Heartland, Rimland, and the Grand Chessboard Deciphering the Great Power Politics in Central Asia

Abstract

As the twenty-first century progresses, struggle for the control of Central Asia is growing, as rising China increases its economic and political clout while Russia is trying to regain its lost glory. The American presence in the region was considered as a threat not only by China, but also Russia who feared that the US is determined to carve out its sphere of influence at their expense. The recent withdrawal of the US forces from Afghanistan and Taliban re- taking Kabul further complicates the geopolitical calculations. China and Russia have been cooperating to ensure that the adjoining region, typically falling under Russian sphere of influence, may not become an American influenced area. Where China has emerged as one of the biggest trading partners of the Central Asian Republics, and Russia has signed several bilateral and multilateral security agreements to ensure its continued influence therein. Eurasia generally and Central Asia specifically, once again, is back to the limelight of great powers politics. This study traces the conceptual evolution of geopolitics, from Ratzel’s Lebensraum, Kjellen’s theory of state as an organism, to the Mahan conception of the sea power, among others. It discusses the collective geopolitical insights of Halford Mackinder, Nicholas Spykman, and Zbigniew Brzezinski who focussed on the concepts of Heartland, Rimland, and Grand Chessboard, respectively, to decipher the geopolitics of Eurasia. Keywords: Central Asia, Geopolitics, Lebensraum, Heartland, Rimland.