16
The Clinton administration pursued an active “Russia First” policy led by Strobe
Talbott in the State Department. The Department of Defense pursued strategic arms
reduction and cooperative threat reduction policy (ensuring that removal of nuclear
weapons and strategic missiles is done safely and in security) to access these priorities. The US accepted Russian dominance in the post-Soviet space (Bluth 2014:17).
US diplomacy as regards Central Asia and the Caspian Sea area after the fall of
the Taliban in Afghanistan faced some major differences. The first of those was the
US commitment to regional security remained ambiguous and for this reason the
Central Asia generally considered them to less reliable than those Russia (Bluth
2014:17). The official position was that America did not seek permanent military
bases in the region (Bluth 2014:17).
Energy is a fundamental aspect of the United States foreign policy. When oil was
first discovered and used in the state of Pennsylvania, the entire issue was solely
commercial and crude oil was not war-related. In fact, oil turned out to be a wartime
and geopolitical factor for America throughout World War II when the US entered
the conflicts in a big way. As such, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East became the
countries’ focal foreign policy issue. By then, the Soviet Union still existed and as
such, the oil-rich Central Asia and Caucasus regions were unreachable for any
country. Subsequent to the dissolution of the USSR however the US did all it could
to reach the region to invest in the regions’ oil and gas sector, though still remained
behind Britain which had far more experience in the region from the dates before
the establishment of the communist regime in the country. Moreover, Washington
overcame controversies regarding the figures related to accurate figures of the volume of oil in the region. The figures for crude oil started from 12 Billion barrels
back in 1991 and soon reached to over 60 Billion barrels. In 1997, API declared that
the total volume of crude oil could not exceed 35 Billion barrels under existing
technical information (Author’s interview with Dr. Fereydoun Barkeshli 2017).
America’s foreign policy toward Central Asia and the Caspian Sea area began
with the exploration into how to define and further potential interests. In US foreign
policy terms, an “interest” qualifies as such if it falls under one of three categories:
(1) Vital Interests: Interests within the borders of the US which affect the basic wellbeing of the American people; (2) Strategic Interests: Relevant to areas of primary
importance in ensuring that vital interests are safe (such as Europe, Northeast Asia,
and the Middle East); or (3) Key Interests: Defined as areas desirable for America
but not directly affecting the vital interests of the United States (e.g., Latin America,
South Asia, and Southeast Asia, economic ties, including humanitarian concerns
abroad). These interests are based on a normative definition of the American people
and various interest groups (www.css.ethz.ch 2016).
Energy resources, as both a means of supporting the security of allies and global
energy markets, fall into the second and third categories and thus warrants the rank
of a US interest, finding a focal point in Central Asia among other regions. In the
first decade of the 2000s, the US placed economic sanctions on Iran and pressure on
allies in Western Europe and countries in the region to cool relations with Iran in the
energy market. At the same time, the US was in favor of imposing restrictions on
regional trade to also weaken the Russian economy and its traditional political
1 Theoretical Framework
The Clinton administration pursued an active “Russia First” policy led by Strobe
Talbott in the State Department. The Department of Defense pursued strategic arms
reduction and cooperative threat reduction policy (ensuring that removal of nuclear
weapons and strategic missiles is done safely and in security) to access these priorities. The US accepted Russian dominance in the post-Soviet space (Bluth 2014:17).
US diplomacy as regards Central Asia and the Caspian Sea area after the fall of
the Taliban in Afghanistan faced some major differences. The first of those was the
US commitment to regional security remained ambiguous and for this reason the
Central Asia generally considered them to less reliable than those Russia (Bluth
2014:17). The official position was that America did not seek permanent military
bases in the region (Bluth 2014:17).
Energy is a fundamental aspect of the United States foreign policy. When oil was
first discovered and used in the state of Pennsylvania, the entire issue was solely
commercial and crude oil was not war-related. In fact, oil turned out to be a wartime
and geopolitical factor for America throughout World War II when the US entered
the conflicts in a big way. As such, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East became the
countries’ focal foreign policy issue. By then, the Soviet Union still existed and as
such, the oil-rich Central Asia and Caucasus regions were unreachable for any
country. Subsequent to the dissolution of the USSR however the US did all it could
to reach the region to invest in the regions’ oil and gas sector, though still remained
behind Britain which had far more experience in the region from the dates before
the establishment of the communist regime in the country. Moreover, Washington
overcame controversies regarding the figures related to accurate figures of the volume of oil in the region. The figures for crude oil started from 12 Billion barrels
back in 1991 and soon reached to over 60 Billion barrels. In 1997, API declared that
the total volume of crude oil could not exceed 35 Billion barrels under existing
technical information (Author’s interview with Dr. Fereydoun Barkeshli 2017).
America’s foreign policy toward Central Asia and the Caspian Sea area began
with the exploration into how to define and further potential interests. In US foreign
policy terms, an “interest” qualifies as such if it falls under one of three categories:
(1) Vital Interests: Interests within the borders of the US which affect the basic wellbeing of the American people; (2) Strategic Interests: Relevant to areas of primary
importance in ensuring that vital interests are safe (such as Europe, Northeast Asia,
and the Middle East); or (3) Key Interests: Defined as areas desirable for America
but not directly affecting the vital interests of the United States (e.g., Latin America,
South Asia, and Southeast Asia, economic ties, including humanitarian concerns
abroad). These interests are based on a normative definition of the American people
and various interest groups (www.css.ethz.ch 2016).
Energy resources, as both a means of supporting the security of allies and global
energy markets, fall into the second and third categories and thus warrants the rank
of a US interest, finding a focal point in Central Asia among other regions. In the
first decade of the 2000s, the US placed economic sanctions on Iran and pressure on
allies in Western Europe and countries in the region to cool relations with Iran in the
energy market. At the same time, the US was in favor of imposing restrictions on
regional trade to also weaken the Russian economy and its traditional political
1 Theoretical Framework