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Environment and Security
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The Caspian region has been inhabited since
prehistoric times, the sea providing an ac-
cessible source of food for coastal commu-
nities. The sea has also represented an im-
portant waterway for trade, sea routes being
more efficient than the long overland routes.
The Caspian Sea has hence represented an
important north-south and east-west com-
munication platform, allowing the exchange
of goods and the movement of people.
In the days of the USSR the Caspian region
underwent considerable social and eco-
nomic change. Compulsory free, universal
education and the provision of universal
health care were among the Soviet Union’s
major social achievements. But the devel-
opment of large-scale agriculture and the
meat industry was accompanied by a radi-
cal change in the traditional way of life of
the nomadic populations of Kazakhstan and
Turkmenistan, pushed into adopting a sed-
entary life style.
In the Soviet Union’s centrally planned econ-
omy, Azerbaijan was an important centre for
industrial oil production, while Kazakhstan
developed its mining and processing indus-
try. Oil production expanded although most
of its output went to the military–industrial
complex, well established in the Kazakh
SSR, with the nuclear test sites at Semipal-
atinsk and Kapustin Yar, and the Baikonur
space centre (Akiner, 2004: 8).
Turkmenistan experienced similar develop-
ments. Nomadic populations were forced
into sedentary settlements and the republic
became one of the USSR’s most important
cotton-producing centres. Industrialization
included the development of the oil-gas and
chemical industry in the Caspian region.
Turkmen gas in 1990 represented almost
11% of total Soviet gas production (Djalili
and Kellner, 2003: 186).
The process of change has continued or
even accelerated over the last 15 years. In
1991 the newly formed eastern Caspian
states of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan
found themselves, along with the central
Asian and southern Caucasus republics,
separated from the USSR. At first they faced
many challenges: finding their place in the
international community as sovereign na-
tions, establishing political systems, secur-
ing their borders, and establishing their own
position in the global market without any
support from the centrally-managed redis-
tributive mechanism of the Soviet economy.
Many activities and jobs that previously en-
joyed central promotion and support, such
as the uranium-production complex in Ak-
tau, and the mineral extraction plants in Ga-
rabogaz and Khazar, shrank significantly or
disappeared. The previous system of sup-
plying the coastal cities with food and other
goods was reduced to a trickle.
Recent transitions
The Caspian region