Transportation Security
Italy – Russia: Peace
Geopolitics in Eurasia
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Andrei VOLODIN | 27.12.2014 | 00:00
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The international conference «The Great
Infrastructure of Eurasia: New Industrialization and Geopolitics of Peace»
(Le Grandi Infrastrutture Euro-Asiatiche: Nuova Industrializzazione e
Geopolitica Della Pace) took place in Rome on November 27-28, 2014. It leaves
the impression that Europe has begun to mull its future relationship with
Russia.
* * *
Pepe Escobar, a
well-known international relations analyst, has said that Russia is wired for
«playing the long game with the West» with tangible results to appear on «the
grand chessboard» after some time. That is something to agree with. At that
there is something more important in question than just a game to play or,
perhaps, this is a game with a win-win outcome.
Today we witness the
transformation of outgoing West - oriented world into a new polycentric
global system with inherent unity in diversity.
Dilip Hiro, an Indian
political scholar living in England, believes that the world emerging after
empire will not be centered on America… «The modus operandi of the future is
accommodation between leading powers at certain times and deterrence at
others – a flexible combination of the main actors emerging to thwart the
excessive ambitions of one of them. In other words, an international set-up
where great powers will be able to the thwart the unbridled aims of an
aspiring superpower. Back to the age-old balance of power at work». (1)
Sometimes the new world order is defined as «loose geometry of international
relations».
The Russian
International Affairs Council (RIAC) offers the same world vision in its
report which says «Moscow needs a world order in which none of the players is
able to monopolize global sources of growth and cut Russia off from them if
political differences arise. Multipolarity is acquiring a conceptually new
meaning. Once understood as the coexistence of great powers, it now supposes
the presence of several alternative sources of growth and development. One of
which, of course, is Russia itself».
Russia enjoys a unique
geographic position in the world heartland with the most convenient routes
passing across its territory to link Western Europe and Eastern Asia. This is
an important factor making Russia a «gravitational field» of world
politics.
It does not apply to
the continental part of Eurasia only, but also to the Arctic zone: the
Northern Sea Route (the Northeast Passage) opens new opportunities for world
trade as climate goes on changing.
One thing should be
taken into consideration to grasp the significance of this factor - the West
has a complex problem to face. It must overcome the implications of
deindustrialization – the process which had been welcomed for a long time as
the advent of «post-industrial age» with the fast growing service sector
generating more wealth then the manufacturing sector of the economy. But soon
it became an obstacle on the way to progress.
It prompted the
European Commission to adopt a new Communication on Industrial policy «For a
European Industrial Renaissance» in January 2014. It calls for taking urgent
measures to revive the European industry. The same trend is visible in the
United States.
We live in the age of
new industrialization or reindustrialization. The transport revolution will
have a prominent role in the process which has great importance for the world
and especially for its largest continent – Eurasia. Communications are
changed and new routes to link countries and continents appear. This is a
complex process encompassing not only transport and related areas (land, air,
water and pipelines) but the whole industrial clusters, including high-tech
industry.
The transport
revolution is an element of new industrial revolution. Unlike the classic
industrial revolution of XVIII-XIX centuries that took place after the age of
constant wars, the new industrialization puts to the fore the imperative of
nonviolent geopolitics or the geopolitics of peace based on multilateral
cooperation, the principles of reciprocity, non-confrontational diplomacy and
the mutual respect for the interests of each other between parties to the
international process.
To my mind, the
paradigm of progress is to become the basis for geopolitics of peace in
Eurasia. It presupposes economic growth inherently interconnected with high
employment rate and relatively balanced distribution of national income
inside national communities and between states.
The following
megaprojects acquire special significance within the framework of transport
revolution.
1. The Northern Sea
Route
The interest in the
Arctic is explained by a number of geopolitical reasons. Besides oil and gas,
the region contains significant deposits of strategic materials such as coal,
zinc, silver, rare-earth metals etc. The Arctic region opens great prospects
for new sea lanes to appear and boost the world trade. The anticipated global
warming makes northern communications linking Asia, West Europe and North
America more accessible and easily usable. For instance, the Northeast
Passage going around Greenland and along the Russia’s Arctic shore links
China with West Europe. The Northern Sea Route starts from Murmansk. Being a
part of the Northern Passage, it is the shortest seaway between Europe and
Asia.
2. The International
North–South Transport Corridor
In 1999, a group of
Indian, Iranian and Russian transport companies signed a general agreement on
import and export transportation of containers in the Sri Lanka – India -
Iran - Caspian Sea - Russia international transport corridor. In May 2002,
the transport ministers of the participating countries signed a protocol on
the corridor's official opening in St. Petersburg. Then the North-South
container shipping was limited by the Russia-Iran-Russia route. The shipping
through Astrakhan was frozen. At that the project remained to be attractive
enough to make Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Oman and Syria join
in. Turkey and Ukraine also applied to join. The prospects for the accession
of the European Union to the North-South Corridor look promising as it would
provide easy access to India and South-East Asia.
3. The Silk Road on
the Sea (Maritime Silk Route)
The Eurasian route may
start from deep water port of Duisburg (Germany) to cross Western Europe,
Russia, Kazakhstan and China as it runs to the south. The various versions of
the route envisage linking the sea ports of China and India which will get
access to Siberia, Europe, Iran, the countries of Arabia Peninsula and South
East Asia.
4. Eurasian pipelines
The geography of oil
and gas production defines the directions of main Eurasian pipeline routes.
Around 90 world oil deposits are located in Eurasia stretching from the Russian
Arctic to the Persian Gulf. This is a fact of fundamental importance.
The Eurasian Economic
Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will start to operate from January 1,
2015. Armenia and Kirghizia are to join on the same date. One more step will
be taken on the way to reaching Eurasian consensus. It will allow to create
political prerequisites for emergence of Eurasian «corridors of growth»
leading the world out of the systematic economic downturn that has been
lasting for the recent five years.
* * *
Sui generis is a Latin
phrase. It has many meanings and can be translated as "of its own
kind/genus" and hence "unique in its characteristics." In
geopolitics it applies to a «civilization-state» – a state pursuing the
global interests of its own. China, India, Russia and Brazil are good
examples. Italy sets much store by sui generis in geopolitics. The old time
ties with the East, the traditionally active diplomacy of the Republic of
Venice and the insatiable desire for discovery – all these factors can really
make Italy advance to the forefront of the second discovery of Eurasia.
Rome- Moscow
November-December
2014.
(1) Hiro, D. After
Empire. The Birth of a Multipolar World. N.Y.: Nation Books, 2010, p. 5-6.
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