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What are the major U.S. and Russian interests in the Caspian Region? Security experts, scholars, and current and former U.S. and Russian officials discussed the answer at a conference sponsored by the Caspian Studies Program in October.
As American officials at the conference noted, the U.S. wants to promote the sovereignty, independence, security, and economic development of the newly independent nations in the region. Additionally, American policy is attempting to contain trafficking in drugs and weapons and to deny Iran strategic gains in the region, due to its support for world terrorism and its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.
According to U.S. officials, these interests are not meant to threaten or alienate Russia. However, the U.S. and Russia have developed a rivalry in the Caspian Region during the past ten years that some conference participants even called a "mini Cold War." Why is this?
One reason is the competition over energy resources and pipeline routes, heightened by the fact that pipelines are thought to have geopolitical significance. Those involved in the Caspian include the five Caspian abutters (Russia, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan), plus the United States, Georgia, Turkey, China, Armenia, and others.
Despite their avowed efforts toward cooperation, Russia and the U.S. have tried to win over allies in the region (and the states have attempted to pull allies in) and have sometimes exacerbated conflict in the volatile area. The competition in the Caspian makes for strange bedfellows. Two of the competing lines of cooperation are Moscow-Yerevan-Tehran and Washington-Baku-Ankara.
The conference participants stated that the main reason for the increasing sense of competition in the region was miscommunication. Russia perceives U.S. efforts to increase its own gains in the region as impinging on Russian security, and U.S. efforts geared at Iran are often erroneously interpreted as moves against Russia. Washington''s promotion of an export route from Baku through Tbilisi to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, for example, is perceived by Russia as an attempt to diminish its influence in the region.
Russia, however, has a greater ability and higher commitment to pursue its interests in the region because of its close geographic location, strong economic ties with the former Soviet states, and its military and security stake in the region.
Conference participants noted that the U.S. should be aware of Russia''s concerns and interests. The participants recommended heightened communication and dialogue on the Caspian between Moscow and Washington in order to prevent further misinterpretations. http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/BCSIA/SDI.nsf/web/Caspian
(This article by Emily Van Buskirk appeared in the Kennedy School Update.)