Russia is the world's biggest hydrocarbon producer. China is one of the world's largest and fastest-growing energy markets. The two are neighbours. Yet their energy relationship is very thin. Instead, they compete for vast and largely unexplored Central Asian resources. As Kazakh oil and Turkmen gas start flowing to China, Russia's traditional dominance in the region is diminishing. However, the Central Asian states are not passive pawns in a new 'great game'. The EU and the US can help these countries to turn the new energy geopolitics to their advantage.
This book focuses on the geopolitics of Central Asia which has emerged as the new fertile ground for oil and energy resources. It analyses the scramble for energy and control over the region by many nations and their diplomatic manoeuvrings to ensure energy sufficiency and economic growth. The book provides a quantitative analysis of the Central Asian energy potential and offers an understanding of the unique position that each country occupies in the geopolitics of oil and energy in the region. It looks at aggressive foreign policies by countries like the US, China, the European Union, Japan, Israel, Iran and Pakistan, focusing primarily on India’s position and strategies in the region within the new great game. The book further examines the dynamics between Central Asia and India and India’s policies for geopolitical engagement and diversification of energy sources. This volume will be of interest to researchers and students of political studies, international relations, economics, sociology, and Asian studies. It will also be useful for policymakers and professionals working in the field of energy security and geo-economics.
Contributed articles presented in a seminar at the Centre for Russian, Central Asian, and East European Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in February 1999.
China’s need for energy has become a driving factor in contemporary world politics and a precondition for sustaining China’s continuing high economic growth. This book argues that a US presence in Central Asia is necessary for securing the energy provision of China from the region.
This timely study is the first to examine the relationship between competition for energy resources and the propensity for conflict in the Caspian region. Taking the discussion well beyond issues of pipeline politics and the significance of Caspian oil and gas to the global market, the book offers significant new findings concerning the impact of energy wealth on the political life and economies of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. The contributors, a leading group of scholars and policymakers, explore the differing interests of ruling elites, the political opposition, and minority ethnic and religious groups region-wide. Placing Caspian development in the broader international relations context, the book assesses the ways in which Russia, China, Iran, and Turkey are fighting to protect their interests in the newly independent states and how competition for production contracts and pipeline routes influences regional security. Specific chapters also link regional issues to central questions of international politics and to theoretical debates over the role of energy wealth in political and economic development worldwide. Woven throughout the implications for U.S. policy, giving the book wide appeal to policymakers, corporate executives, energy analysts, and scholars alike.
By combining perspectives from experts in domestic politics, regional politics, and specialists in international security, this edited volume focuses on the central role of energy production and supply in the Russian-Western completion across Eurasia.
Energy security has become a central concern for all the countries in the Asian region and the search for sufficient sources of energy to fuel economic growth has drastically influenced relations among the South Asian countries as well as their respective relations with their neighbours China, Myanmar, Iran, and Afghanistan. The recent nuclear deal between India and the US is also indicative of how energy and power politics are linked and how these new inter-linkages underlie relations between states. This book aims to give a South Asian perspective on the geopolitics of energy, with a central focus on India. The chapters address how India's global and regional foreign policy making has changed in light of India's search for energy and how this is affecting the relationship on a global level between India and the US, as well as on a regional level between India and the other Asian countries. The book also offers views from Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as how this shifting reality is affecting relations between India and Southeast Asia.
In this global era, Central Asia must be understood in both geo-economic and geopolitical terms. The region's natural resources compel the attention of rivalrous great powers and ambitious internal factions. The local regimes are caught between the need for international collaborations to valorize these riches and the need to maintain control over them in the interest of state sovereignty. Russia and China dominate the horizon, with other global players close behind; meanwhile, neighboring countries are fractious and unstable with real potential for contagion. This pathbreaking introduction to Central Asia in contemporary international economic and political context answers the needs of both academic and professional audiences and is suitable for course adoption.
Since the tragic events of September 11, Central Asia has been drawn into the intense struggle of the international community against the forces of religious extremism and transnational crime. The great powers were able to put aside their geopolitical differences in order to crush al-Qaeda and the Taliban. With the marginalization of the Taliban and the eviction of al-Qaeda from Afghanistan, however, the tension between the great powers is notably increasing, as is the discomfort of Central Asian states who find themselves, their political development, and their oil reserves in the middle of a renewed Great Game. Islam, Oil, and Geopolitics is a truly international volume, including chapters written by senior scholars, upcoming students in the field, prominent diplomats, and renowned academics from Russia, China, the United States, and the Central Asian republics. They collaborate to focus on three important issues that are usually--and unfortunately--analyzed separately: Islamic political issues, energy security, and geopolitical maneuvering. Once an obscure and little-known region, Central Asia has become an important test of America's ability to consistently promote global liberal change, of Russia's true foreign policy agenda, and of China's readiness to translate economic power into political influence. Terrorism, economics, and politics all converge in this strategic region, with important implications for Asia and the world. This significant and timely volume helps readers understand current events in Central Asia and how those events affect the rest of the world. Contributions by: Kamoludin Abdullaev, Rouben Azizian, Gaye Christoffersen, Elizabeth Van Wie Davis, Feng Shaolei, Pan Guang, Shireen Hunter, Alisher Khamidov, Mikhail A. Konarovsky, Najibullah Lafraie, Murat Laumulin, Sergey I. Lounev, Aleksei V. Malashenko, Orhon Myadar, Manabu Shimizu, Thomas W. Simons Jr., Robert Smith, Sergei Troush, Kang Wu, and Shi Yinhong.
