Central Asia is the Prime Battlefield in the New Great Game

Central Asia is the Prime Battlefield in the New Great Game

The historical Heartland – or Central Eurasia – already is, and will continue to be, the prime battlefield in the New Great Game, fought between the United States and the China-Russia strategic partnership. The original Great Game pitted the British and Russian empires in the late 19th century, and in fact, never got away: it…

From Bukhara to BRICS, Searching for Light in the Darkness of Insanity

From Bukhara to BRICS, Searching for Light in the Darkness of Insanity

On the SCO, Russia, China, India, Iran and Pakistan sit at the same table, writes Pepe Escobar. Bukhara The Noble, the “Dome of Islam”, with a history stretching back 2.500 years, bears too many marvels to mention: from the two-millennia-old Ark, a fortress around which the city developed, to the 48-meter high Kalon minaret, built…

Turkmenistan Is Indispensable to Uzbekistan & Tajikistan’s Future

Turkmenistan Is Indispensable to Uzbekistan & Tajikistan’s Future

Factors beyond Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan’s control, namely the continued uncertainty in Afghanistan and Kazakhstan’s disturbing compliance with some of the West’s anti-Russian sanctions, have combined to push these three together into an unexpected alliance of convenience. Despite being the least populated and with an artificial economy dependent entirely on energy exports, Turkmenistan has suddenly…

PAKAFUZ’s Connectivity Potential Is Totally Dependent on Troubled Pakistani-Taliban Ties

PAKAFUZ’s Connectivity Potential Is Totally Dependent on Troubled Pakistani-Taliban Ties

PAKAFUZ isn’t as promising of a project as it initially seemed due to its total dependence on seemingly intractable Pakistani-Taliban tensions and the revival of the North-South Transport Corridor as a viable complementary alternative. That’s not to downplay this project’s geo-economic importance in the best-case scenario that it’s completed and those two’s security dilemma is…

America’s Scheme of Swapping Afghan Aircraft for Central Asian Influence Is Admittedly Clever

America’s Scheme of Swapping Afghan Aircraft for Central Asian Influence Is Admittedly Clever

Keeping in mind its envisaged role as a regional leader (which is complemented by its geostrategic position abutting Afghanistan and all Central Asian Republics), Uzbekistan is thus much more likely than Tajikistan to believe that secretly enhanced security ties with the US could bolster its Great Power balancing act. Credit goes where it’s due, and…

Russia Warned Its SCO Partners About the Ulterior Motives Behind the US’ Central Asian Drills

Russia Warned Its SCO Partners About the Ulterior Motives Behind the US’ Central Asian Drills

The very fact that three of Russia’s CSTO military allies – one of whom Russian National Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev just claimed had survived a US-backed Color Revolution plot – are participating in multilateral military drills in the part of the world that the US-led West misleadingly describes as Moscow’s “sphere of influence” discredits…