In the past years and in particular in policy debate, the notion of 'connectivity' has become a buzzword with view to the South Caucasus. Such diverse actors as the European Union and China, international financial institutions and of course the three states, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, themselves have formulated their own policies and are engaged in strategies that aim at strengthening national or regional connectivity. Even though connectivity seems on everyone’s lips, these processes bear a variety of disconnections due to post-war instability and insecurity.

In cooperation with the Regional Group Central Asia and Caucasus (REZUK) within the German Society for Social and Cultural Anthropology (DGSKA), the ZOiS Caucasus Network organises a panel discussion with local and international experts and focuses on regional contextualisation of 'connectivity' in the South Caucasus. The aim is to shed light on how the term is perceived in the region, not least with a view to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, the war in Ukraine and the recent EU engagement. The event is open to the public. 

The event will kick off a closed author’s workshop on Connectivity and Disconnectivity in the South Caucasus, which will be held on 20 October 2022 at ZOiS, bringing together researchers with different disciplinary backgrounds to present their state-of-the-art empirical research. 

Participants

• Welcome by Dr. Tsypylma Darieva, senior researcher at ZOiS, speaker of the ZOiS Caucasus Network 
• Dr. Franziska Smolnik is deputy head of the research division Eastern Europe and Eurasia at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) 
• Dr. Lela Rekhviashvili (Leibniz Institut für Länderkunde) is a post-doctoral researcher at Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Leipzig
• Prof. Anar Valiyev is dean and Associate Professor of School of Public and International Affairs, ADA University, Azerbaijan

• Prof. Mikayel Zolyan, Brusov University, former member of the Armenian Parliament

• Chair: Dr. Nadja Douglas is political scientist and researcher at ZOiS. Together with Tsypylma Darieva she coordinates the ZOiS Caucasus Network

Contact

Anja Krüger
Kommunikationskoordinatorin
events(at)zois-berlin.de