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Darth Cheney Gets His Death Star

But why are the political elite so interested in Azerbaijan?

25 September, 2008

	Full Moon Hotel under construction in Azerbaijan

A new hotel is under construction in Baku, Azerbaijan, according to a report out of Gizmodo. The 521-foot hotel, called the "Hotel Full Moon" is notable for its more than passing resemblance to the Death Star of Star Wars fame. The 104,182 square metre prestige hotel also presumably comes with a hefty price tag and is undoubtedly meant to show off the booming economy of this southern Caucasus nation.

That Azerbaijan is booming might be news to those who aren't familiar with its rich resource wealth or geographic importance, but perhaps there is no clearer indication of the country's prime importance in this resource-driven world than a glance at the U.S. - Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce website. The list of advisors, chairmen and directors of the chamber reads like a Who's Who of Washington power players, including Vice President Dick Cheney (former director), former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski (advisor), Bush family advisor James Baker III (advisor) and his son James Baker IV (co-chairman), as well as perennial Washington insiders Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft and John Sununu (advisors) and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage (ex-advisor).

Such a list should be enough to at least raise some eyebrows. Clearly this Chamber of Commerce is more than a place for people to gather for a networking lunch once a month. Add to this the fact that Condoleeza Rice's former employer is heavily involved in the country and it seems the political elite know something about this country that the rest of us don't.

In a word, the secret to Azerbaijan's appeal is Caspian Oil—specifically, the so-called BTC pipeline connecting Baku with Tbilisi and Ceyhan to transport Caspian Oil to the Eastern Mediterranean while bypassing Russia, a pipeline whose geopolitical importance was recently made abundantly clear. Perhaps the interest of the Washington power players in Azerbaijan relates to the increasing importance of the Caucasus region in the unfolding NATO plan to encircle and intimidate Russia in the new cold war.

Seen as a base of operations for American interest in the region, Azerbaijan is valuable enough. Combined with its proven oil reserves and important pipeline infrastructure, the reason for high-level U.S. political involvement in the region is obvious. Equally obvious is that Azerbaijan will be an area of interest as cold war tensions between Russia and U.S. proxy states in the Caucasus continues to grow.