Jörg Stadelbauer, A New "Great Game" in the Caspian Region?
Natural Landscape, Resource Potential and Development Problems.

Birmingham, Leicester 2000 (= The University of Birmingham, School of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Centre for Russian and East European Studies. University of Leicester, Departement of Geography. Russian Regional Research Group. Working Paper 20). 24 pp.

more: The break up of the Soviet Union in 1991 signaled easier access to the oil resources of the Caspian Sea basin and the opening up of those resources to international investment.

Geography
The Caucasus: Europe, or what?
by Doug Muir

Is the Caucasus even part of Europe?
See, I was just writing a post about the various conflicts, frozen and otherwise, that criss-cross this region. And I had to pick a category. And I found my arrow hovering over “not Europe”. But… http://fistfulofeuros.net/archives/002807.php

with many comments ...

Where is Europe? ComingAnarchy.com
... the Emba River serve as possible boundaries. The boundary continues to the Caspian Sea, the crest of the Caucasus Mountains or, alternatively, the Kura River in the Caucasus, and on to the Black Sea However, numerous geographers consider ...