PUTIN AIMS TO LOCK UP CASPIAN GAS WITH OR WITHOUT NIYAZOV
By Michael Denison (2/27/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Presidents Niyazov of Turkmenistan and Aliyev of Azerbaijan paid separate visits to Moscow in the last week of January. High on their respective agendas were designs to develop the Caspian region’s energy sector and to unblock the impasse over who owns what part of the Caspian Sea itself. After a meeting with Niyazov, President Putin called for the establishment of a “Eurasian Gas Alliance” to co-ordinate more effectively the volume, transport and consumption of the region’s natural gas output.
RUSSIAN-IRANIAN RELATIONS AND AMERICAN MILITARY PRESENCE IN CENTRAL ASIA
By Hooman Peimani (2/27/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: For various reasons, Iranian-Russian relations have been growing over the last decade. Besides economic interests, the common interest of the Iranians and the Russians in security and stability in Central Asia and the Caucasus and their concern about the destabilizing effects of instability in Afghanistan on the two regions and on their own countries have been major factors in cementing their relations. Being their former historical rulers, Iran and Russia share long borders with the two regions, making them concerned about stability in these volatile areas.
REDRAWING THE ARCHITECTURE OF CENTRAL ASIAN SECURITY
By Robert Cutler (2/27/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: In 1996, the "Shanghai Five" regional grouping was created for the purpose of delimiting and demilitarizing the border between China on the one hand and Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan on the other. Uzbekistan was not involved, not only because it has no border with China, but also because Tashkent throughout the 1990s tried to limit its cooperation with Moscow. Having courted and been courted by the U.
HOW DEEPLY WILL IRAN PENETRATE THE EVOLVING EURASIAN ENERGY NETWORKS?
By Robert M. Cutler (3/13/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The European Commission and Iran formed a working group on energy in May 1999, and the two parties soon created a second working group to deal with trade and investment issues. Also in 1999, the European Union's INOGATE program (Interstate Oil and Gas Transport to Europe) established an umbrella agreement for an institutional framework to optimize the use of energy resources to reduce investment risks, increase returns, and promote management practices that correspond with European standards in safety, environment and trade. The basis for this was to be the European Energy Charter, a product of an EU summit from the early 1990s, which encouraged trading Western capital and technology for energy from the post-communist countries in both Eastern Europe and the former Soviet area.
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Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Greater Central Asia as A Component of U.S. Global Strategy, October 2024.
Analysis Laura Linderman, "Rising Stakes in Tbilisi as Elections Approach," Civil Georgia, September 7, 2024.
Analysis Mamuka Tsereteli, "U.S. Black Sea Strategy: The Georgian Connection", CEPA, February 9, 2024.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, ed., Türkiye's Return to Central Asia and the Caucasus, July 2024.
Book Svante E. Cornell, ed., "The Changing Geopolitics of Central Asia and the Caucasus" AFPC Press/Armin LEar, 2023.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell and S. Frederick Starr, Stepping up to the “Agency Challenge”: Central Asian Diplomacy in a Time of Troubles, July 2023.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.