Bob Graham Center for Public Service

With key international players distracted by other events — COVID-19, Brexit, US presidential elections — intense fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh has raged for the past seven weeks, leading to the death of thousands, enormous destruction of civilian infrastructure and displacement of over 130,000 people. Complaints have also been raised regarding the use of banned cluster munitions, human rights abuses and possible war crimes. Diplomatic efforts by Russia, France and the US failed to bring about a ceasefire in these hostilities, which now risk an escalation that could bring Russian and Turkish military forces into the mix. Ambassador Cavanaugh will discuss how this formerly “frozen conflict” has come to this point and what options the international community has to try to restore peace.

About the Key Speaker:
Ambassador Carey Cavanaugh (Ret.) is professor of diplomacy and conflict resolution at the University of Kentucky and chairman of International Alert, a London-based peacebuilding organization. He had a Foreign Service career centered on peace efforts and humanitarian issues which included diplomatic postings in Berlin, Moscow, Tbilisi, Rome and Bern, and domestic assignments in the State Department, the Pentagon, and on Capitol Hill. In 1992, he led the team that established the American Embassy to the new Republic of Georgia. Cavanaugh was confirmed by the Senate in 2000 as Ambassador/Special Negotiator responsible for Eurasian conflicts and US Co-Chair of OSCE’s Minsk Group (tasked with assisting peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict) and led peace talks in Key West, Florida in 2001. He is a native Floridian and received his bachelor’s degree in Russian from the University of Florida in 1976.

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