Azerbaijan confronts a unique set of challenges and opportunities as it conducts a foreign policy aimed at alienating none of its neighbors while also modernizing its society and armed forces. While never applying for NATO membership, Azerbaijan still desires all the resources NATO makes available to its aspirants and other members of the Partnership for Peace. Thus, she faces the dilemma of determining in which strategic direction she will eventually lean, while in the process not actually leaning too far.

 

On the one hand, this secular Muslim nation is an ideal candidate for modernizing its military by bringing it up to NATO standards. Located on the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan prides itself on being able to conduct friendly foreign relations with its neighbors, while also projecting an image of regional strength and preparedness. Its capital, Baku, is obviously flush with oil revenues, as evidenced by its well-groomed public spaces, magnificent architectural showcases, and high-fashion stores matched in few other European capitals. Its youth walk the boulevards of Baku wearing Western styles and listening to European popular music. However, it also maintains its local culture and traditions, which have only fitfully welcomed Western ideas. Outside of its main cities, Azerbaijani society has eased somewhat reluctantly into the twenty-first century. Both Russia to its north and Iran to its south send subtle messages that Europeanization is neither a correct nor realistic model. Adding to this friction is the pressing reality that Azerbaijan continues to be embroiled in a “frozen conflict” with Armenia over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. The push and pull of these forces makes this decision over determining a “strategic direction” difficult. This article contends that the creation and development of a defense education program aimed at assisting the Azerbaijani Armed Forces to develop along the lines of a Western (NATO) model is a powerful force in persuading Azerbaijan to look westward.