The Silk Road between a Rock and a Hard Place: Russian and Chinese Competition for Central Asia’s Energy

Abstract

China’s displacement of Russian economic influence in Central Asia is generating great interest in Western academic and policy circles, but this research has, as yet, yielded few analytical nuances. This article attempts to shed light on the under-researched question of what explains Central Asian governments’ failure to more effectively capitalize on the growing Central-Asian rivalry between Russia, China, the United States, Turkey, Iran, South Korea, Japan and other regional powers that, since the early 1990s, have been overwhelmingly directed towards strategic energy considerations and hydrocarbon interests.