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The opening of the Caspian Sea basin to Western investment following the breakup of the Soviet Union produced a major contest for access to the region's vast energy reserves on the part of powers as close as Russia, Turkey, and Iran, and as far away as Japan and the United States. Indeed, the struggle to exploit Caspian oil has been one of the most monumental geopolitical developments of the post-Cold War era as external powers vie for political, economic, and military influence in a region brimming not only with oil, but also with ethnic conflicts and historical animosities.The coming decade of rapidly increasing demand for energy will ensure the continued interest and engagement of external powers with often competing geopolitical agendas. Thus the geopolitical developments spawned by the opening of the Caspian Sea are likely to continue to far outweigh the actual impact of Caspian oil on world energy markets. This collection of essays by prominent scholars and international experts offers several important and often conflicting interpretations of the events unfolding along the shores of the world's oldest oil-producing region.
This edited work is one of the better compilations for people interested in the very complex, yet fasinating geopolitical happpenings in the FSU, in particular around the discovery of the "seemingly vast" amounts of Oil (and Gas) in the Caspian Sea region. The work however is primarily concerned with Oil and not gas.The editors bring together the needed cross-sections from Academia of the 5 littoral states, as well as Turkey, Georgia, America and Russia. Missing from this list is of course China - however there are few commenatators that readily think to include China in the Caspian equation. Of interest to those familiar with the Caspian is a chapter from Jennifer Delay - which is very useful in providing further background to the various pipeline routes that have been proposed. Refreshing too is a chapter on the environmental issues associated with Caspian oil (and gas).Divided into 12 chapters the book follows a simple yet structured approach to understanding the importance of the region. Background, Littoral State perspectives and External actors. Tables and maps are useful for those seeking further information- although the maps do really need to be improved upon. Another lack - which of course can happen with any book is that some of the information cited by various contributors does not readily match with the primary material that they cite, this may be due to linguistic differences - although it is a bit troubling if you do not have access to the primary source material cited.All in all I did enjoy this book which is almost 300 pages in length - and would recommend it to those that are seeking to understand why there is so much interest in the region.
