JOURNAL OF CENTRAL EURASIA STUDIES
Year:2009 | Volume:2 | Issue:4|Papers Count:7

Due to its domestic problems, Russia failed to pay significant attention to Central Asia and the Caucasus after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This resulted in a geopolitical vacuum in the region followed by extensive activities done by regional actors including Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Israel as well as world players such as NATO. Defining Central Asia and the Caucasus as 'Near Abroad' by Russian leaders, and political, economic and social ties between the Russian Federation and the newly independent republics in those regions resulted in Russia's sensitivity and serious attention to the regions once again. The authors argues that Russian efforts at maintaining its traditional sphere of influence and preventing Western presence on the one hand, and Western attempt at extending its influence notably within the NATO framework on the other will make conflict of interests between Russia and the West inevitable.

The South Ossetia crisis leading to military hostilities between Russia and Georgia has turned into one of the complicated crises in the Caucasus and at the world level since the disintegration of the Soviet Union. This crisis should be considered as the harbinger of a new stage in the international relations arena in the transition from the Cold War era. Unlike the Karabakh and Abkhazia crises which were of regional dimensions and global scope, the South Ossetia crisis was different, but recent developments in this province showed that crises and disputes in every dimension, extent and level in this region will find regional and global dimensions, affecting regional and world developments. Hence, it can be suggested that the Caucasus is one of the crisis ridden regions of the world that is prone to the culmination of disputes and transformation into war among the great powers. In addition to mentioning the causes of the South Ossetia crisis and academic approaches found in this respect, this paper addresses its origins, historical and legal background and repercussions on the domestic, regional and international scales, as well as its future prospects.

One of the main issues faced by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the post-Cold War period has been the continued existence of the organization and accommodating its goals and agenda with the new world conditions. NATO in this relation has made utmost efforts within the past two decades and by making a kind of identity transformation in its functions and missions, not only did not collapse as its old rival did, but also managed to attract new member states in various parts of the world, expanding its functions to new subjects. This paper tries to study the new structure of the international system according to the constructivist theories and explore the method of change in NATO's function, the expansion of the organization's presence in Eurasia and its future objectives among the regional countries which enjoy high geopolitical importance.

This article examines the role of security approach in challenging Tehran-Baku relations by analyzing political and economic factors in their bilateral relations. The article focuses on finding an answer to the question that what constitutes the main cause of unfriendly approach in relations between the two states between 1991 and 2009. The main hypothesis of this article is that emphasizing security in bilateral relations by Tehran and Baku is the main factor in shaping this situation after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Theoretical framework of the article is constructivism.

Although Russian studies existed in world academies in preceding centuries in different styles, it was only in the second half of the 20th century that major academic centers in Europe and the United States paid serious attention to understanding the Soviet Union and its current developments by attracting some emigrant Soviet authors and scientists. For these academic centers, recognizing the Soviet Union as the biggest enemy of liberalism, capitalism and democracy, which formed the main pillars of the modem societies and governments in Europe and the United States was highly important. The collapse of the Soviet Union, among other things, questioned Kremlinology and created a crisis for Russian studies institutes, because the occurrence of the collapse was not included in the known theories.

Following the September 11th events when the United States managed to forge an international coalition against terror within the framework of Operation Enduring Freedom, attacking Afghanistan, the general perception was that the United States would be able soon to destroy the Taliban in Afghanistan and remove the shades of war and insecurity from Afghanistan. However what occurred was the collapse of the Taliban's government in Afghanistan rather than the destruction of the Taliban itself. This paper seeks to answer the question why the Taliban becomes more powerful day by day. In other words, it studies the causes of Taliban's rising power.

Slavophilism was an approach to social change in Russia. For explaining this idea, the article examines what this change was directed at, and focuses on the social and political dimensions of the Slavophil project by putting it in the context of Russian intellectual critical current. In this article, it will be examined that how Russian intellectuals turned away from state and formal law to focus on the Russian nation and society. The main hypothesis is that these changes have social character. In this way, authors focus on the ideas of Aleksey Khomiakov and Ivan Kireevsky.