Turkey Signals Sweeping Regional Ambitions

A nationalist Turkish television station with close ties to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has dug up a 12-year-old map that projects Turkey’s sphere of influence in 2050 as stretching from southeastern Europe on the northern coast of the Mediterranean and Libya on its southern shore across North Africa, the Gulf, and the Levant into the Caucasus and Central Asia.

The Impact on India of the Collapse of the Iran Nuclear Deal

Vinay Kaura
July 18, 2018
Paper No. 898

The withdrawal of the US from the Iran nuclear deal is likely to deal a blow to India’s strategic investments in energy-rich Iran and land-locked Afghanistan as the Chinese strategic footprint there grows. Maintaining good relations with both Riyadh and Tehran will also become more challenging for New Delhi. The Iran dilemma materialized at the wrong time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as India is preparing for parliamentary elections in less than a year. The pressure being exerted by the Trump administration on the Modi government to stop all oil imports from Tehran is set to complicate India’s diplomatic ties with Iran. It remains to be seen how India will secure its interests in Afghanistan and Central Asia without Iranian support.

Natural Gas: An Underrated Driver of Saudi Hostility Towards Iran and Qatar

Debilitating hostility between Saudi Arabia and Iran is about lots of things, not least who will have the upper hand in a swath of land stretching from Central Asia to the Atlantic coast of Africa. While attention is focused on ensuring that continued containment of Iran ensures that Saudi Arabia has a leg up, geopolitics is but one side of the equation. Natural gas is the other.

Turkey’s Changing Foreign Policy and Its International Ramifications

Turkey's foreign policy reorientation – away from the West and toward Islamist countries like Iran and Syria – changes the balance of power in the Middle East, negatively affects the pro-Western orientation of the Central Asian republics, weakens NATO, and threatens the East-West energy corridor.

Besa Geo Energy Insights

Kazakhstan Debates Changing the Coat of Arms — a Symbol of Departure from the Soviet Past

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has given Kazakhstan a new impetus in terms of diversification. Kazakhstan’s role as a key country in the Middle Corridor project is huge. The volume of freight traffic along this route doubled in 2022 and increased by another 65% in 2023 to 2.7 million tonnes of freight.

Can Iran Take Over Russia’s Position in the South Caucasus and Create New Threats to Israel?

Iran would become Armenia’s new patron and it could eventually join the ranks of pro-Iranian proxies, with dire consequences for the country. In this scenario, Iran would also gain new arguments and resources in its interaction with Russia, Turkey and India, which it could exchange for something else. This could create new threats to Israel.

South Caucasus As a Zone of Conditional Stability

All the countries of the South Caucasus are in anticipation, waiting for Russia’s withdrawal from the war with Ukraine. It is clear that it will emerge from this conflict weakened, but it is not known to what extent

Terrorist Act in Moscow Region: Causes and Potential Consequences

Terrorist act was most probably organized by ISIS-Khorasan. For Israel it is important that the Moscow synagogue was originally the primary target. Russian security services demonstrated very low effectiveness during the “Crocus city” events.

The Caucasus: Regional Security Crossroads at the Beginning of 2024

The policies of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, as well as their foreign policy orientations, play a key role in shaping regional security and stability in the region. The problem is that the South Caucasus has never been a unified geopolitical space throughout its modern history.

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