JOURNAL OF CENTERAL ASIA AND THE CAUCASUS STUDIES
Year:2015 | Volume:21 | Issue:90|Papers Count:7

After the collapse of Soviet Union, South Caucasus has been the ground of different kinds of threats and security challenges. The most important security challenges in South Caucasus include ethnic and territorial conflicts, political instability, lack of economic and social development, transnational threats, organized crime, and finally the competition of regional and trans-regional powers. The existence of these challenges has provided a security complexity in Caucasus and has prevented the establishment of stability and peace in this region. The main question in this study is: How can we employ the main components of the security complex including polarity, social construct, state's nature, boundary and anarchy in south Caucasus? Assumption is that the components of regional security complex can be applied in south Caucasus because of its security interdependence, this region would be considered independence from Russia regional security complex.  The Firstly, an attempt has been made to assess the genealogy of the security complex theory. Then, a survey has been done to see whether this complex is a sub complex of Russia security complex or it is an independent one, using the framework of boundaries concept. Finally, the components of security complex theory are applied in South Caucasus using an "Explanation and Positivism" methodology.

South Caucasus is one of the regions in the world which faces with numerous challenges considering the security area and after two decades of the collapse of the Soviet Union, it has not reached the political and economic integration yet. In this region, there is a kind of cooperation and rivalry among Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia and also among these countries with external players. These three countries have pursued different and sometimes contradictory paths and participated in different organizations, programs, agreements and coalitions. The EU and Russian Federation are two important actors in the South Caucasus. Framing the European Neighborhood Policy and Eastern Partnership, the EU has sought to play a more highlighted role in the region. The Russia-Georgia war in 2008 and the EU's intervention especially the French government's initiative led to Brussels' pronounced role. Considering the South Caucasus as its near abroad, Russia with formulating mechanisms such as the Eurasian Economic Union tries to counter the influence of NATO and the EU's in the region. In this article, the factors influencing on the EU-Russia's differences in the South Caucasus will be studied. The hypothesis will be as "differences in perception of security, securing energy security, a bid to establish sphere of influence and economic benefits have led to Brussels- Russia's differences and disputes. The research approach used in this article is analytic-descriptive.

With increasing economic dependence of world on hydrocarbon energy resources, and ongoing tensions in the Middle East and the emergence of Russia as a major player in the global energy market, the resources of oil and gas in Central Asia and their transportation routes to consumer markets have been greatly considered by the great industrial powers. There have been decades of long struggles over controlling natural oil and gas resources and infrastructures, and influence of central Asia that has been called "the new great game" between Europe, China, Russia and America, and each of these powers were trying to outpace each other in order to obtain more influence in the region. In the years of the Soviet Union collapse and the discovery of huge reserves of oil and gas in Central Asia, the competition between the great powers has been intensified. On the one hand, the Russians by confining all the exporting routes of their land have tended to maintain their traditional influence and control over the newly independent states. On the other hand, the United States has entered in the region as a serious competitor, and as a fan of the paths that will lead to its own long-term goals and geopolitical interests. Also, China with its strong incentives to be present in Central Asia and to challenge the hegemonic policies of America and also to achieve the regional energy resources and huge market has entered in this competition. Although Russia is the major power in Central Asia's resources, the presence of new players such as America, and especially China and the efforts of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to find alternative ways to transport oil and gas have faced the Russian interests with some challenges in the region. Accordingly, the authors of this article ask this question: who is going to win the power game of having control over Central Asia's resources?Our hypothesis is that due to China's economic growth and the need of this country to the huge oil and gas resources as well as the development of Beijing's relationships with Central Asian neighbors, in the future China will be the main power in the region.

Russian Federation is recognized as the main inheritor of Soviet Union on December 31, 1991 which was able to collect eleven newly independent Republics in the post-Soviet. Russian policy toward Central Eurasian region indicates that, the country is trying to preserve surrounding area at the same time to be effective in the process and policies of these countries. Therefore multilateral approach, formation and strengthening of regional organization are important approaches of Russia for aligning of central Eurasian countries with its goals, interests and policiesIn this study, based on the importance of multilateralism and integration of views on Russia's foreign policy, the collect efforts by Russian to create integration in the central Eurasia will be discussed in the three sets: integration of politics, security and economics and more important than, that success or failure of Russia in this  field will be evaluated. Thus the main question of this research is "What are the challenges and limitation of Russian Federation in creating regional integration in central Eurasian? "And the finding of this research shows that economic restrictions in Russia in responding to material and technological needs of the region, some important challenges  facing the central  Eurasian region and barriers to trans-regional, such as the presence and intervention of trans-regional actor are the most important Russian challenges to create integration in central Eurasia.

The strategic importance of Central Asian region emerged within the framework or global security challenges following 9/11. NATO engagement in Afghanistan and the US strategic shifts from “energy security" to "fighting against terrorism" in the region, together with its new approaches in various political, military and operational fields within the context of comprehensive theory of "cooperative security" encountered with the formation of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)and the formation of new regional security arrangement within the context of neo-regionalism theory. These developments indicate the importance of the Central Asia Region in the world politics and amongst major players of these two organizations namely US, Russia and China over the past decade.This article tries to answer the main question by using a comparative-descriptive method: How could security policies of NATO and SCO in Central Asian Region be studied and theoretically compared? The authors believe that, over the past decade, member states of the two organizations have shared tactical interest such as the stability of Afghanistan, the fight against drug trafficking, organized crimes and terrorism, all realized in terms of partnership mechanisms for NATO peace and NATO-Russia council. Therefore, despite the existence of mechanisms of cooperation to achieve tactical shared interests, two organizations disagreed on strategic subject matters such as the long term goals of the US in the region, the expansion of NATO to the East and the controlling and managing energy security in Central Asia. In the meantime, there are some elements such as NATO’s bilateral relationship with some Central Asian countries being affected by China and Russia policies, contradicting goals of major players, and lack of comprehensive institutional mechanism of consultation and cooperation in the two organizations have deepened the differences among them.

In this paper, the Regional building process of economic and political dimensions of Central Asia in light of various factors checked, some of the factors include: Mutual cooperation, Border disputes, Geographic, Hydro politics, Disputes relating to energy and the difference between the heads of states and non-identical influence each of them in a single region. In the economic sector article, on bilateral relations Including Cross-border trade and non-systematic subdivision of the property, is mentioned. Also in Content analysis of external actors pictures and Europe Union programs, America, Turkey, China and Russia have been analyzed and Concluded, Although  Regional building in Central Asia Provide adequate facilities for developing countries, But it seems that this process is not available in a short time.The Hypothesis is That Why has so far not been successful regional Building in Central Asia? In response to the question paper, it is hypothesized that it seams inter-regional political, security, economic and cultural Factors and barriers ant also Trans-regional actors Interference, led to the failure of regionalism in Central Asian. Article descriptive - analytic method was carried out.