THE GREATER CENTRAL ASIA CONCEPT IN U.S. FOREIGN POLICY IN THE CENTRAL ASIAN REGION
Abstract
The main global scientific centers and thinktanks engaged in drawing up paradigms have become extremely interested in the changes that have occurred on the political map of the world after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The collapse of the bipolar world has led to a transformation in how some of its former regions are perceived, which, in turn, has led to new spatial-political conceptions and theories called upon to facilitate in an integral systemic way the foreign political approaches of specific states to the changes going on.1
The transformational changes on the political map also took place in the former Soviet Central Asian region, which, for natural economic and geostrategic reasons, has become one of the important sectors of international policy since the beginning of the 1990s. This article takes a look at the main geospatial conceptual models drawn up by the American expert community that apply to the countries of the Middle East, in particular to the Central Asian countries, and also evaluates their pertinence and degree of myth. The article’s authors focus particular attention on the Greater Central Asia (GCA) concept.
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Ibidem.
“Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. Lexikon,” available at [http://www.bpb.de/popup/popup_lemmata.html?guid=GEIQ39] (see also: “What is IR theory?” available at [http://www.irtheory.com/]).
C. Weber, International Relations Theory: A Critical Introduction, Routledge Chapman & Hall, 2005, p. 6.
See: S.F. Starr, “A ‘Greater Central Asia Partnership’ for Afghanistan and Its Neighbors,” Silk Road Paper, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program—A Joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center, Johns Hop-kins University, Washington, D.C., March 2005.
See: G. Sachdeva, “India’s Attitude towards China’s Growing Influence in Central Asia,” in: China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. 3, 2006, p. 33.
See: S. Blank, Reconstructing Inner Asia, Conflict Studies Research Centre, London, August 2002.
See: J.K. Davis, M.J. Sweeney, Central Asia in U.S. Strategy and Operational Planning: Where Do We Go from Here? The Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, February 2004.
Ibidem.
S.F. Starr, “A Partnership for Central Asia,” Foreign Affairs, July-August 2005, available at [http://www.cfr.org/Publication/8937/partnership_for_central_asia.html].
V. Volkov, “Afganistan—igra v perevetryshi,” 2 November 2005, available at [http://www.dw-world.de/dw/Article/0,,1763730,00.html].
See: N. Godehardt, M. Hanif, R. Sakaeda, “Sicherheitspolitische Herausforderungen der Regierung Obama in Asien,” GIGA (German Institute of Global and Area Studies), No. 1, 2004, S. 5.
S.F. Starr, “A Partnership for Central Asia.”
A. Knyazev, “‘Bolshaia Tsentral’naia Azia—eto vpolne ochevidnyy geopoliticheskiy marazm,’ D. Kislov interviews A. Knyazev,” 5 July, 2007, available at [www.ferghana.ru].
See: G.M. Maitdinova, “Geopolitika Tsentral’noi Azii. Mezhdunarodnoe sotrudnichestvo v Tsentral’noi Evrazii po obespecheniiu regional’noi bezopasnosti: protivodeistvie novym ugrozam, mekhanizmy, vektory vzaimodeistviia,” The Information-Analytical Portal “Geopolitika—geopolitika posmoderna,” 10 March, 2010, available at [http://www.
Geopolitica.ru/Articles/911/].
Ibidem.
See: “Bolshaia Tsentral’naia Azia i Kazakhstan,” Information-Analytical Center for the Study of Sociopolitical Processes in the Post-Soviet Expanse, available at [http://www.ia-centr.ru/].
Building the CASA regional power transmission line with a capacity of 1,000 MW will be the first step in devel-oping a Central Asian and South Asian electricity market, CASAREM. The length of the power transmission line from Tajikistan to Pakistan through Afghanistan alone will be more than 750 km. The approximate cost of the project is estimated at $770 million. The CASA-1000 project includes the current power transmission line from Kyrgyzstan to Tajikistan and a new high-voltage power transmission line to be built from Tajikistan to Pakistan which will later be hooked up to the South Asian vector and electric power substations in Kabul, Peshawar, and Sangtuda. The World Bank, Asian Development Bank,and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have stated their intentions to invest in the project.
S.F. Starr, “A ‘Greater Central Asia Partnership’ for Afghanistan and Its Neighbors,” p. 5.
See: J. Nichol, “Central Asia: Regional Developments and Implications for U.S. Interests,” in: Foreign Affairs,Defense and Trade Division, 12 November, 2004, pp. 1-3.
See: D. Meienreis, “Obama, Afghanistan und das neue ‘Große Spiel,’” 10 January, 2010, available at [http://arx21.de/content/view/926/32/].
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