فصلنامه مطالعات آسیای مرکزی و قفقاز
پیاپی 111 (پاییز 1399)

The independence of the Central Asian and South Caucasus republics in the early 1990s and the establishment of new states along the Caspian Sea inevitably affected the legal status of the Caspian Sea, which had been formed incompletely by previous treaties, and the unilateral actions of the Caspian Sea littoral states in the field of exploitation of the sea's energy resources and the signing of oil and gas contracts with large Western companies had caused disagreements and ambiguities about the legal regime of the sea and the exploitation of undersea resources. The influx of Western oil and gas companies to exploit the black gold in the Caspian Sea, along with the difficulties of not determining the legal regime of the Caspian Sea, further widened the differences between the littoral states and prolonged the negotiation process to reach a comprehensive agreement. The signing of the "Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea" as an important achievement, while resolving many ambiguities and disagreements on the issues regarding the Caspian Sea, will determine the general framework of cooperation among littoral states and will turn the Caspian Sea into another pole of regional cooperation. This article has been compiled with the aim of exploring the causes and areas of cooperation among littoral states in the light of the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea and seeks to provide an appropriate answer for the following question; "how the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea could affect and improve cooperation among littoral states?" The article hypothesizes that by removing many ambiguities about the legal regime of the Caspian Sea, the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea, creates new opportunities for cooperation among littoral states. The present article is of qualitative (descriptive-analytical) type and using methodology (inductive-inferential), the data have been analyzed by library study and documentary analysis.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation, as its successor, gradually began to redefine and reinterpret its identity, national interests and threats to its national security. Meanwhile, relations with the West have always been important to Russia and considered as a challenge in its foreign policy. For nearly three decades, the leaders of the Russian Federation have published a number of strategic documents to represent their identity in the post-Soviet space and to define the roadmap for the country's domestic, foreign, security and military policies. The main question of the article is "What is the position of identity in shaping the security view of the Russian Federation towards the West in post-Cold War era?"In order to find the answer to this question, by using the concept of identity in constructivism theory as well as analyzing the strategic documents published in this country, an attempt has been made to identify and highlight salient and sediment roles –identity of the Russian Federation and determine their role and position in shaping the Russian security view. The main hypothesis of this article is that " role - identities such as being considered as a great world power, a benign hegemon for near abroad countries of Russia (republics segregated from the Soviet Union) and a supporter of Russian-speaking people have had a significant impact on the nature of Russia's security view toward the West and has led to the formation of a threat-oriented view of the West. The present article is based on descriptive-explanatory methodology, and documents and cyberspace resources have been used for the research.

The growing strength of the BRICS countries over the past decades and the formation of this group in the last ten years, given the strategic, political and economic capabilities of this group, has seriously raised the possibility of changing the structure of the international system. In the meantime, the study of Russia's goals in the formation of this group and the process of its development during the years of BRICS formation is of special interest due to its key role in the establishment of BRICS and its relationship with the current international system.The main question of the article is whether the BRICS influence on the international system is pursued with the aim of changing the existing order? In answer to this question, the hypothesis of the article is that the BRICS group is aimed at moderating the existing order by synergizing among its members and influencing the current power structure in the international system. The findings of the article show that the outcome of the BRICS goals is in line with the goals of Russia as one of the main BRICS members, despite the differences between this country and other members, in order to achieve the multiplicity of multiple centers of power worldwide. The method used is descriptive-analytical.

Caspian Sea as the world's largest lake is an alive and dynamic geopolitical region, with a new identity that has both potential of Convergence and Divergence. The collapse of the USSR transformed the Caspian Sea from a pure geographic area to a geopolitical region. The Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea was signed and put an end to a number of divergent factors but the status of the Base lines and the delimitation of the central and southern section were not finalized and postponed to the future which may lead to a new divergence. Using descriptive analytical method and library resources the authors try to find an answer for the research question. The authors argue that the establishment of the comprehensive and long-lasting legal status of this body of water requires the formulation of objectives and strategies, via constructive interaction, convergence, confidence building, art of diplomacy and pathology. Continuing dispute over geographic values ​​and frequent changes in positions of coastal states reveals the necessity of formulation of geopolitical strategies.

To understand why and how Moscow's internet capabilities are being used to defend against Western attacks, the present paper attempts to answer the following questions: Why Russia resorts to cyber weapons against Western targets? What are the characteristics of Russia's cyber war against the West and how is it pursued?This study is qualitative (descriptive-analytical) and is of Ex-Post Facto (causal) research category. An Inferential methodology has been utilized to analyze data in the context of the concepts of cyber warfare and political cyber-attacks. The Findings show that Moscow uses cyber weapons against Western targets to counter the West's hostile actions, especially in post-communist territories, considering high denial possibility and weakness of its kinetic components.  The most important feature of Russia's cyber war against the West is the development of the concept of cyber deterrence in this country to create a balance under the condition of normal military and political competition. On this basis, Russia's hybrid war against the West is mainly waged through distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, hacking, and utilizing malware.

The Turkey-Armenia conflict, as one of the longest-running conflicts of the current century, has its roots in territorial and identity factors. The nature of the conflict, the presence of multiple actors, the conflicting interests of the actors, and the lack of diplomatic relations between the two countries have made it dramatically difficult to find a solution for resolving it. Hence, Track Two Diplomacy projects were applied in resolving the aforementioned conflict, on one hand due to their application in removing mental barriers in identity conflicts and on the other hand due to the closure of the formal negotiation. The most important Track Two Diplomacy project in terms of removing the taboo of communication between Turkish and Armenian civil societies was Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission. The Commission was set up in 2001 with the aim of creating a platform for the two sides to discuss the main conflicting issues and, as a result, to increase the level of relations between the two countries, but due to weaknesses in the plan of the project  it came to a halt  in 2004 with little achievement. The present article examines the strengths and weaknesses of this project using the Multi-layer Model of Assessing Track Two Diplomacy and examines why this activity has not succeeded in creating the necessary factors for achieving lasting peace. In this regard, the degree of observance of the basic principles of Track Two Diplomacy, the extent of achievement based on the defined goals and roles in the political, social and historical environment governing the conflict is measured qualitatively.