Central Asia is witnessing the new global disorder of the 21st century as it clearly has become and will increasingly become a key global geopolitical arena.
The old order has clearly collapsed, and there is no new order discernible on the horizon – thus the “new disorder”.
The Great Game therefore is back, albeit with a different set of players versus re-Asianization of Asia and the wider region (Central Asia) –there is a definite global trend towards “non-Western values”.
Whatever form the emerging new global “order” will take obviously remains to be seen, but in the process, Central Asia is a key space to watch and from which to watch.
As the major cultural, economic, political and geopolitical Eurasian crossroads, with borders extending to the Muslim world, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Russia, China, Pakistan and India, Central Asia is clearly a most relevant vantage point from which to look at world.
The Great Game was the term coined in the 19th century popularized in the 1901 novel Kim by Rudyard Kipling, to describe the rivalry between the British and Russian Empires over Afghanistan that extended out to neighboring states in Central and Southern Asia. It involved constant tensions with Russia and Britain playing on the Central Asian chessboard; a number of wars erupted.
The Great Game made its reappearance with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. It continues…
