Although it has been 15 years since the South Caucasus countries of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia gained independence, territorial conflicts and other factors of continue to rock the region, and stability in the region remains out of reach. With Armenia and Azerbaijan at odds, bogged down in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, intraregional personal exchange has been difficult.
Accordingly, there is an urgent need for countries in the region, which are making the transition to market economies, to develop the next generation of human resources capable of taking leadership roles. To foster trust founded on human resource development and increased stability in the region, this project uses the geopolitical advantages of Georgia, which maintains friendly relations with both Armenia and Azerbaijan, to hold training seminars and security conferences for young leaders from the three countries.
In fiscal 2007, the final year of the project, participants from international security conferences, training seminars and previous seminars were invited to a retreat conference held in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. On October 19-21, 2007, an international security conference on "The Caucasus: Cooperation for Stability" was held. It was attended by around 150 people from the governments of the South Caucasus countries and officials of the governments, international organizations, and research organizations of European, North American, and Middle Eastern countries.
Training sessions for young leaders were held October 22-November 2, attended by five people from each of the Caucasus countries, including government and NPO officials and company employees. Lecturers were invited to the seminar from Georgia, Japan, and Malaysia.
Also, 39 former seminar participants attended a retreat conference held November 3-4. The conference helped build a network of former participants who have taken part in the training in different years.
Although on a small scale, activities over the last three years have contributed toward improving the knowledge and ability of young leaders who will be involved in future South Caucasus policymaking. In addition to the human networks that have been formed of participants from the South Caucasus region, the project has also strengthened relationships between researchers and experts who participated as lecturers from European, North American, and East Asian countries, and seminar participants.