Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Is Russia’s Problem to Solve

In Washington foreign-policy circles, the eruption of a geopolitical crisis anywhere on earth is portrayed as the product of U.S. disengagement. But not all of the world’s problems are America’s to solve, and the renewed fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia is a case in point. President Donald Trump has expressed a desire to “see if we can stop it.” He’s likely to do more harm than good.

The Caucasian neighbors have been in locked in a territorial dispute since Armenians took control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and some surrounding districts from Azerbaijan after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They fought a bloody war in 1992-1994, and clashed briefly in 2016. Skirmishes resumed in July, and another war now looms.