The Caspian: Politics, Energy and Security by Shirin Akiner, and: The Black Sea Region: Cooperation and Security Building by Oleksandr Pavliuk and Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 59I grateful for a systematic presentation of the pathologies that continue to plague their political systems.One hopes, therefore, that this book will be translated intoRussian, and re-published inMoscow and other post-Soviet capitals. National Taras Shevchenko Universityof Kyiv A. Umland Akiner, Shirin (ed.) The Caspian: Politics, Energy and Security.Central Asia Research Forum. RoutiedgeCurzon, London and New York, 2004. xix + 405 pp. Maps. Tables. Notes. Index. ?75.00. Pavliuk, Oleksandr and Klympush-Tsintsadze, Ivanna (eds). The Black Sea Region: Cooperationand Security Building. EastWest Institute: Bridging New Divides. M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY, 2004. xiii + 314 pp. Map. Tables. Notes. Index. ?55.50. As the borders of European security organizations such as the European Union (EU) and Nato edge eastwards, greater attention is being paid to stability on the periphery, where the presence of undemocratic or unstable areas could pose a threat to the security of member states. The Caspian and Black Sea regions are two key peripheries that have been reinvigorated since the early 1990s and share several similarities, not least that in the twenty-first century they have both commenced a fragile and complicated democratiza tion process. No longer constituent parts of vast Communist empires, the areas under discussion, the Black and Caspian Sea regions, contain many independent states that are crucial toWestern security and stability. As Oleksandr Pavliuk points out in The Black Sea Region: Cooperationand Security Building, global security is the sum ofmany national and regional securities, hence an interest in the stabilityof peripheral regions isvital. These two books focus on a part of theworld that has become increasingly important to inter national security in the post Cold War era. Both books are multi-authored volumes that grew out of conferences designed to provide a framework for the discussion of security issues in the respective regions and thus contain a wide range of views and perspectives. The Caspian: Politics,Energy and Security,edited by Shirin Akiner, is part of RoutledgeCurzon's Central Asia Research Forum series, which covers many aspects of Central Asia, from sustainable development to cultural and histori cal issues. As the title suggests, this informative volume focuses on the energy and securitypolitics of thevast Caspian region,which stretches from theBlack Sea in thewest to theChinese border in the east. The Caspian has become increasingly important to the economic security of theWest as international oil companies have spent vast sums of money on exploration and development in the region, which is expected to be producing threemillion barrels of oil per day by 2010. However, investors in the region face numerous challenges, which this book covers in detail, from the unclarified legal status of the Caspian Sea, to the lack of export routes and regional stability. With twenty two chapters and twenty-one contributors, ranging from academics to econo mists, journalists and diplomats, itcontains a wide range of perspectives. This 592 seer, 85, 3, July 2007 isone of thebook's strengths: ithas intentionally set out to juxtapose theviews of authors from differentbackgrounds in order to highlight the crucial role of perception and how similar narratives can be interpreted in differentways. Shirin Akiner, the book's editor, provides the opening and concluding chapters, thefirstofwhich provides a contextual introduction, offeringa good historical background to the region, its strategic importance and development of the oil and gas industry.Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Caspian was heralded as theMiddle East of the future. However, the initial euphoria and optimism that accompanied the initial involvement of foreign investors in the region has been tempered by difficult operating conditions, both geological and political. Complications such as corruption, bureaucracy, arbitrary decision-making, under-developed transport infra structure and complex geological conditions mean that the region has at times struggled to attract the foreign investment itneeds. Terry Adams outlines the realities of the development of Caspian hydrocarbon resources, explaining technical problems and other challenges facing thosewho choose to invest in the sector. He argues that energy investment in the region during the post Soviet era has 'generated a decade of unprecedented misinformation and misunderstanding'. The unclarified legal status of the Sea remains a serious impediment to the development of the region's extensive hydrocarbon resources, as...