Geopolitics And Energy Security Policies In The Caspian Region

The analysis of geopolitics and energy security policies in the Caspian region is a challenging research task. This is because of the specific development of international relations in this region and the evolution of its importance in the context of the functioning of the global energy market. Due to its special geopolitical location in central Eurasia and at the junction at the world’s largest trading routes, the region is gaining in importance, both politically and economically in contemporary international relations, and becoming a place where actors involved satisfy the need for energy security.

Russia is the world's biggest hydrocarbon producer. China is one of the world's largest and fastest-growing energy markets. The two are neighbours. Yet their energy relationship is very thin. Instead, they compete for vast and largely unexplored Central Asian resources. As Kazakh oil and Turkmen gas start flowing to China, Russia's traditional dominance in the region is diminishing. However, the Central Asian states are not passive pawns in a new 'great game'. The EU and the US can help these countries to turn the new energy geopolitics to their advantage.

This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of US policy from the perspective of an analyst and scholar from the region. This volume discusses the US energy diplomacy in the Caspian Sea region since 2001. It compares the foreign policy of the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations, following the changing role of energy in the behavior of the US toward states in the energy hubs of Central Asia and the Caspian Sea. The chapters employ historical analysis, regional analysis, interviews, and case studies to trace the evolution of US interests in the area and posits likely trends for future policy. Topics discussed include: China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative the energy and foreign policies of the Caspian littoral states in comparison with those of China, India, the European Union, and Turkey the escalation of differences among key OPEC members during the Trump era the impact of the oil price war on the US shale industry the spread of COVID-19 and its impact on the oil market Russian and U.S. competition in the EU energy market the US-China trade war and the role of energy in the first phase of the US-China trade deal the energy policy of the incoming US President, Joe Biden Shedding light on the complex geopolitics of the US-Caspian Sea Energy diplomacy, this volume will be of interest to researchers of foreign policy, diplomacy, international relations, and energy policy as well as policymakers and analysts working in related areas.

Contributed articles presented in a seminar at the Centre for Russian, Central Asian, and East European Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in February 1999.

The potential of energy resources in the Caspian region (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) has attracted much attention since the demise of the Soviet Union. Many industry analysts in the United States and other developed nations consider oil supplies from the Caspian a strong alternative to the Persian Gulf, and believe that a new reliance on its resources can reduce the perennial Western vulnerability to price increases and threatened cutoffs. But is the region capable of fulfilling that role? The relatively low demand for natural gas worldwide, the transitory and often perilous political situation in the Caspian, and the uncertainty regarding the region's oil-producing capabilities in general make estimates of its potential to alleviate energy demands seem dubious. Maureen Crandall's revealing study of relevant economic and security issues clearly separates what can and cannot be expected from this strategically important, yet politically unstable region. In addition to examining the complex issues of cause and effect surrounding Caspian oil supply, Crandall examines the interests of neighboring states (Russia, Iran, and China), as well as those of the United States in the global search for resources. Figures, tables, and a bibliography complete a study that will prove of vital interest to regional security specialists, defense economists, energy analysts, environmentalists-and anyone else interested in Central Asia and the future of America's energy supplies.

Secure Oil and Alternative Energy: The Geopolitics and Energy Paths of China and the European Union is the follow-on study to the well-received The Globalization of Energy: China and the European Union (Brill 2010). While intensive cooperation between China and the EU in the fields of energy use, environmental protection, and sustainability is highly needed, the question remains unanswered how this cooperation could be organized. Since the proven gas and oil reserves lay outside China and the EU, they are both facing geopolitical challenges to energy security in the foreseeable future. This volume puts the geopolitical implementation of China’s and the EU’s energy security into the context of (a) geo-economic systems in a global scale including the Central Eurasian, the Middle East and Africa hydrocarbon energy complex and (b) the emergence of a geo-economic energy network spreading from China to Western Europe. The edited volume consists of 14 high-quality papers on topics announced in the title of the volume: the geo-politics of energy-supply security, alternative sources of energy, energy transition and, at the global level, energy governance. -Prof. Dr. Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer, Director, Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, Forschungs-und Studienstätte für Europäische Kulturgeschichte, Germany

The opening of the Caspian Sea basin to Western investment following the breakup of the Soviet Union produced a major contest for access to the region's vast energy reserves on the part of powers as close as Russia, Turkey, and Iran, and as far away as Japan and the United States. Indeed, the struggle to exploit Caspian oil has been one of the most monumental geopolitical developments of the post-Cold War era as external powers vie for political, economic, and military influence in a region brimming not only with oil, but also with ethnic conflicts and historical animosities. The coming decade of rapidly increasing demand for energy will ensure the continued interest and engagement of external powers with often competing geopolitical agendas. Thus the geopolitical developments spawned by the opening of the Caspian Sea are likely to continue to far outweigh the actual impact of Caspian oil on world energy markets. This collection of essays by prominent scholars and international experts offers several important and often conflicting interpretations of the events unfolding along the shores of the world's oldest oil-producing region.