ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the issue of the geopolitical dimensions of oil and pipelines in the strategic rivalries in the Heartland. It highlights the energy aspect of US strategy in the Eurasian Heartland by relying on Caspian oil and its transportation through pipelines. Heartland Theory is probably the most well-known geopolitical model that stresses the ascendancy of land-based power over sea-based power. Russia and Iran’s geographical location in the region reveals the strategic considerations of the pipeline battle in the Eurasian Heartland. Central Asia or the Heartland, to use Sir Halford Mackinder’s term, has long been the playground for geopolitical rivalries. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline project is a product of the geopolitical calculations of US policy-makers. The USA has given its full support to the actualization of the BTC oil pipeline project, despite its low feasibility and the lobbying activities of oil companies favouring a possible Iranian route.
