AZERBAIJAN - Diplomacy
Founding Chairman, Business Executives for National Security (BENS)
Bio
Stanley A. Weiss was formerly Chairman of American Premier, a mining, refractories, chemicals, and mineral-processing company. He is Founding Chairman of Business Executives for National Security (BENS), a non-partisan organization of senior executives who use the best practices of business to strengthen the nation’s security. He has written widely on public policy matters, with articles in numerous publications including the International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Washington Times. A former fellow at Harvard’s Center for International Affairs, Mr. Weiss was the recipient of an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Point Park College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Premier Chemicals and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Ditchley Foundation, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the Royal Institute in the UK.
In December 1991, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, US Secretary of State James Baker gave a speech at Princeton University on the relationship between the US and the “Newly Independent States” of the former USSR. In his remarks, Baker took aim at a curious target—the tiny Republic of Azerbaijan. About the size of the state of Maine, Baker described it as “undeserving of American recognition” until it accepted a long list of conditions the US had required. Soviet watchers saw it as the work of the US lobby of Azerbaijan’s neighbor and sworn enemy, Armenia, to blacklist the ancient nation in the Caucuses region on the Caspian Sea.
However, it proved to be the shortest blacklist in history. On Christmas Day, 1991, the USSR ceased to exist and the US recognized 12 former Soviet states, including Azerbaijan. A few months later, Baker became the first US Secretary of State to tour the region, and officially resumed diplomatic relations with the Azerbaijanis for the first time since 1918.
Under President Bill Clinton, the US deepened this relationship, signing a $10 billion investment contract with Azerbaijan to develop its oil fields. After the attacks of 9/11, President George W. Bush broadened the relationship to include military collaboration, with Azerbaijan providing its airspace for the US invasion of Iraq, while becoming the first Muslim nation to send its soldiers to fight alongside US troops. While in Baku in 2008, one US diplomat told me that Azerbaijan was “central to all we’re trying to do in this part of the world.” Then-US Ambassador Anne Derse described it to me as “Houston on the Caspian”—the indispensable link to reducing European energy independence on Moscow, as Azerbaijan is home to the only pipelines exporting Caspian oil and gas that bypass Russia altogether.
One of the most surprising aspects of Azerbaijan—a country that is 85% Shi’ite Muslim—is its close alliance with Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited during his first term in office in 1997, and the partnership has only deepened since, particularly as long-time Israeli ally Turkey has turned its back on Tel Aviv. Israel is now the second-largest importer of Azerbaijani oil, and with the recent signing of a $1.6 billion arms agreement, the military relationship between the two countries has raised eyebrows. Earlier in 2012, Iran accused Azerbaijan of supporting anti-Iranian activity by Israel’s Mossad, while Azerbaijan charged 22 suspects in an Iranian plot to attack the Israeli embassy in Baku. In March 2012, an explosive foreign policy article reported Israeli plans to potentially—and unilaterally—strike Iran’s nuclear facilities using Azerbaijani bases for reconnaissance, refueling, and rescue operations.
Meanwhile, as sanctions squeeze Tehran, Azerbaijan produced nearly 100,000 barrels of oil and 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas last year, much of which it exported to European countries eager for reliable energy sources. When the Shah Deniz II fields come online in the next five years, Azerbaijan will likely double its natural gas production, further enhancing its influence on Europe.
It’s true that, like many former Soviet states and US allies, Azerbaijan still struggles with civil liberties, human rights, and fundamental freedoms—issues Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised with President Aliyev during a trip to Baku in June 2012, while announcing that “the US remains strongly committed to working with the government and people (of Azerbaijan).”
The Obama Administration needs to do more than that. It should explore whether a combination of aid, incentives, and diplomacy could help resolve Azerbaijan’s festering conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. It should add a small US ground presence to demonstrate its commitment to the country’s security, while pushing for greater NATO cooperation with Azerbaijan. And, it should assist the EU in securing the Nabucco-West natural gas pipeline, which will ensure European energy security, enrich Azerbaijan, and bring the country closer to the West.
Home to more than half of the world’s mud volcanoes, with flames that occasionally erupt hundreds of feet into the sky, “Azerbaijan” literally translates to the “Land of Fire.” In the tinderbox that is the Caspian Region and the Middle East, a stronger US-Azerbaijan partnership might help assure that cooler heads prevail.
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