'Choose a Side or Choose Our Country': The Influence of Identity Politics on Democratisation and International Relations Decision-Making in the South Caucasus

This paper analyzes recent evolutions in the separate agreements between each of the three countries in the South Caucasus and the European Union (EU), and addresses how the differences in these developments connect with each country’s unique national identity. Beyond these countries’ self-interests, competing hegemonies also influence and complicate the EU’s foreign relations in the region. In addition to the historical connections to other competing powers, the related cultural discourse claims strong connections to the South Caucasus as well. This paper addresses these issues, and assesses how the EU’s response has been to grapple with adapting its behavior without sacrificing its normative positions in order to maintain its influence in the region. The objective of this research is to better understand how identity politics impact the EU’s capacity to manage democratization and influence state-(re)building in post-Soviet countries. The analysis employs process tracing applications that link relevant discourse to observed actions and outcomes in order to build a connected system demonstrating sequenced patterns of activity that inform how the interacting identity politics in the region drive both domestic sociopolitical transitions and EU decision-making. The findings demonstrate that even where a strong self-interest for the EU seems to be lacking, it has been resolute in developing its own hegemony in the South Caucasus, while each country in the region continues to put its own interests first, albeit taking strikingly different paths.