One way to integrating neighboring countries is through environmental cooperation. The Caspian Sea Environmental Convention signed on 5 November 2003 in Tehran to cooperatively protect ...
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One way to integrating neighboring countries is through environmental cooperation. The Caspian Sea Environmental Convention signed on 5 November 2003 in Tehran to cooperatively protect and restore the environment of the Sea, pollution control, coastal management and sustainable extraction of sturgeon stocks has entered into force in August 2007 after signing all member states. But the mere convention is inadequate to protect the Caspian environment, and there needs to some institutional arrangements, monitoring systems and operational protocols to be enforced among the members, and as such mechanisms and anticipated protocols have not yet became operational, the Convention for the protection of the Caspian Sea Environment has not yet effectively put into force. This article deals with the institutional and operational deficiencies of the Caspian environment Convention.
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Looking deep into the Central Asia will reveal a region with plenty of intact talents and capacities drawing regional and ultra regional powers' attention to. Iran has also deep ties ...
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Looking deep into the Central Asia will reveal a region with plenty of intact talents and capacities drawing regional and ultra regional powers' attention to. Iran has also deep ties and many commonalities with the Central Asia. Despite the incentives and the willingness of both Iran and the countries in the region and even the considerable progress in multilateral relations, there is still much to manage using these capacities for regional cooperation and integration. There exist issues including energy and its transport, transit of goods, mutual economic needs, Islamic extremism, drug trafficking, identity and cultural crises, that needs Iran to deal with in the regional extensive cooperation and integration.
Increasing energy consumption and lack of alternative sources for fossil fuels are the main concerns for the industrialized nations of the world. Security of energy supply sources and ...
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Increasing energy consumption and lack of alternative sources for fossil fuels are the main concerns for the industrialized nations of the world. Security of energy supply sources and routes are of high importance for these countries, including the European Union. To reduce its vulnerability and to diversify both sources and routes, the EU has paid special attention to the South Caucasus, but security problems and Russia's influence in the region has encountered some challenges.
To address these challenges and meet its energy security needs, the EU has used a variety of tools and strategies. This article tries to study the EU's energy security strategy and the threats imposed on it in the South Caucasus region. It also shows the EU's attempt to support democratic process and economic liberalization inside the countries of the region and to strengthen the integrating process and its subsequent relationship with the European structures, and the way through which it has increased its presence in the region.
After the Soviet collapse, relations between Republic of Azerbaijan and Turkey have continued at its level of strategic partnership the status which affected much on both countries' ...
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After the Soviet collapse, relations between Republic of Azerbaijan and Turkey have continued at its level of strategic partnership the status which affected much on both countries' different social, economic and political fields so that they jointly played an influential role in the regional politics. However, this friendly and brotherly relation of the two states had often witnessed some tensions too. Of the recent tensions among the two countries is the normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia that unlike previous ones has been of greater effects in the relations between the two so that if not extensive and vigilance efforts of the two countries authorities, this normalization may have ended to closure of Azerbaijan-Turkey relations. According to the findings of this article, the center point of Azerbaijan's relations with Turkey has always been Karabagh that seems to be unsolved now in relations between Turkey and Armenia.
Volume 16, Issue 71 , November 2011, Pages 108-133
Abstract
Republic of Chechnya in southern Russia, north Caucasus and in the tense borders between Dagestan and Republic of Azerbaijan, in the past 18 years was perhaps the most important territorial ...
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Republic of Chechnya in southern Russia, north Caucasus and in the tense borders between Dagestan and Republic of Azerbaijan, in the past 18 years was perhaps the most important territorial problem whose fate is tied with other republics of the Russian Federation. Hence, the resolve or not of the Chechnyan problem and the Russian confrontation with is a model for other Russia's Muslim republics to follow in the future. The problem between Chechnya and Russia is not only an agenda of the recent decades or even past century, but an historical one since the Tsarist period as well. In this article, after a review on the history of mainly tense relations between the two, interrelations between Russia and Chechnya in the post Soviet era is also investigated. The causes and grounds for tension between the two and Russian officials' positions in this regard have also been debated. The question posed here is the supply source of violence in Chechnya and the role of Russian government in it. The article's hypothesis is that the violence in Chechnya arouses on the one hand from the Russian approach to Chechnya and on the other hand from Chechens ancient history and territory deeply rooted in perpetual ethno-tribal conflicts with every centralized government.
Volume 16, Issue 71 , November 2011, Pages 133-162
Abstract
Sorrow resulting from the loss of Tsarist and Soviet greatness can be one of few sharing points among active spectra in the socio-political trends of the post Soviet Russia. The feeling ...
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Sorrow resulting from the loss of Tsarist and Soviet greatness can be one of few sharing points among active spectra in the socio-political trends of the post Soviet Russia. The feeling noticeable in the ideal form of transforming Russia into a "great power" is based on a variety of material and spiritual elements of Russia's past, present and future and is a considerable factor for creating domestic cohesion in its society of unbridled identity. The thinking is also influenced by Russian elite and people belief of Westphalian nature of international system as an independent and distinct identity too. Efforts in 1990s to achieve this ideal failed due to the lack of necessary resources and ideological approaches, nevertheless, adopting a pragmatic one Putin and Medvedev were relatively successful in realizing some "hard" aspects of this purpose. However, a mere looking "from above", disregarding factors of soft power and the continuing echo of traditional approach to some areas, including near-abroad were main causes of not fully realization of this idea.
