JOURNAL OF CENTERAL ASIA AND THE CAUCASUS STUDIES
Year:2012 | Volume:18 | Issue:78|Papers Count:7

Applying Roseau’s theory, this article seeks to assess Russian policy toward Caspian Sea. The central question of this article is which factor among deferent effective ones has had the most influence on the Russian policy toward Caspian Sea. The presumption is Russian approach toward Caspian Sea is Strategic one that the country tries to use is to come to froth its regional and international aims. The central hypothesis of the paper is international system factor is the most effective one in Russian regional policy toward Caspian Sea. Given that Russian foreign policy has faced a Strategic transition which accounts for a transition from passive policy to active economic policy and from it to an active military and security policy.

Despite being rich in some important power elements such as territory, population and vast markets, Asia has had an insignificant share in global economy and politics during the past decades. However, today the old Continent has returned to the center of the world history through its historical economic development. For the first time in the modern world, Asia plays a determining role as a global actor in international system.Regional integration is another trend and aspect of Asian politics which is contributing to the promotion of the international standing of the continent. Accordingly, one of the outstanding questions in Asian current international debates is related to the possibility or impossibility of the continental integration in this continent.In response to the above-mentioned question, the authors have reviewed the different narratives of the regional integration in Asia and the continental perspective of this process. According to the research findings of the present article, Asian countries have sufficient resources and incentives to pave the ground for a sustainable continental integration by establishing a meaningful relation among the current experiences of regionalisms in Asia. For that reason, Asian integration is an option for the Asian countries in an era of Asian century.

Since Sept. 2001 incident and the American occupation of Afghanistan, Pakistani Army has always been regarded as the frontline guard against fundamentalism and the main bridge for the military operations against Taliban and al-Qaeda. By the same token, the US has revised its foreign policy priorities in relations with Pakistan, leading to the elimination of the sanctions taken previously for its nuclear testing and the military rule. Islam Abad’s special stance in the War against Terror is the main reason for change in Washington's policy and the reasons for this change of policy is the impetus of this article. Accordingly, the article proposes that al-Qaeda’s relation with extremist religious seminaries in Pakistan and their determination to expand the extremist doctrines, Taliban’s presence and influence in Pakistan’s tribal autonomous region, Pakistani terrorist groups and their close ties with Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Taliban are the main reasons for Pakistan’s close cooperation with the US, without which any operation against terrorism remains almost endless.

The republic of Uzbekistan is the only country in Central Asia and the Caucasus that has pursued a changing approach in its foreign policy. Uzbekistan’s foreign policy has always oscillated between accompaniment and opposition towards both the US and Russia. This raises the question that what is the main reason of this lack of consistency in Uzbekistan’s foreign policy and what are the regional and international consequences? To answer this question, this article tries to study the reasons of this changing policy at both domestic and international levels of analysis in the framework of James Rosenau’s consistency theory. Accordingly, the article argues that Uzbekistan as economically undeveloped society and politically closed society as well as being a small power (in the international system), two variables of personality (authoritarian character and approach of Islam Karimov) and international environment (differences in the Central Asia and the US-Russia rivalry) are more influential than other variables of role, government and society in shaping a changing foreign policy. Adopting this kind of foreign policy by Tashkent, may cause important consequences including undermining Uzbekistan’s prestige as a reliable ally, aggravating differences between Uzbekistan and Central Asia countries, weakening the Collective Security Treaty Organization, divergence in Shanghai Cooperation Organization and intensifying competition between China and Russia on the one hand and the US on the other hand in the Central Asia which in turn has played an important role in the unstable conditions in the Central Asia.

In this paper, the process of state-building in the South Caucasus republics since their independence in 1991 until now has been studied. These countries have problems in the state-building process would be difficult to solve, also Have to solve problems left over from the communist era, Problems such as inefficient centralized economy and to fight cross-border ethnic issues, As a result, has been additional responsibility of leaders. While in the past two decades have not achieved significant success in this area and suffer from incomplete penetration territorial, Separatism, Lack of integration, not solving identity crisis and also have suffered from inadequate institutional structure. The countries of the region despite common experience in unsuitable state-building process, each of them have shown different progress in this area. While the Republic of Armenia take advantage of Opportunities such as more integrated identity and external support, have been shown better performance, Georgia with ethnic problems, war and separation 20% of its territory in the weakest performance in this area has shown. However, Azerbaijan state has experienced numerous crises and still suffers from Weak democratic institutions, but because of the Greater extent, more resources and population has a brighter future.  

«Arab developments» has caused considerable political and social developments not only inside the countries engaged, but the regional and international equations as well. In the meanwhile, emphasizing on Western targeted manipulation of the developments aiming at geopolitical and security objectives for changing long-term map of the Middle East to the expense of other actors including Moscow, Russia is trying to adopt an independent position in order to prove to regional and Western countries its ability of being a balancing power against the West.Russia’s view and its aftermath strict stance shows that despite some positive developments, yet somewhat balanced traditional views to power and its spheres of influence have still maintained their effects on Russia’s external behaviors. Considering Russia’s lack of objective capabilities to counter the West networking power, it seems psychological variable of being a «great power» has mostly influenced Russia’s new Middle East policy towards «Arab developments».