ISRAEL: THE NEW PERIPHERAL STRATEGY IN CENTRAL ASIA
Keywords:
Israel, Central Asia, New Peripheral Strategy, the Middle EastAbstract
The Soviet Union disappeared from the historical stage, leaving behind several newly independent states in Central Asia, and the political void was immediately filled with the struggle for the spheres of influence in the region. The main actors are the EU, the United States, Russia, Iran, Turkey, China, and India. Attracted by the political and socio-economic changes in Central Asia, Israel expected to consolidate its presence in the region to limit the influence of Iran, to help local countries establish moderate Muslim states and develop economic relations and political dialog with them. This was seen as a step towards a stronger position in the Middle East.
In the last decade, Israel poured even more efforts into establishing relations with the Central Asian countries in the form of the recently developed the New Peripheral Strategy: improved relations with the moderate Muslim and non-Muslim states for coordinated struggle against radicalism, separatism, and terrorism. Guided by the need to consolidate its national security and being fully aware that this goal can be achieved only if and when it breaks the circle of Islamic hostility around Israel, the latter adjusted its strategy and tactics accordingly. This makes a comprehensive study of the Central Asian trend of the New Peripheral Strategy highly topical.
The paper examines the specifics and the main elements of the Central Asian vector of Israel’s foreign policy within the New Peripheral Strategy, and analyzes the stages of the unfolding dialog between Israel and the Central Asian countries and the sides’ mutual interest in bilateral cooperation.
The variants of Israel’s approaches to individual countries have been analyzed to suggest a conclusion that Israel’s successful and promising Central Asian policy has a good prospect of becoming a model of cooperation between Muslims and Jews.
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