Drawing the Caspian Sea: The defining of its legal status in the uncertain post-soviet scenario

• Main Author: J. Oscar Álvarez Calzada
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) 2003-12-01
• Series: Revista CIDOB d'Afers Internacionals
• Subjects: Mar Caspio; petróleo; Federación Rusa; Irán; Estados Unidos; Uzbequistán; Kazajstán; Azerbaidhán; Turkmenistán
• Online Access: http://www.cidob.org/es/content/download/3460/36668/file/64alvarez.pdf

With the disappearance of the USSR, the Caspian Sea ceased to be an inland sea controlled by the USSR and Iran, to become the object of desire of the new states bordering on it which see in it, and concretely in its extraordinary natural resources, the great hope ofeconomic salvation for their uncertatin future. If we add to this the interests of the great regional actors, Russia and Iran, and those of the United States and the large multinational energy corporations, we get one of the post-Soviet scenarios that arouses the most interestin international public opinion. In this context, the article analyses the unstable situation created in the area in the face of the impossibility of the states bordering on this sea to arrive at a unanimous agreement on the method to follow for dividing up its waters and, therefore, to settle the question of access to the vast natural resources that lie beneath its floor.