source: US State Department.

Five years have passed since Georgia and Russia fought a short but costly war that again brought suffering and death on a huge scale to the Caucasus. Lessons need to be learnt and the world and the people of the region together must say "Never again", and must with their actions and their will avoid the spiral that leads to war. Commonspace.eu summarises the conflict and its background in ten short questions and answers as an introduction to a series of articles, interviews and special reports which we will be publishing over the next few days

A new fence around South Ossetia is both geographically and politically artificial, and creates problems for the local population.

The Government of Azerbaijan has declared 335 persons, including members of parliament of Russia and several European and other countries, as persona non grata for visiting Nagorno-Karabakh

Incident highlight the continued anachronism of Russia's unusual involvement in Armenia.

Armenia continues with a delicate balancing of foreign policy tactics in which Iran is an important element.

Russian President discusses delays in the $166 billion naval procurement program with Defence Chiefs at a time when Russia is looking to the Navy for power projection.

Starting from Monday, 5 August, commonspace.eu will have special reports to mark the 5th anniversary of the August 2008 Georgia-Russia War. The reports will analyse the impact of the war on the region and look at why a new war in the Caucasus needs to be avoided at any cost.

EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus concludes latest round of visits to the region.

Several senior state officials have over the last weeks made harsh attacks against the work of the co-Chair and indicated dissatisfaction with the process.