JOURNAL OF CENTERAL ASIA AND THE CAUCASUS STUDIES
Year:2013 | Volume:18 | Issue:80|Papers Count:7

New security environment of the structure of the international system has led to widespread and common challenges and threats to NATO and Russia as well. Therefore, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has focused its new strategic concept in Lisbon (2010) on the effective activities in three main areas of collective defense, crisis management and security cooperation and emphasizes that the threats of the third millennium has paved the way for NATO''s further role in trans-Atlantic alliance and the whole international system and it has necessitated the redefinition of NATO''s strategic concept of the alliance and its cooperation with Russia. This research paper attempts to show that due to the emergence of new common threat, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has conducted security cooperation with Russia in areas such as terrorism, Afghanistan and missile defense shield which has consequently brought the two leading actors of the international system together. Russia and NATO have understood that the new security threats of international security, which in many cases are regarded as the common threats of the two actors, can be investigated and resolved only through cooperative security cooperation. Acknowledging this reality, the new Strategic Concept has enhanced security cooperation between NATO and Russia.

Priorities and foreign policy objectives are directly functions of their internal structures such as geopolitical context, domestic needs, power and national security threats, the attitude of the ruling elite and the situation of international system’s structure. Tajikistan is no exception to this general rule. A variety of factors and variable are affecting foreign policy at three levels of individual, national, and international foreign policy influence. Hence, one of the defining features of the foreign policy of Tajikistan is domestic factors and characteristics, so that understanding the nature and behavior of Tajikistan’s foreign policy requires understanding of internal factors affecting this country. This paper analyzes the factors affecting the domestic and foreign policy of Tajikistan. The goal is to answer the fundamental question: “How domestic factors affect Tajikistan’s foreign policy?”

Iran- Russia relations during the last three centuries have always followed a path of competition. The so-called competition has been obvious not only in territorial, geopolitical but also in enrgy (gas) aspects aswell. This article makes an effort to consider the different dimesions of Iran -Russia relation. Also, this article did not intend to decrease significance of technic-based requirements; even though in addition to that, we will argumentatively prove outstanding for technical attachments of Iran, especially in compulsory demands of nuclear energy. This research will attempt to consider all modern fields about ever-increasing compulsions in economic development, energy affairs, and finance necessities protruded it. These necessities can bring worthy security and economic and strategic consequences into being in international politics by inevitable cooperations between two states. Therefore, we examine all necessities of relations between them in two group: (a) technical- and defensive-based requirements and (b) modern necessities (energy-based necessity). Although, the latter is worth considering on energy-based compulsions in exclusively technical nuclear affairs and also energy-based necessities in gas issues.

Three republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania that constitute the Baltic countries that are of considerable importance for Russians, due to their special geopolitics. They are important at least in four aspects in Russian regional security policies: first, due to the large number of indigenous Russians in these republics, the region has been in the orbit of Russia’s near abroad. Second, Baltic Region is the main route of energy transit from Russia to Europe, so it has also been of significant interest for Europe. Thus, Russia has sought to take away their intermediary position in the transfer of energy from the region to Europe. Third and fourth, prominent significance of the region Russians is the expansion of NATO and European Union to these countries.According to these four factors, the conceptual framework of the relationship between influence, security, and territorial continuity has initially been studied in this article. Then, it tries to study and describe Russia’s security behavior in the Baltic Region. Hence, the main question of this research is: “How and why security behavior of Russia toward Baltic States has been formed within 1991to 2011?” In general, this paper argues that given the territorial continuity of Baltic Region with Russia and creation of security-based interests around this country and also with considering the position of the three republics of Estonia, Lithonia, and Latvia in the scope of influence of former USSR and Russia’s near abroad policy, Russian security behavior toward these republics has been a mixture of tolerance and reciprocity within 1991 to 2011.

Established in 1997, GUAM regional organization consisted of republics including Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldavia mainly was aimed to undermine Russia dominance through regional cooperation and convergence as well as making bonds with organizations such as NATO and the EU. To consolidate its activities and accomplish specific objective, the organization faced difficulties and impediments. Induced by a variety of factors including inconsistencies within the organization and among the members as well as external geopolitical reasons, these hindrances spoiled the perspective of successful, efficient cooperation including the process of expanding the relations with the EU. Similarly, from the EU viewpoint the obstacles have made GUAM a less interesting potential partner, while this contradiction is considered to be a “big problem.” Although there was much hope for GUAM to become a key player in the region after being acknowledged as an official organization in 2006, in the recent years no significant progress and improvement in the organization have been cited. In fact, EU regional initiatives are still considered as the mutual complementary cooperation between EU and the regional countries. Despite other regional organizations, Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) is not given much significance in the EU regional strategy.

Before collapse of the Soviet Union, energy pipelines of Central Asia and Caucasus regions were exclusively possessed by the Russians, who were the only regional power in geopolitics of these regions. Collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, economic weakness of the Russians in controlling the situations, and open, pro-Atlantic political atmosphere of Gorbachev and Yeltsin periods provoked a strong presence of regional as well as trans regional actors so as to exploit energy of these regions. Investments made by such actors in extracting oil and gas and constructing pipelines for energy transit lessened the Russian monopoly and caused geopolitical changes in these regions.This article attempts to describe the effects of construction of energy transit pipelines on the geopolitics of these regions after collapse of the Soviet Union. The assumption goes that construction of energy transit pipelines by regional and trans regional actors has not solely pursued economic benefits and has resulted in further political and security intervention of such actors in the geopolitics of Central Asia and Caucasus. This has, in turn, reduced the level of Russian monopoly in energy field and political and security issues of these regions.