Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany — The Marshall Center Research Program recently completed a five-month study of the intersection of complex security interests in the South Caucasus countries of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

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Dr. Sabine Collmer (center), director of the Marshall Center Research Program, and German army Lt. Col. Kai Samulowitz (right), a Marshall Center researcher, meet with Amb. Dr. Hafiz M. Pashayev, deputy foreign minister of Azerbaijan, in Baku in July to discuss his insights into recent security developments in the South Caucasus.

(Photo courtesy of the Marshall Center Research Program)

The German Ministry of Defense awarded the Research Program a grant in February to investigate the latest security developments in the region in which three frozen conflicts continue.

The project looked at a range of political, social and economic security issues in the region, such as energy security, border conflicts, the treatment of minorities, the role of security forces and the role of religion and of non-state actors. It also looked at relations between the region and Western Europe, NATO, the EU, the United States, Russia and neighboring countries.

Along with analysis of current literature and the countries’ national security strategies, the project drew heavily on expert interviews, according to the director of the Research Program, Dr. Sabine Collmer.

“We looked for a wide range of experts on the region’s frozen conflicts and other security issues, both experts from established institutions and independent analysts,” Collmer said. “We talked to people from the ministries of defense and foreign affairs and to members of research and strategic studies institutions, but also, for example, to journalists who work on national security issues, such as energy security or on military security issues.”

Being able to tap into a vast network of Marshall Center alumni contacts proved invaluable in conducting the complex but relatively short project, according to Collmer.

“This is exactly the situation where our big network really came into play,” Collmer said. “Last year we had a Marshall Center scholar from Azerbaijan who works in the ministry of defense and who provided us with contacts to interview partners in ministries as well as to scholars and NGO personnel. It worked similarly in the other countries, where we also have established contacts. These contacts to in-country experts were of tremendous significance for the success of the empirical part of the research project.”

Similarly, being able to draw on the expertise of the faculty of the Marshall Center’s College of International and Security Studies was a decided advantage, Collmer said.

“If you look at the College, we were really a good place to put this research project, because there is so much knowledge about this region. We didn’t start from scratch, so to speak, but we had a number of in-house experts who we also interviewed.”

Collmer noted that the Research Department was thrilled to have won the research grant, the first the Center received from the German defense ministry.

“It shows that we are on their radar screen as a research institution that has expert knowledge in that region of the world,” Collmer said.

The Research Program will publish an English-language summary of the project findings.

Text: By Anne Fugate - George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies