An international conference on the topic of "Southern Caucasus in the Context of New Geostrategical Relationships" was held 22-23 of May, 2003, at Western University, Baku Azerbaijan. Its aim is to present a forum for discussion of political, economic, environmental, security and cultural issues concerning Southern Caucasus.

The main directions of the sessions were:

• International relations: integration and grouping tendencies of the region

• The region's place in the globalization processes

• Southern Caucasus and the world economic policy

• International terrorism and security: problems and solutions

• Problems of the transition period: politics, economy, ecology, culture and social sphere.

Speakers had been invited from academic and other organizations at the international level.

 As a region, Southern Caucasus has always been of strategic importance. However, recently, the region's role in the context of new geopolitical, economic and cultural relations has significantly increased. This has doubled the world's interest towards the region's role in, and potential contribution to, integration processes and corporate solutions of global problems that the world is facing these days. Realizing great significance of these problems, Western University to presented a forum for the discussion of important aspects of the above issues. We hope that the conference  helped generate a more pragmatic vision to the evaluation of the region's position in the changing world, and a new approach to the revelation of its new potential.