Troubled Waters
Subtitle: The Geopolitics of the Caspian Region
Publisher: I. B. Tauris
Published: September 20, 2003
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9781860649226
Subjects: Geopolitics; Political economy; Political ideologies; History; Political Science; Politics / Current Events; Textbooks; Politics/International Relations; Caspian Sea; Former Soviet Union, USSR (Europe); International Relations - General; Middle East - General; Political Science / International Relations
First sentence: The world's largest inland sea, the Caspian, sits in a region that has been at the confluence of conflicting ethnic, national and international interests since the dismantling of the Soviet Union.
Description: "Once a landlocked backwater between Iran and the Soviet Union, the Caspian has in the last decade emerged as the epicenter of conflicting interests in a region where powerful geopolitical factors converge with significant energy resources and latent instability. Since the attacks of 9/11 and the projection of US power into Afghanistan, the greater Caspian/Central Asian landmass has assumed global strategic significance. Troubled Waters presents a comprehensive analysis of the political and economic dynamics of the Caspian basin. It examines the area's historical evolution and the diverse issues and players in what has become a modern variant of the 'Great Game' of the nineteenth century. Following a historical overview of the region and its oil industries, the book analyses the domestic politics and the foreign policies of the five states bordering the Caspian -- Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. It further identifies all the external interests involved in the Caspian's political rivalries and control over its resources and territory, including the US, the major European powers, various nationalist movements, Islamic militants, multinational corporations, NGOs and international financial institutions. These features, coupled with the political and economic risk assessment of the Caspian basin which this book provides, makes this a unique contribution to our understanding of a region which is positioned at the juncture of Russia, China, South Asia and the Middle East. Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET.