Category: Volume 5, Issue 53, 2008

CHECHNIA—THE OSCE EXPERIENCE 1995-2003

Odd Gunnar SKAGESTAD Odd Gunnar Skagestad, Deputy Director-General, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1999-2000, Ambassador on secondment to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as Head of the OSCE Assistance Group to Chechnia (Oslo, Norway) The OSCE Field Operations Gradually evolving from the embryonic détente initiatives of the 1970s, and having braved the Charybdian rocks…

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THE “FROZEN CONFLICT” THAT TURNED HOT: CONFLICTING STATE-BUILDING ATTEMPTS IN SOUTH OSSETIA

Nicolas LEMAY-HÉBERT Nicolas Lemay-Hebert, Ph.D. Candidate at Sciences Po Paris and a Visiting Scholar at Princeton University. Has traveled in Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia for his research and has worked for the French Embassy in Tbilisi (Princeton, U.S.) The South Ossetians living under the authority of the unrecognized Republic of South Ossetia make up…

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RUSSIA AND GEORGIA: POST-SOVIET METAMORPHOSES OF MUTUAL RELATIONS

Malkhaz MATSABERIDZE Malkhaz Matsaberidze, D.Sc. (Political Science), professor at the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (Tbilisi, Georgia) The post-Soviet relations between Russia and Georgia are best described as complicated and contradictory. Indeed, the less than two decades of post-Soviet history include several different but logically connected periods. This means that anyone wishing to better understand…

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INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM AND CENTRAL ASIA: PREMATURE ASSESSMENTS

Steven SABOL Steven Sabol, Associate Professor of Central Asian History, Department of History, University of North Carolina-Charlotte (Charlotte, U.S.) In the months leading up to, and the first few years after, the Soviet Union collapsed numerous articles and books were published that claimed Islamic “fundamentalism” was likely to emerge in Central Asia. These fears were…

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A Eurasian Islam?

(A vision on the position and evolution of Islam and Islamism in former Soviet Central Asia and the Caspian) Bruno DE CORDIER Bruno De Gordier, Researcher, Conflict Research Group of Ghent University (Ghent, Belgium) Scenarios of “balkanization,” “talibanization” and “revolutionary contamination from Iran” of the southern Soviet rim were popular in the early 1990s. These…

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EFFICIENT USE OF FUEL AND ENERGY RESOURCES IN GEORGIA’S ENERGY POLICY

Demur CHOMAKHIDZE Demur Chomakhidze, D.Sc. (Econ.), professor, scientific consultant for the Georgian National Energy Regulatory Commission (Tbilisi, Georgia) Urgency of the Problem Energy saving is one of today’s most urgent problems, and it is particularly acute in Georgia. The republic is not rich in energy resources, so in order to satisfy its economy’s demand for…

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KAZAKHSTAN’S FUEL AND ENERGY COMPLEX: REFORMS, PROBLEMS, AND PROSPECTS

Galia ESENOVA Galia Esenova, Ph.D. (Technical Sciences), deputy director of the Institute of Economics, Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, head of the Department of Environmental and Economic Management Problems (Almaty, Kazakhstan) Kazakhstan’s current energy policy is aimed at ensuring the state’s energy independence and raising the efficiency of energy production…

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ARMENIA’S ENERGY SECTOR: A REGIONAL ACTOR WITH NO ENERGY RESOURCES

Haroutiun KHACHATRIAN Haroutiun Khachatrian, Analyst and editor at the Noian Tapan Agency (Erevan, Armenia) Armenia, a small country without fuel resources of its own and very limited alternative energy sources, is among those CIS countries that can boast of sustainable energy supplies. More than that, its energy export is growing by the year. Its success…

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RUSSIA AND IRAN: ATTEMPTS TO IMPLEMENT NEW STRATEGIC STEPS IN THE CASPIAN-CENTRAL ASIAN OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY

Rustam MAKHMUDOV Rustam Makhmudov, Independent researcher (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) The events of 2008 on the Caspian Basin and Central Asian natural gas and oil market clearly show that the key regional and world geopolitical players are looking for new ways to take the strategic initiative in the rivalry for access to the production, transportation, and purchase…

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CHINA’S GAS POLICY IN CENTRAL ASIA

Vladimir MATVEEV Vladimir Matveev, Ph.D. (Econ.), chief researcher at the Center for SCO Studies and Regional Security Problems, RAS Institute of Far Eastern Studies (Moscow, Russia) The development of China’s gas industry cannot be reviewed outside the context of the development problems that have arisen throughout its entire energy sphere. The growth of the Chinese…

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