EU Expands Role In South Caucus With Armenia-Azerbaijan Border Mission

The EU will deploy a 100-strong monitoring mission to Armenia's border with Azerbaijan for a term of two years, a more robust version of an earlier short-term mission that ended in December. The Armenian authorities had lobbied for and enthusiastically welcomed the move, seeing it as a deterrent against fresh Azerbaijani offensives.

But it remains to be seen how an increasingly assertive Baku can be deterred by a mission of unarmed civilian observers. The move is opposed by Yerevan's strategic ally Russia, which has a decades-long military presence…