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Azerbaijan, Israel, and Iran: An Unlikely Triangle Shaping the Northern Middle East

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Namig Abbasov / Emil A. Souleimanov

Mr. Abbasov is a PhD candidate at the School of Politics and Global Studies, Arizona State University. Dr. Souleimanov is a professor at the Department of Security Studies, Institute of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University, Prague.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, political commentators and students of international relations alike have been puzzled by an increasingly cordial relationship between Israel and Azerbaijan, a Muslim-majority republic in the South Caucasus. Indeed, the unfolding alliance of the Jewish state and a tiny, energy-rich, post-Soviet country sandwiched between Iran and Russia has been by many seen as an anomaly. Particularly puzzled have been constructivists and adepts of geopolitics for whom the shared Shiite identity of Azerbaijan and Iran pre-ordained a close relationship. In reality, Tehran's suspicions of Azerbaijan's economic rise, coupled with concerns over pan-Turkic sentiments spread through Iran's northwest, and Iran's own imperial nostalgia have exacerbated an adversarial relationship. Against this backdrop, Azerbaijan's efforts to counterbalance those of Iran and Russia in the Caspian-South Caucasus region have brought Baku to forge closer ties with Israel.

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Also in this issue

  • SYMPOSIUM - Rise of China in the Middle East
  • China’s Approach to the Iran-Saudi Arabia Rivalry
  • In with the New: China’s Nuclear-Energy Diplomacy
  • The Regional-Supremacy Trap: Disorder in the Middle East
  • A Middle East Cooperation and Security Process: Has the Time Come?
  • Cybersecurity in the GCC: From Economic Development To Geopolitical Controversy
  • Middle East Pre-existing Conditions: Regional Security after COVID-19
  • Hezbollah in Syria: An Insurgent's Ideology, Interest, and Survival
  • Azerbaijan, Israel, and Iran: An Unlikely Triangle Shaping the Northern Middle East
  • Rouhani’s Africa Policy: Disengagement, 2013-21

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Middle East Policy

Volume XXX
Summer 2023
Number 2

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The Middle East Policy Council is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to contribute to American understanding of the political, economic and cultural issues that affect U.S. interests in the Middle East.

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