THE GREATER CAUCASUS IN RUSSIAN AMERICAN RELATIONS: MAIN TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENT PROSPECTS
Keywords:
he U.S., Russia, the Greater Caucasus, geopolitics, interests.Abstract
The author analyzes the dynamics of Russian American relations in the Greater Caucasus throughout the twenty-odd post-Soviet years, reveals the main development trends, and assesses the degree of confrontation and possibility of cooperation on the key regional issues in the context of the latest developments.
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See: B. Coppieters, “A Regional Security System for the Caucasus”, Caucasus Regional Studies, Vol. 5, Issue 1&2, 2000.
Azerbaijan opened its embassy in Washington on 6 March, 1992.
For more details, see: I.A. Istomin, “Zakavkazye v globalnoy strategii SShA,” in: Situatsionnye analizy, Issue 2,Textbook of MGIMO (U) at the Foreign Ministry of Russia, Chair of PAMP, MGIMO University, Moscow, 2012, pp. 134-154.
See: Prospects for Prosperity in the Caspian Basin: Twenty Years of Diplomatic Relations with the U.S., CSIS Conference, Washington D.C., 27 March, 2012.
For a more detailed discussion of the U.S. policies in the post-Soviet space, see: J. Goldgeier, M. McFaul, Power and Purpose. U.S. Policy toward Russia after the Cold War, Brookings Institution Press, Washington D.C., 2003, 467 pp.
Adopted in January 1996, the amendment authorized direct provision of aid to Azerbaijan if the White House felt that assistance at the level of NGOs was insufficient.
Adopted in 1997 by the House of Representatives, the amendment envisaged that “for every six dollars in U.S. aid to Azerbaijan, one dollar should go to Nagorno-Karabakh,” which meant that it “regarded Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent entity.” Baku’s violent rejection, supported by the White House and the Department of State in view of the planned fuel-relat-ed projects, forced the Senate to vote for the formula “assistance to Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh.”
See: Secretary of State Warren Christopher’s Message to State Department Employees and Implementation Directives on Reorganization, Department of State Reorganization, U.S. Department of State Dispatch, Washington D.C., 5 February,1993, pp. 27-35.
In April 2009, President Obama appointed Richard Morningstar Secretary of State’s Special Envoy for Eurasian En-ergy; in 2012, he was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan.
For more details, see: Twenty Years of Independence in the South Caucasus, CSIS Conference, Washington D.C.,15 September, 2011, available at [http://csis.org/event/twenty-years-independence-south-caucasus].
S. Cornell, “US Engagement in the Caucasus: Changing Gears,” Helsinki Monitor, No. 2, 2005, p. 112.
See: O.N. Barabanov, “Politika SShA v Tsentralnoy Azii i Zakavkazye”, Yuzhny flang SNG. Tsentral’naia Azia-Kaspiy-Kavkaz: Vozmozhnosti i vyzovy dlia Rossii, ed. by M.M. Narinskiy, A.V. Malgin, MGIMO (U), Foreign Ministry of Russia, INO-Tsentr, Logos Publishers, Moscow, pp. 336-350.
For more details about U.S. involvement in the project, see: N.A. Gegelashvili, “Politika Vashingtona v gosudarst-vakh Yuzhnogo Kavkaza i Tsentralnoy Azii,” SShA/Kanada: ekonomika, politika, kultura, No. 5, 2007, pp. 35-52.
See, for example: S.S. Zhiltsov, I.S. Zonn, A.M. Ushkov, Geopolitika Kaspiyskogo regiona, Mezhdunarodnye ot-noshenia, Moscow, 2003, p. 223; A.V. Feneneko, “Transformatsia sderzhivania,” Rossia v globalnoy politike, Vol. 7, No. 6,November-December 2009, pp. 77-98.
For more details about the role of the Caucasus for the U.S. post-9/11 foreign policy, see: C. Nation, Russia, the United States and the Caucasus, US Army War College, The Strategic Studies Institute, Washington D.C., February 2007,40 pp.
See: The National Security Strategy of the United States of America, The White House, Washington, D.C., September 2002, 31 pp.
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The National Defense Strategy of the United States of America, Department of Defense, Washington, D.C., March 2005, pp. 6-7.
Ibid., p. 9.
The National Military Strategy of the United States of America. A Strategy for Today a Vision for Tomorrow, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Washington D.C., 2004, p. 2.
See, for example: R. Asmus, A Little War that Shook the World: Georgia, Russia, and the Future of the West, Palrgave Macmillan, New York, 2010, 254 pp.
See: Ch. King, “A Rose among Thorns: Georgia Makes Good,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 83, No. 2, March/April 2004,pp. 13-18.
D.V. Trenin, “Post-Imperium: evraziyskaia istoria,” Moscow Carnegie Center, Rossiyskaia politicheskaia entsiklope-dia (ROSSPEN), Moscow, 2012, pp. 112-113.
For more details of how the Rose Revolution was organized, see: L. Mitchell, Uncertain Democracy: U.S. Foreign Policy and Georgia’s Rose Revolution, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2009, 180 pp.
A. Yepifantsev, Russia in Transcaucasia: What’s Gone Wrong?” Russia in Global Affairs, No. 3, July/September,2011.
For more details, see: A. Fominykh, “‘Miagkaia moshch’ obmennykh program,” Mezhdunarodnye protsessy, Vol. 6,No. 1, January-April 2008, pp. 76-85.
See: U.S. Government Assistance to and Cooperative Activities with Eurasia, US Department of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, available at [http://www.state.gov/p/eur/rls/rpt/23602.htm], January 2003.
See: I.M. Muradian, Politika SShA i problema bezopasnosti regiona Iuzhnogo Kavkaza, Antares, Erevan, 2000, 195 pp.
See: J.L. Jones, Written Statement before the Senate Armed Forces Committee, 7 March 2006, Senate Armed Ser-vices Committee, Washington D.C., 2006, p. 29.
See: S. Abdullayeva, V. Shulman, “U.S., Azerbaijan Begin 10-Day Naval Exercise”, Itar-TASS News Service, 26 January, 2004.
For more details, see: A. Stent, The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century,Princeton University Press, 2014, 360 pp.
See: A. Applebaum, “Ethnic Cleansing, Russian Style,” The Weekly Standard, 20 December, 1999, available at [http://www.anneapplebaum.com/1999/12/20/ethnic-cleansing-russian-style/],.
See: Foreign Operations Appropriated Assistance: Armenia, United States Department of State, Office of the Coor-dinator of U.S. Assistance to Europe and Eurasia, available at [http://www.state.gov/p/eur/rls/fs/140589.htm], December 2009.
See, for example: S.M. Rogov, “Vozmozhna li novaia ‘kholodnaia voyna’ mezhdu Rossiey i SShA?” Rossia i Ameri-ka v XXI veke, No. 3, 2007, available at [http://www.rusus.ru/?act=read&id=60].
See, for example: N.A. Kosolapov, “Porogovy uroven i veroiatnost konflikta SShA s Rossiey,” Mezhdunarodnye protsessy, Vol. 6, No. 3, 2008, pp. 15-25; A.I. Shumilin, “Vliianie Iugo-osetinskogo krizisa na otnosheniia mezhdu SShA i Rossiey: Amerikanskie ekspertnye otsenki,” Rossia i Amerika v XXI veke, No. 3, 2008, available at [http://www.rusus.
u/?act=read&id=94].
See, for example: V.G. Baranovskiy, “Mezhdunarodnaia bezopasnost posle kavkazskogo krizisa,” Mirovaia ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnoshenia, No. 4, 2009, pp. 8-12; E. Piadysheva, “Five Days which Changed the World,” International Af-fairs, No. 11, 2008; N. Silaev, “How the August War Affected the Caucasus,” Central Asia and the Caucasus, No. 3 (57), 2009,pp. 7-18.
See: U.S. Government Assistance to and Cooperative Activities with Eurasia. FY 2009 Foreign Operations Appropri-ated Assistance: Azerbaijan, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, available at [http://www.
tate.gov/p/eur/rls/rpt/eurasiafy09/136823.htm].
See: U.S. Government Assistance to and Cooperative Activities with Eurasia. FY 2008 Foreign Operations Appropri-ated Assistance: Azerbaijan, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, available at [http://www.
tate.gov/p/eur/rls/rpt/eurasiafy08/117312.htm].
See: U.S. Government Assistance to and Cooperative Activities with Eurasia. FY 2009 Foreign Operations Appropri-ated Assistance: Armenia, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, available at [http://www.state.
ov/p/eur/rls/rpt/eurasiafy09/136822.htm].
See: U.S. Government Assistance to and Cooperative Activities with Eurasia. FY 2008 Foreign Operations Appropri-ated Assistance: Armenia, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, available at [http://www.state.
ov/p/eur/rls/rpt/eurasiafy08/117311.htm].
See: U.S. Government Assistance to and Cooperative Activities with Eurasia. FY 2008 Foreign Operations Appropri-ated Assistance: Georgia, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, available at [http://www.state.
ov/p/eur/rls/rpt/eurasiafy08/117314.htm].
See: U.S. Government Assistance to and Cooperative Activities with Eurasia. FY 2009 Foreign Operations Appropri-ated Assistance: Georgia, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, available at [http://www.state.
ov/p/eur/rls/rpt/eurasiafy09/136825.htm].
See: T.A. Shakleina, “‘Poriadok posle Gruzii’ ili ‘poryadok pri Obame’”, Mezhdunarodnye protsessy, Vol. 6, No. 3,2008, pp. 4-14.
For more details, see: S. Charap, C. Welt, A More Proactive U.S. Approach to the Georgia Conflicts, Center for American Progress, Washington D.C., February 2011, 70 pp.
See: L. Mitchell, A. Cooley, “After the August War: A New Strategy for U.S. Engagement with Georgia,” The Har-riman Review, Columbia University, Vol. 17, No. 3-4, May 2010.
See: S. Markedonov, “‘Emirat’ poschitali,” POLITKOM.RU, available at [http://www.politcom.ru/12029.html], 30 May, 2011.
For more details, see: S. Markedonov, Radical Islam in the North Caucasus: Evolving Threats, Challenges and Prospects. A Report of the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program, Washington D.C., 2010, 13 pp.
The following works stand apart: B.G. Williams, “Allah’s Foot Soldiers: An Assessment of the Role of Foreign Fighters and al-Qaida in the Chechen Insurgency,” in: Ethno-nationalism, Islam and the State in the Caucasus: Post-Soviet Disorder, ed. by M. Gammer, Routledge University Press, 2007, pp. 156-178.
For more details, see: G. Hahn, “Getting the Caucasus Emirate Right,” in: A Report of the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program, Washington D.C., August 2011, p. 1.
See: Atlas sotsialno-politicheskikh problem, ugroz i riskov Yuga Rossii. Vol. V. Severny Kavkaz: problemy i perspe-ktivy razvitia. Spetsialny vypusk, ed. by G.G. Matishov, L.V. Batiev, I.V. Pashchenko, I.V. Romanov, YuNTs RAN Publishers,Rostov on Don, 2011, p. 129.
On the problem of the Islamist structures in the United States, see: I.A. Istomin, “Politicheskaia propaganda radikalnykh islamistskikh organizatsiy v SShA,” Vestnik MGIMO-Universiteta, No. 6, 2012, pp. 94-103.
See: M. Suchkov, “Islamic State Gains Victory for Chechen Jihadists,” Al-Monitor, 17 July, 2014, available at [http://
ww.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/islamic-state-chechen-caucasus-emirate.html].
See: D. Trenin, “Boston Common,” Foreign Policy, 19 April, 2013, available at [http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
rticles/2013/04/19/boston_common_us_russia_cooperation].
See: A. Malashenko, “Controversy and Concern Over the Sochi Olympics,” Carnegie Moscow Center, 10 April,2013, available at [http://carnegie.ru/publications/?fa=51456#].
See: A. Kuchins, “Why Washington Needs to Integrate the New Silk Road with the Pivot to Asia,” Asia Policy, No. 16,July 2013, p. 175-178.
Greg Saunders, Senior Director, International Affairs at BP, believes that the next “Great Game is going to be about natural gas”.
Israel is especially active in the region.
For more details, see: A.A. Sushentsov, “Formirovanie mezhdunarodnogo rezhima protivodeystviia ugrozam, iskho-diashchim iz Afghanistana,” Situatsionnye analizy, Issue 3, ed. by T.A. Shakleina, MGIMO (U) MID Rossii, Moscow, 2013.
For more details on the project’s early stages, see: S. Cherniavsky, “‘Velikiy shelkovy put’ i interesy Rossii,”Mirovaia ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnoshenia, No. 6, 1999, pp. 95-98.
The idea of a new Great Silk Road in Eurasia popular in the 1990s has been revived and developed by at least three institutes: The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at the Johns Hopkins University has been working on the Silk Road Studies Program since 2002; the Eurasia Center in the Atlantic Council launched its New Silk Road Project in 2013; while Georgetown University plans a series of workshops for 2014-2015 under the title Critical Silk Road Studies.
See: A. Cohen, “Armenia and Azerbaijan: On the Brink of War?” National Interest, 8 August, 2014, available at [http://nationalinterest.org/feature/armenia-azerbaijan-the-brink-war-11035?page=2].
Th. De Waal, “The Search for Security in the Caucasus”, Keynote presentation, the Rose Roth Conference, Tbilisi,29 April, 2013, available at [http://m.ceip.org/2013/04/29/search-for-security-in-caucasus/g2t2].
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