U.S. GEOPOLITICAL INTERESTS IN THE CASPIAN SEA AREA AS VIEWED BY AMERICAN RESEARCHERS

Abstract

The problem of the study. The article is devoted to the issues of the American presence in the Caspian Sea region as one of the directions of the global U.S. dominance. Besides, attention is paid to such specific problems as promotion of American geopolitical interests in the Caspian Sea region, influence on some countries of the region in terms of energy export, use of “transport corridors”, countering Russian and Iranian leadership in the Caspian Sea region and strengthening the military representation of the West (NATO) in the former USSR countries that are either reorienting with the focus on Europe (Georgia), or trying to undertake the role of the potential regional energy producer (Azerbaijan).

The purpose of research. The main goal of the study is to examine, analyze and identify the main principles and directions of the U.S. foreign policy in the Caspian region during the presidency of Donald Trump. The optional goals, that are relevant to this research, are review and analysis of expert opinions and estimates provided by authoritative American researchers who focus their attention on the issues of the U.S. presence in the Caspian region in the context of the Convention of the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea adoption in 2018, which posed new tasks and challenges for the United States.

Methodology and methods. The research methodology is based on the concepts of the state’s foreign policy and the paradigm of the international relations theory and countries’ political behavior. The paradigm of behaviorealism, which plays a major role in the American tradition of geopolitical strategies’ research, also helped to achieve the objectives of the study. The latter contributed to proper comprehension of the results obtained during the analyses of modern mechanisms of geopolitical perspectives of the USA in the Caspian region described in the papers of American scholars and experts.

The main method of the paper is a qualitative analysis of the current American research works published over the past five years (2016–2020). Analysis as a method, among other advantages, contributed to the disclosure of the modern problems associated with Caspian Sea region development, its resources, and political tension around the region growing slowly but surely.

Research results. The results of analysis of experts’ views, judgments and opinions helped to reveal that over the past five years, the interest or the strategic activity of the United States in the Caspian Sea region has decreased for a number of reasons, the main of which are: 1) low political motivation of Donald Trump’s administration in the Caspian maneuvers; 2) attention to the other more significant regions, in which U.S. interests and their presence play a critical role in shaping the vectors of the foreign policy and national security strategy; 3) development of a legal framework regulating the status of the Caspian Sea, extraction and export of its resources, delimitation of the Caspian territorial waters’ boundaries, and the rules for oil and gas pipelines installation. This framework was ratified by the Caspian Five. The Convention of the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea “cooled down” the U.S. foreign policy ardor and set the task of developing a fundamentally new “Caspian strategy”, which the Trump’s administration never came up with. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the USA is losing ground or leaving the region: in any case the United States will continue pressure vectors on its regional partners (Georgia and, to some extent, Azerbaijan), and will certainly develop a new “partnership strategy” with Central Asian countries, among which priority is given to Turkmenistan, as it is rich in oil and gas.

Scientific novelty. Based on the results of the analysis, the author identifies the key areas of the modern American foreign strategy in the Caspian Sea region, which have not yet been scientifically interpreted or properly examined by the Russian experts in the area. The article singles out the current goals and tasks the USA is facing nowadays as the party interested in the “struggle for Caspian resources”. The United States, using the possibilities of putting pressure on European partner countries, is trying to increase its role in the region and establish confident control over the distribution of energy resources, the development of “transport corridors” and the deployment of military forces.