THE U.S.’S GREATER SOUTH ASIA PROJECT: NTERESTS OF THE CENTRAL ASIAN COUNTRIES AND OF THE KEY NON-REGIONAL ACTORS
Abstract
At the end of 2005, the U.S. changed its approach toward Central Asia as a region. Until very recently, in keeping with current practice, the White House administration looked at Central Asia as a separate region related to Russia and the CIS countries and consisting of five former Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. But in the new approach lobbied by the U.S. State Department and based on an essentially new regional conception, Central Asia is part of South Asia as a single super region we are calling Greater South Asia.
In our research, we will carry out an analysis of the Greater South Asia project from the viewpoint of the interests of the Central Asian countries. At the same time, we will study the influence of this project on the four other key players in Central Asia, whose interests will be affect-ed by the implementation of this project: Pakistan, India, Russia, and China.
Implementation of the Greater South Asia project has both positive and negative consequenc-es for the Central Asian countries. The positive aspects are the assistance it will render in stabi-lizing the situation in Afghanistan, the appearance of another transportation and energy corridor, and the decrease in dependence of the Central Asian countries on Russia and China. The negative consequences of implementing the Greater South Asia project include an increase in the drug flow in the short term, Islamic radicalization of the Central Asian states under the cultural “cultural "influence of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and erosion of the concept of Central Asia as a separate single region.
By initiating the Greater South Asia project, the U.S. is pursuing its own interests. At the same time, some of these interests coincide with the national interests of the Central Asian countries. One of the main tasks of the Greater South Asia project is to help stabilize the situation in Afghanistan, which is controlled by Washington. And whereas this U.S. control over Afghanistan arouses questions, stabilization of the situation in this state is unequivocally in the interests of the Central Asian countries.
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References
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