Eurasia has long been characterized by intense competition among
populations and among States. The collapse of the Soviet Union
constituted a critical juncture in the region's course, since
informal and formal norms subsided, giving rise to a hardly
regulated socio-political environment, where survival and security
considerations ranked atop. In this context, populations, first and
foremost, sought to have their existence guaranteed within
nation-states. While in most cases that transition was accomplished
without major impediments, in the cases of Moldova, Ukraine,
Georgia, and Azerbaijan, major challenges have been encountered,
leaving their mark deep in the post-soviet course of the newly
independent republics. Moldova has been rattled by the conflict in
Transdniestria, Ukraine by the conflict in Crimea, Georgia by the
conflict in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and Azerbaijan by the
conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. In fact, these conflicts have been
classified as 'frozen conflicts', given their unsettled nature and
the 'smoldering fire' between opposing populations within the
respective republics. This intense competition, however, has not
been constrained only to the domestic level and only to the issue
of 'frozen conflicts'. Eurasia's energy prospects have also been
the cause of a constant power struggle among the States of the
region. With the Caspian Sea to constitute a rich in natural
resources hub, a clash of interests has taken place among the
littoral States. Moreover, this competition has acquired a much
broader geopolitical dimension, extending to Eurasia's two ends,
the European Union and China. As a result, Eurasia's underbelly has
become an area where the maximization of power figures as the best
guarantee of survival and security in a fully unregulated
environment. Taken together, 'frozen conflicts' (domestic level)
and 'energy politics' (international level) stand out as (the) two
main features of Eurasia, both unfolding in comparable conditions.
Therefore, the book presents them as a two-level game, aiming at
offering better substantiated explanations that draw on the very
fundamentals of political science, and at building a 'bridge of
communication' between the two levels that allows for well-informed
and widely applicable policy implications.
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