Articles

Central Asia: Playing on the Contradictions of the Major Foreign Players

Vostok/Oriens '2013, №4

 
The article describes the controversy which has appeared in Central Asia between Russia, the USA and China during the last twenty years. In the first half of the ninetieths international contradictions were based on economic, later on political and military basis. Their greatest acuteness was achieved in the first half of the 2000s, when the Bush administration pursued a policy of “aggressive realism”. The Obama administration appealed to the use of “smart” power, which has led to the emergence of unstable balance among the major foreign players. The Central Asian states used this actively in their own interests. The peculiarities of the USA regional policy both by the Republicans and the Democrats were revealed in the study. The American foreign policy was shown to have been based on pragmatism. This made it possible for Washington to develop bilateral relations not only with authoritarian rulers, but also with the totalitarian regime of Niyazov. At the same time, the experience of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan showed that the close cooperation with the United States gave no guarantees of avoiding “color revolutions”. Obviously, the political leadership of the countries located in the region will try to use the contradictions between Russia, the USA and China in the future. Therefore, for the major foreign players it is highly desirable to avoid possible confrontation and not to involve themselves into regional conflicts. Only then they will be able to provide their own national interests.

Keywords: playing on the contradictions, Central Asia, the major foreign policy player, the USA regional policy, national interests

Pages: С. 70–83