EURASIA VERSUS CENTRAL CAUCASO-ASIA: ON THE GEOPOLITICS OF CENTRAL CAUCASO-ASIA

Authors

  • Vladimer Papava Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52340/2009.09.08.01

Abstract

This paper deals with the rethinking of post-Soviet Central Eurasia. In recent years, the term Central Eurasia, which refers to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, has been attracting attention as a distinct geopolitical area. According to the approach, which arises from a Eurasianist conception of the region, drawing mainly on geography, equates Russia with Eurasia, an idea that has become popular and much debated in the post-Soviet period. If we proceed from the fact that the eight countries discussed here form two sub-regions – the Central Caucasus and Central Asia – the larger region, which includes both sub-regions, should be called the Central Caucaso-Asia. The term “Central Caucaso-Asia” reflects a conceptual idea of the interests of strengthening the local countries’ state sovereignty, which, in principle, contradicts the spirit and idea of Russo-centric Eurasianism.

Author Biography

  • Vladimer Papava

    Former Minister of Economy (1994-2000) of the Republic of Georgia 
    Former Member of the Parliament (2004-2008) of the Republic of Georgia 
    Senior Fellow at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies 
    Senior Associate Fellow of the Joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center, the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute (Johns Hopkins University-SAIS). 
    Most recent book (with Eldar Ismailov) is The Central Caucasus: Problems of Geopolitical Economy* 

References

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L.N. Gumilev, Ritmy Evrazii, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1993. (In Russian). [13] It should be said that the proponents of Eurasianism call themselves Eurasians, which is not totally correct: Eurasians are people living in Eurasia, while those who preach Eurasianism should be called Eurasianists. This term is used here precisely in this context. 15

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Vladimer Papava, “Central Caucaso-Asia” Instead of “Central Eurasia,” Central Asia and the Caucasus, No. 2 (50), 2008, pp. 30-42; Vladimer Papava, “Central Caucaso-Asia: Toward a Redefinition of Post-Soviet Central Eurasia,” Azerbaijan in the World. The Electronic Publication of Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, Vol. I, No. 17, October 1,

[http://www.ada.edu.az/biweekly/issues/156/20090328041927833.html]. Eldar Islamilov in his article [“Central Eurasia: Its Geopolitical Function in the 21st Century,” Central Asia and the Caucasus, No. 2 (50), 2008], approached the problem from the geopolitical positions and arrived at a similar conclusion.

Milan L. Hauner, op. cit., p. 217.

Today this idea of Central Eurasia has gained wide currency (For example, Mehdi Parvizi Amineh, and Henk Houweling, “Introduction: The Crisis in IR-Theory: Towards a Critical Geopolitics Approach,” in Mehdi Parvizi Amineh, and Henk Houweling, eds., Central Eurasia in Global Politics: Conflict, Security and Development, Leiden: Brill, 2005, pp. 2-16 3; Charles Fairbanks, C. Richard Nelson, S. Frederick Starr, and Kenneth Weisbrode, Strategic Assessment of Central Eurasia, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Council of the United States, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, Johns Hopkins University, 2001, p. vii; Karl Meyer, The Dust of Empire: The Race for Supremacy in the Asian Heartland, London: Abacus, 2004), p. 206.

Kenneth Weisbrode, op. cit., pp. 11-12.

For example, Nicholas S. Breyfogle, Heretics and Colonizers: Forging Russia’s Empire inthe South Caucasus, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 2005.

Thomas V. Gamkrelidze, “‘TransCaucasia’ or ‘South Caucasus’? Towards a More Exact Geopolitical Nomenclature,” Marco Polo Magazine, No. 4/5, 1999.

Eldar Ismailov, and Vladimer Papava, “A New Concept for the Caucasus,” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, Vo. 8, No. 3, 2008, р. 287; Eldar Ismailov, and Vladimer Papava, The Central Caucasus: Problems of Geopolitical Economy, New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2008, p. 9.

Aidyn Gajiev, Iz istorii obrazovania i padenia Iugo-Zapadnoi Kavkazskoy (Karskoy) demokraticheskoy respubliki, Baku: Elm Publishers, 1992. (In Russian); Aidyn Gajiev, Demokraticheskie respubliki Iugo-Zapadnogo Kavkaza (Karskaia i Araz-Tiurkskaia respubliki), Baku: Nurlan Publishers, 2004. (In Russian); Shevket Tagieva, Demokraticheskie respubliki Iugo-Vostochnogo Kavkaza (Azadistan i Gilianskaia Sovetskaia Respublika), Baku: Kavkaz Publishers, 2005. (In Russian). [29] For example, K.S. Gajiev, Geopolitika Kavkaza, Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye otnoshenia Publishers, 2003. (In Russian).

Eldar Ismailov, and Vladimer Papava, “A New Concept for the Caucasus,” op. cit., р. 287; Eldar Ismailov, and Vladimer Papava, The Central Caucasus: Problems of Geopolitical Economy, op. cit., p. 9. 17

Eldar Ismailov, “O geopoliticheskikh predposylkakh ekonomicheskoy integratsii Tsentral’nogo Kavkaza,” Izvestia AN Gruzii—seria ekonomicheskaia, Vol. 10, No. 3-4,

(In Russian).; Eldar Ismailov, and Zia Kengerli, “The Caucasus in the Globalizing World: A New Integration Model,” Central Asia and the Caucasus, No. 2 (20), 2003.

For example, Kenneth S. Yalowitz, and Svante Cornell, “The Critical but Perilous Caucasus”, Orbis, A Journal of World Affairs, Vol. 48, No. 1, 2004.

For example, Elkhan Nuriyev, The South Caucasus at the Crossroads: Conflicts, Caspian Oil and Great Power Politics, Berlin: LIT, 2007.

Svante E. Cornell, and S. Frederick Starr, eds., The Guns of August 2008: Russia’s War in Georgia, Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 2009.

See: “Description of the Project,” in UNESCO History of Civilizations of Central Asia, <http://www.unesco.org/culture/asia/html_eng/projet.htm>.

See, For example, Graham E. Fuller, “The Emergence of Central Asia,” Foreign Policy, No. 78, Spring 1990; Ali Banuazizi, and Myron Weiner, eds., Central Asia and the Caucasus after the Soviet Union. The New Geopolitics of Central Asia and Its Borderlands, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994; Peter Ferdinand, ed., The New States of Central Asia and Their Neighbours, New York: Council of Foreign Relations Press, 1994.

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For example, Martin W. Lewis, and Kären E. Wigen, op. cit., p. 179. [39] For example, Aleksandr Dugin, Osnovy geopolitiki. Geopoliticheskoe budushchee Rossii, op. cit., pp. 353-359.

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Robert L. Canfield, “Restructuring in Greater Central Asia,” Asian Survey, Vol. 32, No. 10, 1992, p. 874.

S. Frederick Starr, A ‘Greater Central Asia Partnership’ for Afghanistan and Its Neighbors, Silk Road Paper, March 2005, Washington, D.C.: Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, Johns Hopkins University-SAIS, 2005, p. 16, <http://www.silkroadstudies.org/CACI/Strategy.pdf>; S. Frederick Starr, “A Partnership for Central Asia,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 84, No. 4, 2005.

See: Martin W. Lewis, and Kären E. Wigen, op. cit.

See: D. Nazarbaeva, “Spetsifika i perspektivy politicheskogo razvitia Kazakhstana,” Mezhdunarodny institut sovremennoy politiki, 3 December, 2003, <http://www.iimp.kz/Lists/articles/DispForm.aspx?ID=766>.

S. Frederick Starr, “Rediscovering Central Asia,” Wilson Quarterly, Summer, 2009, <http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=wq.essay&essay_id=545818>; Farkhad Tolipov, “Central Asia is a Region of Five Stans. Dispute with Kazakh Eurasianists,” Central Asia and the Caucasus, No. 2 (38), 2006, p. 22.

Mehdi Parvizi Amineh, and Henk Houweling, op. cit., pp. 2-3; Charles Fairbanks, C. Richard Nelson, S. Frederick Starr, and Kenneth Weisbrode, op. cit.; Karl Meyer, op. cit., p. 206; Xuetang Guo, “The Energy Security in Central Eurasia: The Geopolitical Implications to China’s Energy Strategy,” China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. 4, 2006, p. 117, <http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/docs/CEF/Quarterly/November_2006/Guo.pdf>.

Eldar Ismailov, and Murad Esenov, “Central Eurasia in the New Geopolitical and Geo-Economic Dimensions,” in Central Eurasia 2005. Analytical Annual, Luleå: CA&CC Press, 2006.

Parvin Darabadi, “Central Eurasia: Globalization and Geopolitical Evolution,” Central Asia and the Caucasus,No. 3 (39), 2006, p. 9. 19

For example, V.I. Salygin, and A.V. Safarian, Sovremennye mezhdunarodnye ekonomicheskie otnoshenia v Kaspiyskom regione, Moscow: MGIMO-Universitet Press, 2005. (In Russian).

Parvin Darabadi, Geoistoria Kaspiiskogo regiona i geopolitika sovremennosti, Baku: Elm Publishers, 2002, p. 6; Parvin Darabadi, “The Caspian Region in Contemporary Geopolitics,” Central Asia and the Caucasus, No. 3 (21), 2003, p. 66.

For example, Brent Sasley, “The Intersection of Geography and Resources: Geopolitics in the Caspian Sea Basin,” in Lasha Tchantouridze, ed., Geopolitics: Global Problems and Regional Concerns, Winnipeg: Center for Defense and Security Studies, University of Manitoba, 2004, p. 194.

Vladimer Papava, ““Central Caucaso-Asia” Instead of “Central Eurasia”,” op. cit.; Vladimer Papava, “Central Caucaso-Asia: Toward a Redefinition of Post-Soviet Central Eurasia,” op. cit.

This conception is already shared by Anita Sengupta, Heartlands of Eurasia: the Geopolitics of Political Space, London: Lexington Books, 2009, p. 69.

Kenneth Weisbrode, op. cit., p. 13.

Eldar Ismailov, and Murad Esenov, op. cit.

Anders Åslund, “Eventual Success of Market Reform,” in Jan H. Kalicki, and Eugene K. Lawson, eds., Russian-Eurasian Renaissance? U.S. Trade and Investment in Russia and Eurasia, Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2003.

For example, Sergey Lounev, “Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus: Geopolitical Value for Russia,” Central Asia and the Caucasus, No. 3 (39), 2006, pp. 14-15; K. Weisbrode, op. cit.

For example, Jeffrey Mankoff, Eurasian Energy Security, New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 2009; Makni (Muhammad Aslam Khan Niazi), The New Great Game: Oil and Gas Politics in Central Eurasia, New York: Raider Publishing International, 2008. 20

For example, Fiona Hill, Energy Empire: Oil, Gas and Russia’s Revival, London: The Foreign Policy Center, 2004, <http://www.brookings.edu/views/articles/Fhill/20040930.pdf>.

For example, Igor Tomberg, “Energy Policy in the Countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus,” Central Asia and the Caucasus, No. 4 (22), 2003.

Janatkhan Eyvazov, Bezopasnost Kavkaza i stabil’nost razvitia Azerbaidzhanskoy Respubliki, Baku: Nurlan Publishers, 2004, p. 132.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard. American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives, New York: Basic Books, 1997, p. 41.

Ibidem.

Ibid., p. 40.

Ibid., pp. 46-47, 129.

A.I. Utkin, Amerikanskaia strategia dlia XXI veka, Moscow: Logos Publishers, 2000, p. 105.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard, op. cit., pp. 148-149.

Ibidem.

For example, Toby T. Gati, and Tapio L. Christiansen, “The Political Dynamic,” in Jan H. Kalicki, and Eugene K. Lawson, eds., Russian-Eurasian Renaissance? U.S. Trade and Investment in Russia and Eurasia, Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2003.

For example, Amy Jaffe, “US Policy Towards the Caspian Region: Can the Wish-List be Realized?,” in Gennady Chufrin, ed., The Security of the Caspian Sea Region, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Steven R. Mann, “Caspian Futures,” in Jan H. Kalicki, and Eugene K. Lawson, eds., Russian-Eurasian Renaissance? U.S. Trade and Investment in Russia and Eurasia, Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2003.

For example, A.I. Utkin, op. cit., p. 108. [73] Ibid., p. 105.

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Published

2009-12-02

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How to Cite

Papava, V. (2009). EURASIA VERSUS CENTRAL CAUCASO-ASIA: ON THE GEOPOLITICS OF CENTRAL CAUCASO-ASIA. CICERO FOUNDATION GREAT DEBATE PAPER , 09/8. https://doi.org/10.52340/2009.09.08.01