Abkhazia and Sochi: The Roots of the Conflict 1918-1921
Dr. Andrew Andersen was born in Russia in 1959 and grew up in Siberia and Latvia. At the age of 15 he became interested in the history of the Caucasus.  Since then his research base has grown significantly, and he has had the opportunity to travel extensively in that area and conduct field research. Andersen received his Master’s degree from Moscow State University in 1980, where he later taught. In 1984 he obtained his Ph.D. from Moscow State University. Andersen’s Ph.D. thesis analyzed the US role in the Vietnam War (1962-75) and its mass media coverage. At the beginning of the Perestroyka, Andersen left the USSR and settled in Germany, where he coordinated a number of Eastern European seminars, courses and projects organized by Wirtschaftsakademie in Kiel (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany). In 1994, Andrew Andersen emigrated to Canada. Between 1994 and 2003, Andrew Andersen taught at Simon Frazer University and the University of Victoria while doing intensive research into the dynamics of the political situation and conflicts in the Caucasus and other areas of Asia. In 2003 he became a research fellow at the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, University of Calgary (Canada). Andrew Andersen has written a number of books and articles for national and international professional magazines on ethnic, territorial and ideological conflicts, as well as on other international security-related issues, with emphasis on the South Caucasus.