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Armenia, Azerbajian, and Georgia: History and Policies

tern policy toward the region. First, the breakup of the USSR, complete by the early 1990s, meant that Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia re-entered the international arena as independent states. No longer would the interests of the region be represented internationally by Moscow. Second, and as a consequence of this independence, the vast Transcaucasian oil fields came under the national sovereignty of the newly independent Transcaucasian states. Finally, the events of September 11 have brought the Transcaucasian states into sharp focus due to their position on the northern boundary of the Islamic world. The global war on terrorism has consequently affected the region, with US troops present in all three countries and the Al-Q'da network active in neighboring Chechnya.

Oil is the most salient of those issues. The USSR had been the world's largest producer and exporter of petroleum, and Moscow's capacity for petroleum production derived in large measure from its dominion over the Transcaucasian region. Suddenly, upon the USSR's breakup, Western policymakers were confronted not only with the need to form relations with the new states, but also with the need to address the new energy-security situation. The latter concern, so important to the West, has pulled many nations from geopolitical obscurity to center stage, including those of the Transcaucasian region.

However, indifference to and ignorance of the history of the region on the part of the United States (and Western powers in general) have led many observers to comment that the West has crafted a clumsy and ineffective policy in Transcaucasia. The demerits of the West's approach are understandable when one considers that the region only recently came onto Western policymakers' radar screens, so to speak, and some period of adjustment is therefore to be expected. But these growing pains could be alleviated through an understanding of the history of the region; indeed policies ...

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Armenia, Azerbajian, and Georgia: History and Policies. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:37, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1709494.html