The thing about Georgia

Published on August 16, 2008 in Geotech. Closed Tags: Geopolitics, Map, Oil, Resources, War.

I think the UNEP map below illustrates very well the reasons for some difficulties in finding a solution for the conflict in the Caucasus region:

Too many and too big interests, mainly dealing with oil and gas infrastructure, collide in a too small area. [via La Cartoteca]

http://keinspass.twoday.net bellerophon

I don’t think that you can reduce the whole conflict just on oil interests; think about the different ethnic groups in the separatist regions and the age of the conflict. Georgia has been on war with Abkhazia from the day on that Georgia came into existence. Russia regained imperialist confidence, and Saakashwilli is anything but the reasonable democrat as which he is depicted in western media.

Sure, the pipelines are one side of the story and neither the US nor Russia are insenstive to the fact that the only east-west pipeline from central asia outside of Russian territory crosses Georgia but you can’t pin the whole multifaceted conflict onto it.
http://spanring.eu/ Christian

Of course you’re right about the conflict between the local ethnic groups and the actions Saakashwilli has taken. What the map does is giving a view on one aspect why the Caucasus region is of such geopolitical importance to the US and Russia (and EU and China).