فصلنامه مطالعات آسیای مرکزی و قفقاز
پیاپی 105 (بهار 1398)

Introducing of the Belt - Road Initiative, China is being considered as a prior actor pursuing regional ties and a connectivities between Asia and Europe. However, China's presence in this area seems not to be the only one and there is a high competition for building infrastructures across Eurasia. India is one of the Asian giant who is slowly entering the huge infrastructure projects in this continent and seeks the revival of International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC). The author argues that the New Spice Route is a metaphor that narrates the revival of rivalry between India and China to dominate the routes of transporting goods and energy. The present literature is to explore the main goals and motivations of India for revitalizing International North-South Transportation Corridor in the direction of New Spice Route that was established around fifteen years ago. Using descriptive-analytical method and library and documentary resources, under the framework of the theory of structural realism, the author tries to show that India's attempt to reconstruct INSTC and to promote the New Spice Route primarily focuses on security objectives and incentives, including a change of status quo in Jammu and Kashmir; stripping China's geopolitical and geostrategic opportunities in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR); establishing a gap between Pakistan and its neighbors, in particular with Afghanistan; and making geopolitical ties with its new partners in Central Asia and South Caucasus via Iran.

With Putin's reelection on March 2018, a new era of relations started between Russia and the West. During the period of Putin's presence in the Kremlin, relations between West and Russia have experienced some periods of tension and peaceful concords. In early 1990s, there were prospects about Russia’s becoming a democratic state and becoming part of the normative framework of the West. After the end of the Cold War, Russia sought an equal status in international system and it also was against Western values and normative imposition. The main question of the article is "how the areas of disagreement between the Russian Federation and the West can be assessed?" The author believes that there has been a divergence between Russia and the West’s attitude towards the international system after the end of the Cold War. Russia tries to stabilize its position as a global power ​​and the rejects the existence of its specific spheres of influence that is claimed by the West.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the centralized and highly complex mechanism for water resourced allocation in Central Asia turned into a complex cross-border water management problem and left unresolved bilateral claims. Under such a situation, transboundary rivers caused national and regional instability and created a new source of conflict between coastal governments by abandoning regional integration in Central Asia. In addition to natural and historical reasons, the tie between water and energy issues, climate change, population growth and its disparate distribution in Central Asia has exacerbated the security challenges of the water issues in the region. Accordingly, the main question of the present paper is that "On what principles the management of transboundary rivers in Central Asia has been based since the Republic’s independence and how it has affected the security of this region?" The findings of the research, which are descriptive-analytical using documentary and transactional methodology, show that "the principles ruling management of transboundary rivers in Central Asia during the past quarter century have been based on competition, self-orientation and separate national interests of the Republics in Central Asia which have led to local and national conflicts and can be studied as an indirect or complementary source of security instability in Central Asia.”

The perspective of integration and deepening cooperation among SCO members within last two decades, especially after its recent geographical extension towards South Asia, is faced with serious questions. The most long lasting bilateral disagreement in SCO is the issue about Kashmir between India and Pakistan. A divergence of Beijing and Moscow’s perception about international system and their different expectations from SCO – besides some other factors) also has led to disintegration in Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The present article tries to find an answer for the following question: what are the main internal rivalries in SCO and how will they affect its consistency and future? The author addresses the hypothesis that “the rivalry between China and Russia for determining SCO’s approach and outlines as well as the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan are the SCO’s main challenges. The former through scattering SCO’s priorities and the latter one through weakening security and defensive relations among the members prevents the Shanghai Cooperation Organization from its future integration and improvement”.

The facts and figures as well as expert reviews of international politics prove that China is in the trend of a power rise as well as hegemony afterwards. The main issue is about the opportunities and obstacles that China will face in this trend, especially from the prism of geopolitics. The question is about the impact of geopolitics on China´s prospect hegemony. Since geopolitics is both an opportunity- maker and restrictive factor for hegemony, it would be both a trouble making and a break ahead for China. This literature not only provides a better understanding of main hindrances that China faces ahead in its power rise, but also serves as a source of explanation for understanding its regional foreign policy instruments. Trying to compose a theoretical framework for the relation between hegemony and geopolitics, the authors have studied possible symptoms of China´s prospect hegemony. China´s Belt - Road Initiative is assessed as an instrument for breaking through its geographical obstacles.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ankara was very hopeful about the implementation of pan – Turkism. Turkey's expectations in this regard were largely based on the fact that the Central Asian Republics would welcome the idea and at the same time, revival of Russian power was unlikely. Nevertheless, neither the ideology of Pan-Turkism nor Ottomanism led to the victory of its ideals over realities of the region and the international system. The main purpose of this literature is to examine the areas and influential motivations which affect a change of Turkey's foreign policy strategy in Central Asia. Therefore, the present paper addresses the following question: “How Turkey's foreign policy in Central Asia has been affected by developments during the twenty-first century?” The initial response of the authors to this question, based on the preliminary evidence, emphasizes that Turkey's foreign policy outlines in Central Asia during the twenty-first century was influenced by the following factors: a failure to reach tangible achievements through its presence in the Central Asia; the rejection of Pan-Turkism ideology by the Central Asian societies; the presence of the West in the region; and the failure of the unwritten alliance of Turkish government with the Gülenists”. In order to examine the mentioned hypothesis, the theoretical framework of classical neo-realism has been applied.