A Geopolitical Frontier Between Europe, Russia, and the Middle East

The Caucasus is one of the world’s most important geopolitical crossroads. Located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea—at the intersection of Europe, Russia, and the Middle East—the region has long been shaped by competing empires and great powers. Today, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia continue to navigate complex questions of sovereignty, security, and regional alignment.

This immersive, field-based program allows you to explore these dynamics on the ground. Traveling across the South Caucasus, you will engage with the region through expert lectures, site visits, and conversations with local scholars and practitioners.

You will also have the option to participate in the Applied Regional Security Lab, producing a short regional analysis based on insights gathered during the program. By combining coursework with regional travel, you will connect local realities to broader geopolitical dynamics across Eurasia.

What You Study

Strategic Geography and Regional Power Politics

You will examine why the Caucasus has long been contested and how its geography continues to shape political alignments, energy routes, and security strategy.

Conflict and Security in the South Caucasus

You will explore the origins and consequences of regional conflicts—including Nagorno-Karabakh—while considering how nationalism and external actors shape security dynamics.

Empire, Borders, and the Post-Soviet Transition

You will investigate how imperial legacies and the collapse of the Soviet Union shaped the modern states of the region and continue to influence political institutions and relationships.

Identity, Society, and Political Narratives

You will encounter how language, religion, culture, and historical memory shape national identity and political discourse.

Field-Based Regional Analysis

Through site visits and expert discussions, you will connect academic frameworks with lived realities and strengthen your ability to analyze regional dynamics.

Who This Program Is For

Crossroads is designed for students interested in how geopolitics, security, and regional identities shape international affairs. The Caucasus offers a unique environment for examining these dynamics across multiple countries and perspectives.

The program is particularly relevant for students of international relations, political science, security studies, history, and Eurasian or post-Soviet studies, as well as those pursuing careers in policy, analysis, journalism, or international development. No prior knowledge of the region is required—only curiosity and a willingness to engage with complex global issues.

Program Details

REES 390 Geopolitics and Security in the Caucasus

4 credits

Study the geopolitical and security landscape of the South Caucasus—Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan—a strategic frontier where the interests of Europe, Russia, and the Middle East intersect. The course examines each country’s political trajectory since independence, their relationships with one another, and their foreign policies as they balance ties with neighboring powers such as Russia, Iran, and Turkey alongside global actors including the West and China. You will also explore regional conflicts, patterns of cooperation, and the ways external powers influence and exploit regional dynamics, while extending analysis to the North Caucasus within the Russian Federation. 

REES 397 Applied Regional Security Lab: The Caucasus

2 credits (optional; pre-enrollment required)
Includes Certificate in Regional Security Analysis

The Applied Regional Security Lab is an optional, selective, credit-bearing practicum for students seeking advanced, hands-on experience in regional security and risk analysis. The Lab is designed as an applied extension of the core academic course and must be selected in advance of the program, given its structured workload and post-program deliverables.

Elements of the Lab are introduced during the four-week travel and lecture-intensive portion of the program, allowing participants to develop analytical questions, engage regional perspectives, and identify relevant sources while in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. A fifth week abroad is dedicated to an intensive security analysis workshop, focused on analytical frameworks, evidence evaluation, and applied writing for policy and security audiences.

Following the in-country component, Lab participants complete two additional weeks of independent analytical work, with faculty advising, to finalize a regional security analysis paper. Successful completion of the Lab results in 2 additional academic credits and a Certificate in Regional Security Analysis, recognizing advanced training in applied security analysis with a regional focus.

Students interested in the optional Applied Regional Security Lab should note that participation requires advance selection, a short written statement as part of the application process, and an additional fee of $1,100. Participants will have hotel accommodation extended until Sunday, July 26. The remaining two weeks of remote work may be completed anywhere – housing is not provided during that period.

Contact us for syllabi.

Transcripts and Credit Transfer

The School of Record for this program is Stetson University (Florida, USA). A US School of Record means that your program is supported by and documented by an accredited US university, making credit transfer relatively routine.

Learn more about transcripts, credit transfer, and other academic issues..

SRAS Partner School in Tbilisi

Novamova is a private language school founded in 2001. Novamova is a modern school using innovative and immersive teaching methods. The school actively combines intensive classroom training with hands-on, practical usage through conversation partners, various masterclasses, discussion groups, film and literature clubs, and more. Novamova has quickly developed a strong international reputation and partners directly with a number of well-known American universities and educational organizations. With schools in Kyiv, Tbilisi, and Batumi, NovaMova leads educational programming throughout Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Moldova.

Travel and Cultural Program

Travel extensively throughout the region and see capitals and countryside alike. Our experiences are integrated to what we learn in class and will include multiple relevant sites and meetings with experts, peers, and locals! Highlights include Georgia’s Kazbegi mountains, Ananuri Fortress, Gergeti Church, and Stalin’s birthplace. We will see Azerbaijan’s Gobustan rock art, mud volcanoes, and world’s first oil well. In Armenia, we’ll visit Garni Temple, Geghard Monastery, Khor Virap, Noravank, and the Ararat Valley. All of our travels will be paired with unforgettable regional cuisine.

Travel dates

  • June 20 – 27: Tbilisi, Georgia
  • June 28: Travel to to Baku, Azerbaijan
  • July 4: Travel (via Tbilisi) to Yerevan, Armenia
  • July 10: Return to Tbilisi
  • July 19: End of program / departure

Lecturers

Ambassador Giorgi Badridze (Tbilisi, Georgia) is a diplomat, international relations analyst, and scholar with over 30 years of public service experience. He has been a Senior Fellow at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (Rondeli Foundation) since 2013 and serves as an Expert for the European Research Executive Agency of the European Commission.

A career diplomat since 1991, Mr. Badridze has held a number of senior positions within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, including Head of the Western European Department (1996–1998) and Director of the Directorate for the Americas (2004–2006). He served as Minister Plenipotentiary and Deputy Head of Mission at the Georgian Embassies to Turkey (1999–2002) and the United Kingdom (2007–2009). From 2009 to 2013, Mr. Badridze was Ambassador of Georgia to the United Kingdom. During this period, he also served as Georgia’s Permanent Representative to the International Maritime Organization and as Ambassador to Ireland. Full bio.

Dr. Narek Sukiasyan (Yerevan, Armenia) specializes in foreign and security policy of Armenia and Armenia-Russia affairs. Narek Sukiasyan has published with Armenian and international academic peer-reviewed journals and media. Dr. Sukiasyan joined Center for Culture and Civilization Studies (Yerevan State University) as a research fellow in 2022 and started teaching as an Adjunct Lecturer at the American University of Armenia since 2023. In a freelance capacity of a researcher and lecturer, he has cooperated with Freedom House, Transparency International, European Network of Election Observation Organizations, Black Sea Trust, American Councils, Regional Center for Democracy and Security, Oxygen etc. In parallel to his academic work, Sukiasyan is the Project Manager of German Friedrich Ebert foundation, coordinating its foreign and security policy programs.

Ahmad Humbatov (Baku, Azerbaijan) is the Head of the Energy and Sustainable Development Program at the Institute for Development and Diplomacy (IDD). His major functions include leading the production of high-quality research reports and publications, as well as teaching classes in the field of energy and sustainable development and delivering training and workshops, as well as planning and organizing IDD’s annual flagship Baku Summer Energy School. He is an international development professional with expertise in economic policy, energy, and trade.

Dr. George Mchedlishvili (Tbilisi, Georgia) researches the foreign policy trajectories of the South Caucasus states. Currently, he is Associate Professor at the School of Social Sciences and Coordinator of the Caucasus Studies M.A. program at the International Black Sea University in Tbilisi, Georgia.

In each location you will stay in twin/triple rooms in hotels/hostels/guesthouses. Contact us about single room options.

Housing is not included outside of the 4-week course period, unless you are doing the Crossroads + Language option. If you are doing the language option, you will live with a host family for the 4-week language portion. Home stays include two meals per day (breakfast and dinner).

The Caucasus, with its rich trade routes, resources, and natural security barriers, has long functioned as a crossroads and flashpoint. It is also home to ancient and often overlooked civilizations which have influenced and were influenced by many of history’s great empires. The peoples of the Caucasus traded goods and ideas with the ancient Greeks and Romans. Meanwhile, Georgia and Armenia became strong, early centers of Christianity, fostering its development and holding it as an integral part of their identity for millenia, even through centuries of Muslim rule. Over more than three thousand years, the region was contested by successive waves of external power from the Persians, Turks, and Mongols to the Russian and Soviet empires. However, Armenian, Georgian, and Azerbaijani cultures persisted, in part protected by the soaring mountains surrounding them and sustained through language, faith, and tradition.

Today, the Caucasus continues to be defined by the interaction of geography, identity, and geopolitics. The independent states of the region occupy a strategic space centered between major global and regional powers, including Russia, Iran, Turkey, the EU, India, and China. All compete for trade routes, energy pipelines, infrastructure, and security partnerships. At the same time, the complex history and cultural diversity of the Caucasus has also left it with its own local unresolved conflicts and ongoing political and economic transitions as the region moves beyond the legacies of communism and colonialism.

The Caucasus is not only a vital part of the historical development of Western and Eurasian civilizations, but also serves as a contemporary laboratory for understanding diplomacy, security dilemmas, conflict management, and identity formation in a strategically sensitive region.

Find out more about:

Georgia:

Armenia:

Azerbaijan:

RUSS 101-102/201-202/301-302/401 Russian Language Study

Select the 2026 Summer + Language option and join the 4-week Tbilisi: Russian as a Second Language program for the period May 22 – June 19. Russian is still a lingua franca for politics and business in much of the post-Soviet space. Take your Russian up a level with this intensive course and be prepared to use it throughout your travels in the Caucasus. 4 credits.

Security and Society Summer School

For an even broader study of security issues, start your summer with the Security and Society Summer School program in Warsaw and then continuing with Crossroads. You’ll also recieve a $1000 discount applied to Crossroads if you are taking part in the Warsaw program. Contact us if you are interested in this option.

Budget

Scholarships and Grants

  • Federal aid can help pay for your program if your university pre-approves credit transfer and agrees to manage payment. Check with SRAS and your university for details.
  • All Scholarships and Grants that we know of that can be applied to our programs are listed on our site.
  • SRAS Program Grants are stackable! 
  • SRAS Ambassadors can write while abroad or educate students at home after their return – and earn stipends!
  • SRAS Online Research Internshipsaward partial scholarships for study abroad.

  1. Complete our application (press the “Apply Now” button to create your SRAS account — you will be able to return to the application later).
  2. Alert your home university (if you are currently a student).
    Some universities have deadlines for study abroad that are much earlier than SRAS deadlines -— so involve your home university’s study abroad office in the process as early as possible! They can help ensure that all goes smoothly with credit transfer and financial aid, and perhaps point you to additional funding sources.
  3. See our Planning Guide for more important information about academics, health and safety, and more.

If you are still unsure this is the right program for you, please join an SRAS Info Session or schedule an SRAS advising session to discuss how we can help fulfill your goals and needs!