47
powerful economic forces. It is true that the globalization of the economy and the
unification of national economies are on the rise. However, it is still essential to
keep the national and international economies distinct. Economies, economic policies, and economic activities of countries are differentiated not only by political
borders but also by political considerations and will continue to do so. Countries
with strong economic powers, primarily the US, utilize their power to influence
economic activities for the sake of maximizing their own economic and political
benefits (Gilpin 2001:103).
Subsequent to the former Soviet Union’s disintegration, the conflicting ideologies were replaced by new liberal ideologies with reform orientations in the newly
formed Commonwealth of Independent States as well as in East Europe. Still, the
rival between the two ideologies during the Cold War era was indeed of vital importance to the great Powers with respect to their geopolitical competition. An additional
note is that this competition between the ideologies stemmed from geopolitical gene
differentiation (Alakel and Bakir 2011:23).
When major energy infrastructure networks were built, all pipelines led to
Moscow and the most important industrial centers of the Soviet Union focused on
the territory of Russia. This Russian-centric approach caused important gaps in the
upstream and long-term routes of the Central Asian countries where their energy
sources were subsequently forced to cross existing connections through Russia to
reach western markets. For example, despite finding a few oil fields in Kazakhstan,
Kazakhstan’s oil production during the independence period was about four times
smaller than today (Raszewski 2018:110).
Unstable regimes, although they move toward or away from democracy, during
the first years of economic independence showed weak economic performance and
are still less than regional. More stable regimes, such as Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan,
and Uzbekistan, grew faster, despite the failure to comply with the World Bank and
IMF recommendations on economic reforms and the low ranking of democracy
indicators at Freedom House (Raszewski 2018:111).
With the aim of solidifying the anti-Soviet alliance, the US assumed an active
role in advancing an open and interdependent international economy consisting primarily of the US and its allies. This endeavor of the US was not altruistic in terms
of its underlying motives. However, even though there are variations in their
approaches, both Kindleberger’s liberal version of the hegemonic stability theory
and the state-centric vision of Krasner and Gilpin are in agreement with their view
that a dominant power which is positively oriented toward a liberal world economy
and is predisposed to allocating economic and political resources to reach and sustain the goal of providing such international public goods as free trade and monetary
stability (Gilpin 1987:343).
Both Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan officially supported the establishment of
new pipelines to China as concrete outcomes of their multilateral foreign policy.
However, no country has managed to discover new strata. Indeed, the likelihood of
the Trans-Caspian pipeline for Turkmenistan was very low, and the Baku-TbilisiCeyhan route was to end by the end of 2015. Were western vectors to be locked, the
southern vectors ought to continue being open. Yet, a new vector did not seem to be
International Context of the New Era and the Caspian Region
powerful economic forces. It is true that the globalization of the economy and the
unification of national economies are on the rise. However, it is still essential to
keep the national and international economies distinct. Economies, economic policies, and economic activities of countries are differentiated not only by political
borders but also by political considerations and will continue to do so. Countries
with strong economic powers, primarily the US, utilize their power to influence
economic activities for the sake of maximizing their own economic and political
benefits (Gilpin 2001:103).
Subsequent to the former Soviet Union’s disintegration, the conflicting ideologies were replaced by new liberal ideologies with reform orientations in the newly
formed Commonwealth of Independent States as well as in East Europe. Still, the
rival between the two ideologies during the Cold War era was indeed of vital importance to the great Powers with respect to their geopolitical competition. An additional
note is that this competition between the ideologies stemmed from geopolitical gene
differentiation (Alakel and Bakir 2011:23).
When major energy infrastructure networks were built, all pipelines led to
Moscow and the most important industrial centers of the Soviet Union focused on
the territory of Russia. This Russian-centric approach caused important gaps in the
upstream and long-term routes of the Central Asian countries where their energy
sources were subsequently forced to cross existing connections through Russia to
reach western markets. For example, despite finding a few oil fields in Kazakhstan,
Kazakhstan’s oil production during the independence period was about four times
smaller than today (Raszewski 2018:110).
Unstable regimes, although they move toward or away from democracy, during
the first years of economic independence showed weak economic performance and
are still less than regional. More stable regimes, such as Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan,
and Uzbekistan, grew faster, despite the failure to comply with the World Bank and
IMF recommendations on economic reforms and the low ranking of democracy
indicators at Freedom House (Raszewski 2018:111).
With the aim of solidifying the anti-Soviet alliance, the US assumed an active
role in advancing an open and interdependent international economy consisting primarily of the US and its allies. This endeavor of the US was not altruistic in terms
of its underlying motives. However, even though there are variations in their
approaches, both Kindleberger’s liberal version of the hegemonic stability theory
and the state-centric vision of Krasner and Gilpin are in agreement with their view
that a dominant power which is positively oriented toward a liberal world economy
and is predisposed to allocating economic and political resources to reach and sustain the goal of providing such international public goods as free trade and monetary
stability (Gilpin 1987:343).
Both Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan officially supported the establishment of
new pipelines to China as concrete outcomes of their multilateral foreign policy.
However, no country has managed to discover new strata. Indeed, the likelihood of
the Trans-Caspian pipeline for Turkmenistan was very low, and the Baku-TbilisiCeyhan route was to end by the end of 2015. Were western vectors to be locked, the
southern vectors ought to continue being open. Yet, a new vector did not seem to be
International Context of the New Era and the Caspian Region