South Caucasus and the US

There are different opinions about the level of US interest in the South Caucasus. Peter Rutland, Professor of Government at Wesleyan University in the US, says that the region is not as important for the Obama administration as it was for the Bush administration. He also thinks that over the last few years the US has lost its influence in the South Caucasus. Azeri political analyst Oktay Sadikhzadeh thinks that the South Caucasus has never been a US strategic interest at all, being important to the USA from a tactical point of view not a strategic one.

Sadikhzadeh thinks that the region is part of Russia's sphere of vital interests however and these spheres of interest are maintained by gentlemen's agreements between states, which are accepted just as much by the Obama’s administration as previous ones. However fellow Azeri analyst Fikret Sadikhov suggests that the South Caucasus is a priority for the US due to the US involvement in multiple energy projects.