Energy Cooperation And Interdependence In The Central Asian And Caspian Region For Improving Energy Security

The Central Asian and Caspian (CAC) region’s energy wealth and unique geographic location offers multiple advantages for promising economic growth and development. Besides, even though the CAC region’s energy mix is historically dominated by fossil fuels, renewables are also considered as an option where problems related to energy security, overreliance of a single resource/supplier, climate change, and environmental challenges are on the rise. In that regard, cooperation and integration within the region, particularly on energy, could be a core solution as intraregional relations remain relatively weak. Cooperation, in that sense, would offer an increased level of supply security, promoting investments and enabling the transfer of know-how. Nevertheless, many cooperation initiatives on energy were challenged due to political issues as well as economic limitations. Still, cooperating particularly on renewables could bring a new prospect for regional energy cooperation so that it is possible to establish proper regional models based on the best practices. Thus, by relying on a SWOT analysis, this chapter strongly recommends the region’s states to focus on relative gains and advantages that energy cooperation and interdependence bring, the rather than highlighting the historical issues of conflicts and disagreements. The study concludes that more energy cooperation in the CAC region will improve the energy security level in the region.