Armenia and AzerbaijanAnatomy of a Rivalry Revisited, 2nd Edition

Thoroughly revised and updated to cover the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict from its onset in 1988 to the initialling of a long-awaited peace agreement in 2025

• Offers a distinctive, authoritative and comprehensive interpretation of the Armenian–Azerbaijani conflict based on deep empirical research and a synthesis of historical, territorial, political, strategic and mediation perspectives
• Updated to cover Armenia’s Velvet Revolution in 2018, the 2020 Karabakh war, the impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Azerbaijan’s offensive and the end of Armenian-populated Karabakh in 2023, and the negotiation of a peace agreement in 2024-25
• Situates the Armenian-Azerbaijani rivalry within critical geopolitics, International Relations and peace studies perspectives to explain its longevity and resistance to peaceful resolution
• Includes a new chapter on the multipolar regional dynamics of the 2020-25 era and a new epilogue assessing the prospects for peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan
• Draws on the author’s more than 20 years’ experience as a practitioner of Armenian-Azerbaijani peacebuilding efforts, extensive fieldwork conducted across the conflict, and interviews with political and societal actors

Since before they regained their independence in 1991, Armenians and Azerbaijanis have been locked in one of the most bitterly contested conflicts in the world, centered around rival claims to the territory of Mountainous Karabakh in the South Caucasus. In 1994 Armenians won an unsustainable military victory; twenty-six years later Azerbaijan turned the tables with a crushing triumph in 2020, eventually leading to its military reincorporation of Mountainous Karabakh and a return to diplomacy.

Comprehensively revised throughout, the second edition of this authoritative book covers the origins of the conflict, its transformation into a strategic rivalry lasting three decades and its tumultuous, coercive denouement. This edition includes a brand new chapter on the post-war regional dynamics of the 2020-25 era and a new epilogue assessing the prospects for peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.