Ch.6 - The Caucasian Corridor

The Caucasus includes the countries of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. This is a map showing these countries:

From http://www.dailywritingtips.com/wp-content/uploads/caucasus.gif

In terms of the European Union, the most important asset of the countries within the Caucasus is their oil. If the EU has expanded to the Caucasus, the countries within the EU will have energy security.

Georgia

Why the EU wants Georgia:

- Georgia has gold, copper, and timber resources which are being exploited by their neighbour, Russia.

- The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline: This pipeline is the second longest in the world and the mode of transportation to almost 10% of the world's oil. If this pipeline is secured by the EU, they will have power over all of Caucasus.

Why Georgia needs the EU:

-Georgia's corruption: in government, tax collection and police force requires a superpower to step in and fix.

- Georgia needs EU's help in keeping Russia in control. Again, Gazprom is a problem. Russia is flexing its Gazprom muscles in Georgia. When Georgia wanted Russia to evacuate its military bases, Gazprom doubled gas prices in the middle of winter.

From http://us.tnpv.net/2009/CNI200901/CNI2009010759165_PV.jpg

Azerbaijan

Why the EU wants Azerbaijan:

Oil is Azerbaijan's fortune. This is exactly why the EU wants it. It holds enough oil to be 70% of Russia's oil production. Another reason is that has people with Asian heritage which, like Turkey, makes the EU not just a cultural alliance, but a alliance of "shared interests" (p.55).

Why Azerbaijan wants the EU:

- there is little industry besides the oil industry

- poverty within the country -> in a country so abundant with oil, there is obviously a problem when its own citizens can't have electricity.

- wants to be the "Kuwait of the Caucasus" -> Even though Azerbaijan is the richest country in the Caucasus, the country is corrupt and the divide between rich and poor is extreme.

- wants to be out of Russia's sphere of influence -> Azerbaijan isn't powerful enough to resist the exploitation of oil from Russia, therefore needs the EU's support.

The big idea here is OIL. Without these countries, the EU can never be self-sustainable, and what is a superpower when it isn't self-sufficient?