Relations with regional and trans-regional powers such as Russia have always been a major theme in foreign relations of the Central Asian and the Caucasus countries after gaining independence. ...
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Relations with regional and trans-regional powers such as Russia have always been a major theme in foreign relations of the Central Asian and the Caucasus countries after gaining independence. Thanks to internal problems and security concerns and in order to maximize their interests in different realms of political, economic and security affairs, these countries have always welcomed the strategy of alliances and coalitions.
Of course, the culture of multilateral cooperation among central Asian and Caucasus countries has not yet been institutionalized. Due to some animosities and difficulties among this region’s states, they welcome multilateral institutions. The survival of these countries is being threatened by terrorism, extremism, ethnic and racial conflicts, segregations and inefficiency of governments as well.
Seemingly, the complexity and interconnectedness of the Central Asian and Caucasus issues are too severe to be resolved through bilateral relations. Therefore, multilateral cooperation among and within all governments, organizations and unions may be deemed necessary as a strategy for the countries' external relations in the region.
In many texts of international relations, the concept of security is generally considered as the ability to counter the threats of armed attacks. Meanwhile, the scarcity of energy sources ...
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In many texts of international relations, the concept of security is generally considered as the ability to counter the threats of armed attacks. Meanwhile, the scarcity of energy sources has been among the most significant causes of conflicts in the 20th century. Countries have their own and of course different definitions and perceptions of energy security. For example, in developed countries energy security is defined based on the accessibility and sufficient supply with proper and reasonable prices, while exporting countries regard energy security as the security of demand and an increase of energy prices.
In this article, focusing on energy security as our theoretical framework, we will examine the EU-Russian relations in the energy area. Although as an energy exporting country Russia has the upper hand before the EU, which is heavily dependent on importing energy, both sides’ perceptions of energy security have shown that these two actors are dependent on each other at the same level. This type of reliance has created a situation in which they are to have close politico-economic relations.
Soft overthrow is a concept that obtained an important place in international relations literature, especially in the past few years. Unrests in some Eurasian and Caucasus countries ...
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Soft overthrow is a concept that obtained an important place in international relations literature, especially in the past few years. Unrests in some Eurasian and Caucasus countries and the type and style of developments and regime changes in recent decades have shown softer forms of influence in changing the state structures in the target countries. A new theory of "soft power” was introduced in late 20th century, to make changes in political systems nonaligned with the Western powers national interests lately known as color, velvet or flowery revolutions.
Studying different types of flowery revolutions occurred in Eurasia and Caucasia implies that these revolutions formally took place due to the increasingly public demands for political and citizenry laws, which in their turns required ethnographically considering the social phenomena. Based on historical documents and explanatory method, the article tries to study the new phenomenon of flowery revolutions and their ethnographies in model countries aligned with that of the strategic objectives of great powers.
Characteristics and the degree of geographic, economic, cultural, and political-security dependencies of one country to another country or region are determinants of its geopolitical ...
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Characteristics and the degree of geographic, economic, cultural, and political-security dependencies of one country to another country or region are determinants of its geopolitical identity. Speaking of geopolitics identity means to what regional system a country belongs. Due to a variety of different geographical, cultural, political dependencies to the surrounding countries and regions, geopolitics identity of the Central Asian countries is of unique and multiplexing feature. The article, using the theory of global geopolitics system, identifies the dependency of the Central Asian countries to their surrounding powers (Russia, China and Iran) and analyses the region’s geopolitics identity.
The collapse of Soviet Union provided a rather different situation for the union member states including the Russian Federation. Grappled with numerous challenges at its early stages, ...
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The collapse of Soviet Union provided a rather different situation for the union member states including the Russian Federation. Grappled with numerous challenges at its early stages, ambiguity and confusiondominated Russian foreign policy in all levels of bilateral, regional and ultra regional relations.
The articlefocuses on the second level-the Russian regional relations- and attempts to identify the determinant factors for changes and developments. The article concludes that the changes which took place in Russian relations with various regions of the world were preoccupied by changes in foreign policy theory. In other words, the internal factors have had the most significant impact on the evolution of the Russian regional relations.
Volume 17, Issue 76 , November 2012, Pages 125-145
Abstract
Due to the geopolitical power vacuum resulted by the collapse of the Soviet Union in Central Eurasia, the region developed to one of the most important areas of geopolitical rivalry ...
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Due to the geopolitical power vacuum resulted by the collapse of the Soviet Union in Central Eurasia, the region developed to one of the most important areas of geopolitical rivalry between regional and ultra- regional actors. Among the regional actors are Russia, Turkey and Iran have special geopolitical interests in the region. Nowadays, the real aspect of the geopolitical rivalry between these actors can be observed in their geopolitical approaches to their integration with the region.
According to the results of this research, several integrations are forming: Central Eurasia under Russia; Turkish speaking countries under Turkey; and Persian speaking ones under Iranian leadership. According to some evidences, the Eurasian and Turkish integration processes have almost reached to their geopolitical evolution points and are currently in the process of developing to a regional organization. The Persian speaking integration, however, is in its preliminary step and the Iranian influence in the region is expected to be diminished with the start of the two new Russian and Turkish regional organizations. Using a descriptive-analytical and comparative study of the status and potentials of the Eurasian and Turkish integrations with that of Persian one, the article attempts to present an outlook for Iranian possible challenges versus the new integrations in Central Eurasia.
Volume 17, Issue 76 , November 2012, Pages 147-166
Abstract
Dagestan is the most traditional and pious MoslemRepublic in Russian Federation. However, the republic is a place of crossover and stockpile social-political gaps and congestion of ...
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Dagestan is the most traditional and pious MoslemRepublic in Russian Federation. However, the republic is a place of crossover and stockpile social-political gaps and congestion of these gaps has put the society on the brink of perpetual and total clashes. These gaps are formed around ethnicity, religion and cult, plain/mountain and rural/urban lifestyle, political-social history especially military confrontation with Russian army, the conflict between tradition and modernity especially dealing with Russian culture, and the role of ancient (Persian and Turkish) traditions and rituals. The effects of these politico-social gaps on the political identity of Dagestan's society are examined in this article and the form of Dagestan political identity and its characteristics are defined at the end.
