The systems a war and an economy actually run on: import corridors, ports, border crossings, transit nodes and regional hubs. Each record states what depends on the system and how completely, what has documentably disrupted it, and what disruption does. Dependence is the strategic fact — a corridor matters because there is no substitute for it.
A landlocked country whose shortest routes to the world have been shut for thirty years, and what that does to everything else.
9 nodes4 documented disruptionsConfidence: ModerateStatus as of 2026-06Reviewed 2026-07-26
Why it matters. This is the material basis of Armenian foreign policy. The reason border reopening appears in every negotiation, the reason the corridor question is existential rather than technical, and the reason Armenia's Russian and Georgian dependencies are so hard to reduce all resolve into this system. It also explains the asymmetry in the settlement negotiations: Azerbaijan has routes and alternatives, Armenia has two roads.
The reason this small region has the attention of capitals that could not otherwise place it: oil and gas going west without crossing Russia or Iran.
5 nodes3 documented disruptionsConfidence: HighStatus as of 2026-06Reviewed 2026-07-26
Why it matters. This system is the main reason the Caucasus is not a peripheral file. It ties the region's stability to European energy security, gives three governments a shared and durable interest in the corridor functioning, and explains why Georgian domestic developments draw European attention disproportionate to the country's size. It also explains part of the diplomacy: Azerbaijan's ability to conduct an independent policy rests substantially on the standing this corridor gives it, and Armenia's exclusion from it is one of the clearest material expressions of its regional position.
The overland route between China and Europe that avoids both Russia and Iran, and which works in the places where it has actually been built.
8 nodes3 documented disruptionsConfidence: ModerateStatus as of 2026-06Reviewed 2026-07-26
Why it matters. The corridor is why the region's connectivity questions are a European and Central Asian interest rather than a local one, and it is the material stake underneath much of the diplomacy this module records. It also explains why the Armenia–Azerbaijan settlement has a transport chapter at all: the parties, and several outside states, treat the reopening of routes as the settlement's main positive-sum element. The distinction between what operates and what is proposed matters directly here, because corridor diplomacy is frequently reported as though agreement and infrastructure were the same thing.
Context, not targeting. These records describe strategic dependence and documented disruption history. The schema has no fields for capacities, schedules, convoy composition, escort arrangements, storage or facility layout, and the alternatives section describes whether redundancy exists — never which route to use. See the methodology.