31
Soviet Republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus and has emerged as a major military supplier for Iran. China, as a relative newcomer to this region, supplies arm and
military technology to Iran and has conducted joint military exercises with
Kyrgyzstan. China’s oil companies are also working in Kazakh oil fields. In regards
to this influx of military assistance and influence in the region, Michale Klare states
that this kind of competition appears in the sphere of geopolitics. In other words,
rival powers compete against each other to gain control over territory, natural
resources, important geographic features, such as harbors, rivers, and oases, and
other sources of economic and military benefits. Such kind of competition ruled the
international conducts of European powers between the fifteenth and early twentieth centuries. They also stimulated the foundation of their overseas empires. As
observed in 1997 by Zbigniew Brzezinski, the “former national security adviser,”
these empires were built by means of carefully seizing and retaining crucial geographic areas, such as Gibraltar and the Suez Canal and Singapore. Currently, geopolitical factors have again started to play a role in defining the strategic perspectives
of major actors in the Caspian Basin, Eurasia, and the Middle East, making these
areas a “grand chessboard” on which “the struggle for global primay continues to be
played.” Thus, it is clearly pointed out by Brzezinski that American foreign policy
must be closely concerned with the geopolitics aspect of world affairs (Klare
2005:156–157).
The US Energy Security (2003:1) reported that the issue of America’s national
security could not be isolated from an interest in a stable global market. Energy
Security continues to claim that the dependence of the US on imported crude oil
leads to potential vulnerabilities to the US economy, which can impact America’s
national security. As energy independence cannot be reached in the near future,
America has to establish a detailed energy policy which takes into consideration the
realities of America’s interconnected world. Thus, the US Energy Security explained
that they were currently aiming to look into how the US national energy security
strategy could be impacted by the development and availability of the energy
resources in Russia and the Caspian Sea area. In order to benefit from the Caspian’s
potential in the most effective way, the US Energy Security noted that the US needed
to go beyond focusing on merely the production, reserves, pipelines, and infrastructure of the energy. The US must also consider the political and geopolitical dynamics in the area. Finally, it was put forward by the US Energy Security that the future
of both Iran and the US–Iranian relationship would also influence the energy development in the Caspian region.
Carlos Pascual and Jonathan Elkind point out that Iran, Russia, and Venezuela,
with huge reserves of oil and gas, have had the clearest political impact on the realities of today’s oil market—to the extent that the administrations of their consumer
markets have often set aside political concerns to preserve their economic links. All
three of these countries have used their energy wealth and leverage to strengthen
regional influence on more accessible neighbors, and all three have used the structure that they have achieved through their regional intervention and wealth to convolute US interests (Pascual and Elkind 2010:17).
Literature on the Region
Soviet Republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus and has emerged as a major military supplier for Iran. China, as a relative newcomer to this region, supplies arm and
military technology to Iran and has conducted joint military exercises with
Kyrgyzstan. China’s oil companies are also working in Kazakh oil fields. In regards
to this influx of military assistance and influence in the region, Michale Klare states
that this kind of competition appears in the sphere of geopolitics. In other words,
rival powers compete against each other to gain control over territory, natural
resources, important geographic features, such as harbors, rivers, and oases, and
other sources of economic and military benefits. Such kind of competition ruled the
international conducts of European powers between the fifteenth and early twentieth centuries. They also stimulated the foundation of their overseas empires. As
observed in 1997 by Zbigniew Brzezinski, the “former national security adviser,”
these empires were built by means of carefully seizing and retaining crucial geographic areas, such as Gibraltar and the Suez Canal and Singapore. Currently, geopolitical factors have again started to play a role in defining the strategic perspectives
of major actors in the Caspian Basin, Eurasia, and the Middle East, making these
areas a “grand chessboard” on which “the struggle for global primay continues to be
played.” Thus, it is clearly pointed out by Brzezinski that American foreign policy
must be closely concerned with the geopolitics aspect of world affairs (Klare
2005:156–157).
The US Energy Security (2003:1) reported that the issue of America’s national
security could not be isolated from an interest in a stable global market. Energy
Security continues to claim that the dependence of the US on imported crude oil
leads to potential vulnerabilities to the US economy, which can impact America’s
national security. As energy independence cannot be reached in the near future,
America has to establish a detailed energy policy which takes into consideration the
realities of America’s interconnected world. Thus, the US Energy Security explained
that they were currently aiming to look into how the US national energy security
strategy could be impacted by the development and availability of the energy
resources in Russia and the Caspian Sea area. In order to benefit from the Caspian’s
potential in the most effective way, the US Energy Security noted that the US needed
to go beyond focusing on merely the production, reserves, pipelines, and infrastructure of the energy. The US must also consider the political and geopolitical dynamics in the area. Finally, it was put forward by the US Energy Security that the future
of both Iran and the US–Iranian relationship would also influence the energy development in the Caspian region.
Carlos Pascual and Jonathan Elkind point out that Iran, Russia, and Venezuela,
with huge reserves of oil and gas, have had the clearest political impact on the realities of today’s oil market—to the extent that the administrations of their consumer
markets have often set aside political concerns to preserve their economic links. All
three of these countries have used their energy wealth and leverage to strengthen
regional influence on more accessible neighbors, and all three have used the structure that they have achieved through their regional intervention and wealth to convolute US interests (Pascual and Elkind 2010:17).
Literature on the Region