The North Caucasus: Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia

[82redleg]

About a dozen years ago, Robert D. Kaplan wrote Eastward to Tartary about his travels from, if I recall correctly, Bulgaria to Turkmenistan. He wrote some about Armenia and a good deal about Azerbaijan. The book's theme was mostly about different parts of the former Ottoman and Russian empires, and how they are developing (socially, economically, politically, etc.). As usual, Kaplan mixed in good deal of history with his current impressions.

I'll second "Eastward to Tartary"- its a mid-90s book, but pretty good.

The Central Asia and Caucasus Institute have some good analysis on the AO.(Added links:http://www.sais-jhu.edu/centers/caci/ and this offshoot or independent Sweden-based place:http://www.ca-c.org/infoe.shtml )