Piotr Gawliczek, Wojciech Guzewicz, Khayal Iskandrov, The south caucasus and non-military security threats, wydawnictwo UWM, Olsztyn 2021, PP. 135

Jugoslav Achkoski
2021 Civitas et Lex  
According to the Nicholas Spykman's Rimland (also, the South Caucasus is part of it): "Who controls the Rimland rules Eurasia; who rules Eurasia controls the destinies of the world". Nowadays, the world is facing sophisticated contemporary security challenges, which are considerably diverse from the past. Indeed, the diversification relates to the exploitation of different means of soft, hard and smart power in order to be accomplished underlined adversaries' goals. The hybrid warfare is one of
more » ... the security challenges as a means in terms of non-military security threat which is rapidly exploited in the present. There are several examples that proved the power of the hybrid warfare in terms of its exploitation and implications among confronted entities. Additionally, it should be noted that South Caucasus is region which is prone to the hybrid threats and it deserves huge attention toward capacity building for the resilience and deterrence. Furthermore, the most important fact, which has to be mentioned, is related to the enormous quantities of natural minerals, energy resources and the transportation of oil and gas in the South Caucasus region, which is mainly occupied by Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia. For some, the dominance in the geopolitics is about energy per se (China), for others, mostly about the economic implications (the countries in the region and to some extent Turkey and Iran, and the oil companies); to others again it is mainly a way to gain influence and/or prevent others from doing so (the USA and Russia, in particular). The struggle is basically about the politics and economics of competing pipeline projects to connect the Caspian Basin hydrocarbon resources to world markets, via Russia and the Black Sea, via the South Caucasus and Turkey, via Iran, Afghanistan, or Kazakhstan to China. Therefore, the South Caucasus region will constantly be in the sphere of interest of those powers and organizations (EU, EEU, NATO and CSTO), where the intensity of the inevitable non-military security threats will be changed according to the underscored goals by the aforementioned entities.
doi:10.31648/cetl.7226 fatcat:ubfgclsbyjftdalun3u7o2ukkm