The Caucasus: Thomas de Waal's new book published

British journalist, researcher and former director of the Institute of Peace and War Reporting Thomas de Waal has published a new book - The Caucasus.

Here is what senior program manager for Eurasia at Freedom House Sam Patten writes in Foreign Policy magazine about this book.

"What emerge are essentially three stories. Armenia is trapped in time, unable to capture the true potential of its entrepreneurial population until it can re-engage with neighbors like Turkey -- where rapprochement has finally, if haltingly, begun -- and Azerbaijan, where animosities remain fresh. Azerbaijan, which, as few know, became the world's first Muslim democracy just after the First World War and again, ephemerally, after the Soviet Union's collapse, is close to tapping out its oil wealth and is sliding toward autocracy with apparent increasing intensity," writes he.

The third story is related to Georgia.

"Georgia, meanwhile, has come the closest to embracing democracy -- albeit with passionate lurches in the wrong direction from time to time. It has made strides to enact key reforms and lift its 4 million citizens from poverty, though the effect of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia on its dream of territorial integrity remains searing and, as Russia's recent invasion points out, persistent hot zones, mentions Sam Patten.