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This anthology of articles, short studies, and interviews by Alexandros Petersen was written over the span of ten years, starting in 2004. Yet they are even more relevant today in their prescient analysis. Petersen insightfully addressed the implications of the West withdrawing its engagement from the Caucasus and Central Asia, the expansion of the Chinese influence, and Russia's strategic interests.
The collection is organized along four main topics: (1) Eurasia and a changing transatlantic world: the world politics of shifting frontiers in the post-Soviet world; (2) Energy geopolitics in the Caspian and beyond, with its crucial implications for European energy security; (3) the Black Sea world, covering the dynamics of Russia, Turkey, and the South Caucasus, including the role of NATO and frozen conflicts in the region; (4) the new silk roads: China's inroads in Central Asia, which is often overlooked in the West but will be critical for the geopolitical balance of powers.
List of contents
Foreword, S. Frederick Starr
Part I: Eurasia and a Changing Transatlantic World
Chapter 1: The Geopolitical Consequences of Transatlantic Energy Disunity
Chapter 2: Regions in Between: Europe, NATO and the Geopolitics of Shifting Frontiers
Chapter 3: Reimagining Eurasia (with Samuel Charap)
Chapter 4: Getting the EU back into Eurasia (with Raffaello Pantucci)
Part II: Energy Geopolitics: The Caspian and Beyond
Chapter 5: The Final Leg in the Race for Caspian Gas
Chapter 6: The Nabucco Pipeline project is dead
Chapter 7: Alexandros Petersen: Interview on Nabucco
Chapter 8: Turkey's Multivector Energy Hub: Ignore At Your Own Peril
Chapter 9: Integrating Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey with the West: The Case of the East-West Transport Corridor
Chapter 10: Turkey: The Transatlantic Energy Hub
Chapter 11: BTC Security Questions Persist
Chapter 12: Russia's Energy Bully Takes a Fall
Chapter 13: The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pipeline
Part III: The Black Sea World: South Caucasus, Russia, and Turkey
Chapter 14: Turkey: Abandoning the EU for the SCO (with Raffaello Pantucci)
Chapter 15: Russia's Eastern Anxieties (with Raffaello Pantucci)
Chapter 16: The 1992-93 Georgia-Abkhazia War: A Forgotten Conflict
Chapter 17: Russia Invaded Georgia to Teach the West a Lesson
Chapter 18: Russia's Resurgence: Risks and Rewards
Chapter 19: Azerbaijan and Georgia: Playing Russian Roulette with Moscow (with Taleh Ziyadov)
Chapter 20: Security and Western Integration in the Caucasus
Chapter 21: Black Sea Security: The NATO Imperative
Part IV: The New Silk Roads: China's Inroads in Central Asia
Chapter 22: China's Latest Piece of the New Silk Road
Chapter 23: Central Asia's New Energy Giant: China
Chapter 24: Central Asia's Most Important City Is....Not in Central Asia
Chapter 25: China's Strategy in Afghanistan
Chapter 26: How the West Is Totally Missing China's Geopolitical Focus
Chapter 27: China's Inadvertent Empire (with Raffaello Pantucci)
Chapter 28: Russia, China, and the Geopolitics of Energy in Central Asia (with Katinka Barysch)
Chapter 29: Did China Just Win the Caspian Gas War?
About the author
Alexandros Petersen (1984-2014) was an American academic, writer, and geopolitical energy specialist.
Summary
This collection features articles, short studies, and interviews by Alexandros Petersen (1984-2014) and constitutes a broad and prescient examination of Eurasian geopolitics. The author analyzes Western relations with the Caucasus and Central Asia, the expansion of Chinese influence, and Russia strategic interests.
