Machine summary:
The US Fear of the New Heartland In its geopolitical perspective of"New World Order" the United States considers the two regions of the Persian Gulf and Caspian-Central Asia as the two main energy-supplying depots of early decades of the twenty-first century with an interconnected geopolitical and geo strategic function.
On the other hand, the second halfThe Impact of September 11 on the Persian Gulf and West Asia 459 of the twentieth century world preoccupied with insecurity arising from ideological rivalry between the global powers, the United States and the USSR, overshadowed the significance of the role of territorial disputes in regional security around the world.
Iran's action in the summer of 2001 in stoppingThe Impact of September 11 on the Persian Gulf and West Asia 465 exploration tasks by BP vessels working for Azerbaijan republic in areas Tehran claims to belong to Iran was a natural reaction of some in the Caspian Sea to the attempts by others in enforcing their unilateral legal regime.
466 The Iranian Journal of International Affairs The Iraqi style of pursuing territorial claims and difference in the Persian Gulf, mainly against Kuwait which resulted in the military invasion and annexation of that emirate in 1990 and prompted a new sense of urgency in the region for the peaceful settlement of territorial issues before they are exploded.
6 For more on this argument, see: Pirouz Mojtahed-Zadeh, Territorial Disputes and Security of West Asia (Is the New Heartland Stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea), Paper presented to the HUGG West Asia Workshop II, Limassol, Cyprus, 27-29 May 2000.