influence in foreign countries. Three theoretical and methodological factors are most relevant to the analysis of religious involvement in soft power policies: first, the meaning of soft power in this context; second, the inclusion of religious actors in the framework of the analysis; and finally, the normative implications of interactions between politics and religion. The South Caucasus is a region with complex transnational relationships and highly asymmetric dependencies from powerful neighbours and foreign forces.
