JOURNAL OF CENTRAL EURASIA STUDIES
Year:2013 | Volume:6 | Issue:12|Papers Count:8

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and independence of former Soviet Union Republics, previous economic relations among Central Asian Republics changed and were replaced with the market economy. Tensions have emerged between upstream and downstream countries located along Transboundary Rivers with downstream countries even resorting to threat of military action against possible restriction of river flow by upstream countries. Transboundary Rivers can, thus, be source of tensions and conflicts, as well as good neighborly relations across the world. Upstream countries can usually influence the process of economic and social development of downstream countries. They can change the course of such rivers or threaten to do that, thus directing downstream countries in line with their own policies. Best ways to overcome the water issue in Central Asia include efficient water management, meticulous family planning, encouraging decrease in population, integrated water management in cooperation with all stakeholders, and most importantly, cooperation and coordination among Central Asia countries.

Russia and Iran, one with European background and Slavic racial origins with the other one being of Asian descent with non-Slavic racial origins, are playing their roles in building regional and international order according to their respective capacities, capabilities. Geopolitical and geostrategic developments and differences in proclaimed and practical approaches have historically changed the areas of conflict or interaction between the two countries, thus, raising questions about the reason behind instability of relations between Iran and Russia. To analyze changing relations between Iran and Russia, conceptual differences between these two political units should be taken into account. Russia's approach to Iran is mostly tactical and instrumental both on regional and bilateral levels. However, Iran's approach to Russia is idealistic, based on ideological rationality, and related to largescale issues. As to main reason behind instability of Iran-Russia relations, one may refer to dominance of a geo-political over a geo-economic viewpoint. This means that the political aspect of relations between Iran and Russia has overshadowed economic aspects of those relations.

The issue of water resources and their effect on human life doesn' t need any analysis and reasoning. However, such factors as population growth, improved quality of life and development of urbanization along with improved industrial and technological dimensions of human life have necessitated logical and reasonable planning for optimal use of water and water basins of the world. These factors also require us to pay more attention to environmental issues and give up useless political competition to determine a fair regime for better exploitation of declining water resources by all countries. Thus, the environmental water crisis in Aral Sea basin which is surrounded by five countries is the main topic of this paper. As this lake is being gradually destroyed, the possibility of an environmental crisis in the region increases due to inefficient management. Therefore, it is necessary to come up with a multilateral regional management approach to reach a mutually agreed solution for this problem.

General Yermolov's mission in Iran (1817) was in response to the Iranian Foreign Minister Mirza Abolhassan-Khan Ilchi’s mission to the Russian Empire. The goal of Yermolov's mission was to determine and resolve border disputes between the two countries based on the Treaty of Golestan (1813). This paper, which is based on Iranian and Russian sources, reviews the context, goals and achievements of his mission. Of course, his mission not only failed to create an opening in relations between the two countries, but also intensified their disputes and finally led to the second war between Iran and Russia (1826-1828). Major reasons for his failure included different expectations with respect to his mission among the two countries’ authorities, Iran's disagreement with Yermolov’s proposals, Yermolov’s improper conduct in meetings with the Shah and other officials of Iran, failure of Iranian authorities to use this opportunity to determine common borders, dependence of two countries’ relations on situation of Abbas Mirza as the heir to Iranian throne and Yermolov’s disagreement to this issue, as well as Yermolov’s noncompliance with the official policy of Russia.

Although on the basis of geo-economic theories, study of energy-related issues is of strategic importance to all countries, energy resources are no more restricted to oil and gas reserves as was the case during the past century. Of course, these resources are still key elements of global energy reserves. Today, in addition to geo-politics and geo-economics, the concept of hydro-geopolitics puts high emphasis on the importance of energy obtained from water resources, putting them on a par with oil and gas resources. Furthermore, the energy resources and their products should be transferred in different ways. Under these conditions, countries owning, producing and consuming energy should pay due attention to future outlook of energy resources. They should also take steps to organize production, transfer and consumption of energy. This paper aims to study and analyze Iran’s position in foreign policy and economic relations of Tajikistan in the light of Tajikistan’s open-door policy.

Within the framework of international political economy, this article discusses the situation of energy resources, including oil and gas, in Central Asia and argues that due to abundance of oil and gas resources in such countries as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and hefty revenues generated by those resources, statesmen in these countries are planning to turn Central Asia into a major hub of energy export in the world. Although regional energy resources play a very important role in economic growth and international transactions of these countries, there are obstacles to export of Central Asia energy resources as a result of poor infrastructure for energy transport, especially via oil and gas pipelines, customs barriers and political turmoil. While discussing the situation of regional countries, this paper aims to shed more light on the position and status of Iran in interactions related to the political economy of energy in Central Asia.

Although Russia and NATO have been cooperating on such issues as fighting terrorism, the situation in Afghanistan, weapons of mass destruction, and piracy in the post-Cold War era, there have been also strategic differences between them, including over the US missile defense shield, eastward expansion of NATO, and globalization of NATO activities, which have played a crucial role in these two actors’ relations. Russia's effort to achieve strategic balance with the West and revive the bipolar world system, as well as NATO’s attempts at establishing its strategic dominance in order to maintain the Western hegemony led by the US, have engaged the two sides in a zero-sum game, which has overshadowed all aspects of strategic cooperation between them. Russia is, consequently, distrustful of NATO in such areas and will continue to establish new security arrangements centered on Moscow within framework of Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Collective Security Treaty Organization in cooperation with such allies as China. The goal is to prevent NATO and the US from dominating the Central Asia and Eurasia while establishing Moscow’s desirable strategic balance with the West-NATO axis.

Termination of the Cold War was followed by considerable developments in international relations, including the emergence and gradual empowerment of new political actors. China was one of these actors whose process of empowerment, which actually started many years before the end of the Cold War, has drawn attention from many analysts. Central Asia is one of the regions with which China has had traditionally close relations. The collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991 and the opening up of the Central Asian geopolitical environment provided a suitable ground for reestablishment of ties between China and Central Asian republics. Focusing on the security dimension of China-Central Asia relations, this article tries to analyze whether China’s security ties with this region is limited to usual security relations among neighboring countries, or follows a special pattern beyond the conventional trends. The article adopts the “Regional Security Complexes” theory as its analytical basis, claiming that China’s security ties with Central Asia are aimed at creating a distinct security complex.