Research

BC CARE is a competence pool for the Caspian Region. As such it brings together scientists of the Free University, other Berlin-based universities, as well as from non-university research facilities and institutes, that have been working on the Caspian Region for many years. Thus, an international research network is developing, which examines the complex area of tension between wealth of natural resources and sustainable use of resources. Hence resulting problems in the Caspian Region are being explored interdisciplinary and in an integrative manner.

The main areas of actual and planned research are:

1. The role of the state regarding the economic exploitation of energy resources and the institutional development in the Caspian Region
2. The problems related to environmental regulations regarding the Caspian Sea
3. The rule of law and the transformation processes in the Caspian Region
4. Energy policy, conflict management and civil society in the Caspian Region
5. The Caspian oil fields as a strategic war aim of the National Socialists: Scientific actors within the area of tension between war rhetoric and war objective policies
6. Sustainable (cross-border) water and resource management in the Caspian Region
7. The international ecosystem “Caspian Sea”: From an environmental catastrophe to sustainable use?
8. The Caspian gas resources and the European energy security
9. Pollution of the Caspian Sea: Analysis of the incentive structure for the reduction of pollution discharges from the mainland
10. Gender relations and cultural aspects of the use of the ecosystem in the Caspian Region
11. Development of methods to activate political commitment in the Caspian Region.
12. Strategies for the promotion of renewable energies in the Caspian Region