Caspian Watch # 8: ‘Silk Road’ Legislation Opens New Opportunities For U.S. Strategic, Commercial Interests In The Caspian Basin

(Washington, D.C.): America’s
long-term interests in the Caspian Basin
will be the focus of action in the Senate
today thanks to initiatives by two of
that institution’s rising stars —
freshmen Senators Chuck Hagel
(R-NE) and Sam Brownback
(R-KS). In his capacity as Chairman of
the Foreign Relations Committee’s
Subcommittee on International Economic
Policy, Export and Trade Promotion,
Senator Hagel will be presiding this
afternoon over an extremely important
hearing on the strategic and economic
stakes associated with the energy-rich
Caspian Sea region.

Senator Brownback — who chairs the
Committee’s Near Eastern and South Asian
Affairs Subcommittee — will use the
occasion of his testimony before the
Hagel Subcommittee to introduce “The
Silk Road Strategy Act of 1997.”
This valuable legislation is designed to:

• Assist the region in
  developing intra-regional
  economic cooperation and friendly
  relations which may stabilize the
  Caspian Basin and help fortify
  the area against future conflict;
• Support U.S. strategic
  and commercial interests by
  providing urgently needed
  economic, technical and financial
  assistance, as well as
  help with the development of
  telecommunications and
  transportation infrastructures in
  Azerbaijan and other nations in
  the region;
• Provide security-related
  assistance in the form of
  military education,
  counter-proliferation training
  and surplus U.S. military
  equipment and supplies; and
• Encourage democratic and
  free-market institutions.

In addition to Senator Brownback, the
Hagel Subcommittee will hear testimony
from: Stuart Eizenstat,
Under Secretary of State for Economic,
Business and Agricultural Affairs; former
Secretary of State Lawrence
Eagleburger; and Charles
Pitman, the Chairman and
President of one of the pre-eminent
American businesses doing business in the
region, Amoco Eurasia Petroleum Co.

The Great Game

The Hagel-Brownback initiatives come
at a critical moment. Moscow’s
denials notwithstanding, Russia is
increasingly cooperating with Iran on a
broad array of activities inimical to
U.S. and Western interests. Not
least among these is the effort the two
governments have mounted in recent months
to undermine the pro-Western government
in Azerbaijan through the infiltration of
intelligence agents and special forces.⁽¹⁾

Unfortunately, the Russian-Iranian
gambit in Azerbaijan has enjoyed a
greater chance of success thanks to the
inability of the United States to provide
various forms of direct assistance —
including even humanitarian aid — to the
government in Baku, thanks to the
pernicious Section 907 of the Freedom
Support Act, which has to date prohibited
such assistance flows.⁽²⁾
The Brownback “Silk Road”
legislation will go a long way toward
restoring balance to U.S. policy towards
states of the Caspian Basin and, in
particular, towards Western-oriented,
secular Muslim Azerbaijan.

The Bottom Line

The Center for Security Policy
applauds the efforts of Senator Brownback
to craft a strategically and economically
sensible U.S. policy toward the Caspian
Sea region and Senator Hagel’s decision
to hold timely — and much needed —
hearings on this matter. The Center also
recognizes the work of Senators
Alfonse D’Amato, Lauch
Faircloth and Jon Kyl
who have done much in recent weeks to
focus public and congressional scrutiny
on the dangers inherent in the
intensifying Russian-Iranian strategic
relationship. Taken together, these
initiatives may set the United States on
the Silk Road to a new, more
strategically robust and more mutually
beneficial relationship with states in
this increasingly important region.

– 30 –

1. See the Casey
Institute of the Center for Security
Policy’s Perspective
entitled The French and
Russians Certainly ‘Don’t Get It’ on Iran
— The Question Is: Does the Clinton-Gore
Team? ( href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=97-C_148″>No. 97-C 148, 2
October 1997).

2. See previous
Center papers in this ‘Caspian Watch’
series, including: Caspian
Watch # 7: President Aliyev’s Visit
Should Translate Into The ‘Beginning Of A
Beautiful Friendship’ ( href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=97-D_107″>No. 97-D 107, 29
July 1997) and Caspian Watch
# 6: Weinberger Issues Timely Alert
Against Interest Group’s Highjacking Of
U.S. Caspian Policy ( href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=97-D_66″>No. 97-D 66, 12
May 1997).