Essay on The Caucasus Region

1. ISSUE. Provide the USEUCOM Commander an overview of Azerbaijan’s approach to the situation in the Caucasus Region.

The United States from the Cold War and into the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) continues to face challenges in translating military might into political desires due to its obsession with raising an army, electing politicians and assembling a diplomatic corp that continue to gravitate towards State-to-State engagements that if not rectified could lead to substantial delays in fighting terrorism and non-terrorist adversaries or worse total failure of the United States Military’s ability to properly carry out it’s politicians objectives due to being blindsided.

US Domestic Considerations are the oil pipeline through the Southern Caucasus Region and the Black Sea for trade access.

After unraveling of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Berlin Wall, fears of war breaking out between the major powers of the United States and the Soviet Union were greatly reduced. Numerous commentaries, reports, and studies arose out of the question of what to do with the excess U.S. forces, and how to reshape them for a new era (Snider & Carlton-Carew, 1996). Since the birth of the United States, the military has been an important part of the United States. The US military has been a fundamental part of foreign policy, including fostering democracy, establishing rule of law, and assisting with economic development in territories allied with the U.S. (Ludema, 2007).

1. BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION. The Republic of Azerbaijan is continuing efforts to sustain and increase its economic growth by protecting proven oil reserves from deep water Caspian Basin oilfields and securing its transport to western markets. Azerbaijan uses this energy development to build strategic partnerships and attract international attention in favor of its independence. Since 2017 the U.S. has provided support to Azerbaijan through various U.S. Army Reserve engineer units participation in stability related construction efforts directed at upgrading the Azerbaijani infrastructure to allow for better more secure transport of energy reserves.

Ukraine is granted a market economy status by the EU and USA. The sharp economic decline in the 90s resulted in deteriorating living standards for most citizens and widespread poverty. However, during the 21st century, there has been some positive economic growth in Ukraine, as well as Eastern Europe as a whole. Ukraine’s currency, the Hryvnia, was introduced in September 1996 and has remained relatively stable. The unstable political situation in Ukraine hardly influences its economic development. GDP has been growing steadily since 2005 at an average growth rate of 7% and industrial production has been expanding by 12%. The Ukrainian economy was hit by the harsh effects of the global financial crisis but managed to attain a 4.2%

In the post -World War II era, the competition of global supremacy between the superpowers of the time, United States and the Soviet Union resulted in the Cold War. Many countries in the world were pulled into this rivalry including many of the states of the Middle East. Allies against the Soviet Union received substantial quantities of United States aid and were encouraged to purchase weapons of Western means. Those who were in opposition to the United States’ power received economic and military assistance from the Soviet Union. The United States were inclined to view the rivalry between them and the Soviet Union as a vie for global supremacy. The challenge of attaining democracy in the Middle East has been insufficient leadership specifically in those who shared a common border and were in proximity to the Soviet Union. The United States, in their determination to impede the threat of expansion of the borders of the Soviet Union as well as contain the spread of communion, provided economic and military assistance to keep Iran, Iraq and Turkey politically stable. Although this was the goal of the United States, they actually impeded the democracy and political stability of these countries through its persistent influence in government affairs, determining its future’s livelihood.

For the United States military to take an active role in foreign nation’s problems or situations, the President and congress have to approve the mission. The US military has played numerous roles throughout many different regions of the world. Military regions for the US are forming and processing multiple armed forces, which maintain relations and safety for certain areas of the world. The United States of America’s main goal when it comes to stationing the military in different regions of the world is too influence foreign perception. America focuses on influencing democracy, and a secure country for people throughout the world. “During the 1990s, American foreign policy focused on consolidating its success” (U.S. Military Policy). Foreign

The containment policy established by George Bush Sr. after the Gulf War is the most viable option for the United States when deciding how to stabilize the Middle East. A political strategy of containment strictly sustains the status quo, and is inexpensive in terms of blood, money, and political capital. Furthering the United States’ containment policy in the context of Iraq will halter the making of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, ensuring the free flow of oil from the Gulf, while preventing Iraq from threatening its neighbors. For this reason, a political strategy of containment is comparatively advantageous to the alternative. This essay will begin by examining the effect of no-fly zones on the Iraqi government, moving to discuss weapons inspections, discussing the strategic viability of sanctions and their effect on the Iraqi economy, finally explaining the advantages containment holds over intervention.

Moreover, we are entering an era where the American people finally support this reality. However, the population also has limited patience for significant military casualties, and large number of “boots on the ground”. The solution to this problem rests on the close interaction between SOF, CF, and IA to prevent tripping wires of escalation. While this type of military action will require an increased level of cooperation between SOF and CF, it will also reduce risk to US forces. More importantly, this strategy will allow the US to achieve limited, political objectives, without losing popular support. Whereas, during the Korean and Vietnam wars, US limited war strategies focused on preventing an escalation to general conventional war, this new era of warfare will seek to achieve objectives in the sub-limited range of military operations. This strategy will ensure the US can persistently engage our adversaries with multiple instrument of power while allowing SOF to mature its capability to encounter global

After World War II, the genocide of Jews by the Germans across German-occupied territory was on everyone’s minds. Although it was a horrible event in recent history, the Holocaust was not the only genocide of that period. Joseph Stalin ordered 400,000 Chechens and Ingush to be deported to Siberia and central Asia to be put into labor camps on February 23, 1944 (“Greetings from Grozny”). The genocide of the Chechen population has been a terrible event and other genocides around the world should be stopped by efforts of individuals and the United States government.

Russia is a huge landmass and covers a vast amount of the earth’s surface area. Being so large, Russia contains a huge variety of different geographical features. There are several mountains, rivers, bodies of water, climate zones, and population centers in Russia. Most of the development in Russia is located in its core area, east of the Ural Mountains. There are several countries around Russia that used to be parts of a larger union called The Union of Soviet Socialists Republics, however, in 1991, the USSR broke apart into several other independent states. The new states that were formed are: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and

Russia, officially known as the Russian Federation, has a total area of 17,098,242 sq km (“The World Factbook”) and is the largest country in the world. It is about 1.8 times the size of the United States (“The World Factbook”). Most of Russia is either large stretches of plains or areas with a lot of forests and mountains, with the exception of the Siberian Tundra. It is difficult to perfectly describe Russia’s climate because of it’s large size. However, in general, the country only has two seasons, summer and winter. In the summer they have very warm, continental weather and they have very harsh winters with a lot of snow. Russia is plentiful in natural resources. They are particularly

Russia's new strength is also based on its vast reserves of oil and natural gas, which as the price of crude exceeds $ 120 per barrel, give the country tremendous bargaining power, not only in its relations with countries directly dependent on its supplies as Ukraine, Germany and Hungary, but, in general, by the capacity of influence that give

Historically in the Russian sphere of influence, since the breakup of the Soviet Union, just like the rest of Central Asia, Turkmenistan has found itself in the middle of Sino-Russian confrontation over the question of who is the new regional powerhouse.