With the region of the Caucasus with its ongoing, and even deteriorating, crisis and instability and its strategic and economic importance increasingly at the front of the world's attention, this volume presents and discusses some of the complexities and problems arising in the region such as Islamic terrorists and al-Qaida.

Scholars from different disciplines who specialise in the Caucasus analyze key topics such as:

• discussions of grass root perceptions
• the influence of informal power structures on ethnic conflicts in the Caucasus
• Russian policies...