Treat Karabakh like a free country, says NYT Op-Ed

By Asbarez | Wednesday, 17 August 2011

The New York Times Company

In an op-ed published, entitled “Phantom Menace” in the New York Times Tuesday, authors Daniel L. Bynam and Charles King, both professors at Georgetown University, present a formula for a solution to what they call “phantom states”—among them Nagorno-Karabakh—which have sprung up as a result of ethnic conflict.

“Phantom countries frequently emerge from wars, and are sustained by the threat of further fighting,” explain the authors who argue that these states also stoke war.

“By insisting on territorial integrity, the United States and other countries forgo the chance to turn phantom states into responsible players,” the authors say, offering a solution that calls for engaging them politically and economically and encourage democracy-building mechanisms.

They offer China’s and the US’ treatment of Taiwan as an example and essentially propose to treat these states as free countries.

Read the entire New York Times op-ed piece.