Contemporary Rivalry in Central Asia: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

Due to its unique geographic position, Central Asia has been at the center of power struggles for centuries. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union the region once again became the focal point of strategic assessments. Although the region had been endowed with rich energy resources, young Central Asian Republics (CARs) had faced multiple challenges ranging from poor infrastructure and lack of human resources to weak governance. Since their independence international environment has also undergone unforeseen changes as it moves from unipolarity towards multipolarity. Global powers, such as the USA, China, Russia, the EU; and regional powers such as Turkey, India, Iran, and Pakistan have been involved in the region, adding to the complexity of the equation. Despite numerous problems, Central Asia’s rich energy resources, common historical, religious, ethnic heritage and economic connectivity projects provide variety of opportunities for the region. In this context, with a view on the geopolitic/geo-strategic and geo-economic significance of Central Asia, the study investigates challenges and opportunities for the region. The structure of study has been based on four main chapters. After the introduction, in the second chapter, geo-political, geo-strategic and geoeconomic importance of the region has been explained with supporting historical and numerical data. In the third chapter, interests of global and regional players have been analyzed in order to identify converging and diverging interests of the respective players. The fourth chapter is allocated to describing challenges the region is facing, and exploring opportunities the CARs may have. In the fifth chapter, the findings of study have been summarized, and some projections have been put forward regarding future of the region. The study is finalized with the conclusion section, which identifies the five main outcomes out of the study: the presence of multiple opportunities for peace and prosperity of the region, the importance of Central Asia, the importance of the peace efforts in Afghanistan, the availability of multiple factors for cooperation among CARs, and the significance of BRI for the region.