Proceedings of the 12th International Academic Conference, Prague

THE ROLE OF INFRASTRUCTURE IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: THE CASE OF SOUTH CAUCASUS

ERIK DAVTYAN

Abstract:

The role of infrastructures has always been appreciated by the leading powers of the world while pursuing their own goals in the global policy-making process. Though the level of infrastructural development was not so high (in comparison with that of nowadays), in almost all periods of human history states have shared a prominent interest in preserving a total control over infrastructures and undermining the influences of their enemies on them. For example, the Silk road has always been a trouble point in international relations of the Middle East, as it played a key role in regional wars between the Roman Empire and Persia, Byzantium and Arab Caliphate, Ottoman Empire and Safavid Persia. Taking into consideration the fact that the evolution of the world society, the progress in high technologies, the diversification and intensification of economic, political and financial relations have increased the importance of infrastructures, the research is concentrated on the impact of hard types of infrastructure on international relations in one of the most complicated regions of the world, South Caucasus. The point is that transport, energy and water management infrastructures have always played a key role in the formulation of foreign strategies of Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan. The dislocation of various types of infrastructure has highly influenced the level of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Sometimes the economic and political relations of South Caucasian republics with the neighboring states (i.e. Russia, Turkey and Iran) have been conditioned by the “quantity” and the “quality” of infrastructural development that Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan possessed. Therefore the research aims at investigating impact of regional infrastructures on regional affairs in the post-Soviet era, simultaneously drawing parallels with the pre-Soviet period, i.e. during the existence of independent regimes in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan (1918-1921). The immense progress in high technologies has had a prominent impact on the factor of communications in the national security concepts of the region. Thus, the struggle for “more infrastructures” becomes more and more important in the context of geopolitical terms, therefore the struggle “through infrastructures” is considered to be one of the efficient ways of policy-making process in “South Caucasian concert”.

Keywords: Infrastructure, South Caucasus, International Relations, Geopolitics

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