This edited transcript of a 40-minute podcast interview (1 November 2020) covers the Caspian Sea’s legal regime, national interests of its littoral states, Turkey’s role in Euro-Caspian energy security, American and Chinese interests in the region, and why the Caspian Sea’s significance will increase still more in future.
When the Treaty of Brussels was signed on August 25, 1948, the world was, geopolitically speaking, a strikingly different place. Just three years prior, Germany had signed its unconditional surrender, officially ending a war that left upwards of 60 million killed. When informed by advisors that Soviet forces were a day’s march from Berlin, Hitler […]
Momentum accelerated over the past month pointing towards the implementation, sooner rather than later, of the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline (TCGP). Already last summer the signature of the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea established that neither Russia nor Iran would be able to block the construction of the pipeline. This even confirms […]
With over 13 million people are facing famine in Yemen, what are the possibilities for ending this deadly conflict? Dakota Bewley investigates the Saudi-Iran proxy war in Yemen.
The recently-signed Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea has the potential for far-reaching effects, both in the region and throughout Europe. The way this decades-old dispute was solved With security, energy, legal and economic issues at play, it is important to understand what has been resolved, and what is still at stake.
In this article, Sivan Ghasem highlights Iran’s role in Iraq and the current umbrella of militia’s that operate under Iran’s direction. She underscores the measures of hard and soft power executed by the Iranian regime and how this could effect relations with NATO.
The authoritative text of the Convention on the Status of the Caspian Sea (Caspian Convention), signed August 12 in Aktau, Kazakhstan, is now available. After 23 years of negotiations, skepticism seems to be an influential trend in interpreting the Convention’s significance. It is easier for an expert to say, “Oh I didn’t expect such progress,” […]
From a local southern Lebanese guerrilla force to a huge regional player, Hezbollah has made many friends and foes. It’s implications for the Lebanese state, to states where similar replica are now emerging, the militia force has come to represent a rising theme and issue in the Middle East: the militia and it’s parallel state.
The future of the Middle East and the secret to ensuring a truly balanced power structure does not occur by simply breaking up the region into spheres of influence, or by turning it into a zero-sum game.
After more than 20 years of negotiation, and despite all the skepticism, there is every indication that five-party the Convention on the Status of the Caspian Sea will be signed in Aktau, Kazakhstan, on August 12. In fact, it was clear last December that it would be signed soon enough, when the Russian foreign minister […]