JOURNAL OF CENTRAL EURASIA STUDIES
Year:2010 | Volume:3 | Issue:6|Papers Count:7

The Caspian basin in its old geopolitical situation under the Soviet Union was located in the buffer zone between two spheres of influence of the two superpowers. After the fall of the Soviet Union followed by the rise of new structures and three new states in the region, new relations, however, prevailed among the areas of geography, power and politics in the region. Naturally these new relations in the Caspian changed Iran's interests in the Caspian dramatically and new definitions of Iran's geopolitical interests in the Caspian emerged. The Islamic Republic of Iran's government has persistently sought to secure its interests in the Caspian following the collapse of the Soviet Union; nonetheless, there have been a number of political and geopolitical barriers depriving Iran from attaining an important part of its interests in the Caspian. Using descriptive-analytical approach, this paper seeks to academically discuss these barriers and suggest measures for overcoming these problems.

Fair distribution of resources among various parts of the society and attention to social development in terms of providing primary educational and health facilities will bring about lasting effects on the countries' development. This paper tries to study social structures in five Central Asian nations. To do this, growth in sectors like health, education and percentage of state expenditures in these sectors as well as gender equality are analyzed in a comparative manner. These countries' social development indicators are assessed in two sectors including health and education. In educational domain, such indicators as literacy, enrollment in elementary and secondary schools and gender equality in the society are evaluated. In health area, a comparison is made using such indicators as life expectancy, child mortality rate, access to sanitary water as well as access to health services.

Using energy as a weapon, the new Russia seeks to reconstruct its empire. The Russian government has declared an economic model since 2001 entitled rationalization which has been implemented by the Putin's government. Experts believe that this is a new type of state capitalism, which is executed by the Russian government. State ownership especially concerns the oil industry which was expanded by confiscating the Yukas Company's properties and Gazprom's procurement of the apple oil company. The Russian government has banned foreign companies from purchasing any share in the country's energy industry, making it possible for Gazprom to become a crucial economic arm of the government by purchasing and controlling Russia's energy network. Gazprom is a strong leverage of the government in economic-political management within Russia and in the world energy markets. This paper examines Russia's domestic and international policies in the energy sector, exploring Gazprom's role in the country's political-economic developments as well as its part in international equations for the Russian Federation.

From the perspective of theorists of international relations including functionalists and regionalists, establishment of cooperation and economic, commercial and transportation relations is among the suitable methods for fostering integration in international relations and deepening friendship, peace and stability particularly among regional countries. Considering this fact, the authors believe that the rise of the idea of constructing a peace pipeline (Iran-Pakistan-India) conforms to Iran's geo-economic situation; hence the realization of this idea has to be viewed as a strategic move and positive step towards securing national interests and national security of the three nations involved. In this respect, this paper examines various issues related to Iran's gas exports including the peace pipelines and liquidated natural gas (LNG), and assesses chances and challenges ahead of Iran in this regard, reviewing considerations on energy security.

having a rentier economy dependent on natural gas exports, Turkmenistan as administered as a dictatorship under Saparmurat Niyazov after it gained dependence from the Soviet Union. It also pursued a foreign policy based non-participation in any international alliance and pact. This paper studies turkmenistan's domestic and foreign policies under his successor President berdimuhamedov. It first deals with the nature of Turkmenistan's rentier economy and its repercussions on domestic and foreign policies. Then it displays that in overall its domestic politics has continued under President berdimuhamedov, but certain changes have occurred in its foreign policy directly affecting Turkmenistan's relations with the region and the world.

During the past 500 years, Iran and Russia have experienced many ups and downs in their relations which have been accompanied with enmity and amity. These relations varied from cooperation under the Safavids to enmity, war and interventions under the Qajar dynasty, then to hostile and sometimes friendly relations under the Pahlavi rule, and finally to collaborations within the past two decades (1989-2009). This paper seeks to analyze the 20-year collaborations between the two countries in various fields and study domestic, regional and world grounds affecting the formation of such ties. Then it examines the new geopolitical situation (Russia's distancing from Iranian borders) as a crucial variable. Indeed, the paper is mainly intended to address the impact of geopolitical developments on the bilateral cooperation during the past 20 years, avoiding the problems which have occurred within the one past year.

It can be argued that fuel and energy sector plays a crucial part in the countries' Development and improvement of people's living standards, constituting a pillar of economic development for nations. Electricity is considered as an infrastructure for economic, social and cultural development in a way that the growth in electric power is evaluated as an indicator for measuring the. growth of gross domestic product. Given the importance of this factor, it can be suggested that Central Asia possesses huge economic potential in various sectors including electrical power. Given Iran's unique situation in the discussion of regional economy, this can pave the way for the formation of an energy production and distribution bloc in the Southeast Asia region.Hence, this paper seeks-to explore the potential and capacities of such countries as Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia and the Islamic Republic of Iran concerning electrical energy production and distribution capacity, considering Iran's transit situation, suitable market in the regional countries including Afghanistan and ever-increasing need of west and south Asian nations.