Israel in South Caucasus: Security and energy challenges

In a world where there is only a limited source of energy, many developed and developing countries desperately seek cheaper, stable and reliable alternative sources for their economies. In this regards, it might be quite sensible to expect that numerous future disagreements and conflicts would take place over energy resources unless humanity finds alternative energy technologies.Until recently, the Gulf region with its vast energy resources was one of the primary energy sources. But, the problematic and rather complicated political dynamics of the region has always had potential to cause stability, consistency and reliability problems for consumer states. Through the last two decades the Caucasus emerged as an excellent alternative for those states in the region such as Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt. Many countries like Russia, the US and their allies are in rivalry to become more influential in Caucasus and to gain access to rich energy resources of the region. This situation is called `The New Great Game? by Lutz Kleveman. With its desperate need for alternative energy sources Israel is part of this game.Israel?s main interest in the region lies on Azerbaijan?s vast energy sources. Through its influence in Azerbaijan, Israel hopes to benefit from natural resources of the region. BTC and Blue Stream pipelines have great importance for Israeli interests in the region. Especially, BTC ? having Western support, has a strategic meaning. Both Georgia and Azerbaijan have a positive attitude towards the presence of Israel in South Caucasus, because they hope that close relations with Israel will give a chance to build closer economic and political relations with the WestIn the recent years, there were regional conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia in Caucasus. These conflicts have the potential to pose risks for the flow of oil through BTC-which might cause negative results for the energy security of Israel.In this thesis, energy security concerns of Israel which affect its foreign policy formulations on the South Caucasus will be studied. Particularly, Azerbaijani-Israeli relations will be reviewed since Azerbaijan is considered to be a pivot country for Israel to reach to vast energy resources of Caucasus. Two major energy pipelines -BTC and Blue Stream- will be analyzed from Israel?s point of view. And finally two regional conflicts ?Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia- will be analyzed to answer the question whether they can cause burden on Israeli energy security.