The US grand strategy and the Eurasian heartland in the 21st Century: with special reference to the main Caspian oil export pipeline BTC

Emre İşeri

Abstract

This study is a survey of American grand strategy and of the rising strategic significance of the Caspian region and its surroundings, which we define as the “Eurasian Heartland,” to use Sir Halford Mackinder’s term, in the twenty-first century. Its purpose is to examine the geo-strategic dimensions of this region as it relates to US grand strategy in the twenty-first century. Our methodology is based on offensive realism in combination with hegemonic stability theory and balance of threat theory. Therefore, this study assumes that great powers are always looking for opportunities to attain more power, mainly Susan Strange’s ‘structural power’, in order to feel more secure. This outlook has led us to assert that the main objective of US grand-strategy is global hegemony. For the success of this strategy political control over the life blood of modern economies, oil, plays a viable role. We have considered US grand-strategy as a combination of war-time and peace-time strategies and argued that the Eurasian Heartland has several geo-strategic dimensions beyond its wide-rich untapped hydro-carbon reserves. For our purposes, we have relied on peace-time strategy of supporting costly Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline to integrate regional untapped oil reserves to US controlled energy market. This pipeline’s contribution to the US grand-strategy is assessed in relation to Eurasian regional powers, the EU, India, Russia and China.

Key words: The US, Eurasia, grand strategy, oil, pipelines, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC)