Eurasian Heartland Research Articles

Crossroads of Cuisine: The Eurasian Heartland, the Silk Roads and Food, written by Paul D. Buell, E. N. Anderson, Montserrat de Pablo Moya, and Moldir Oskenbay

Crossroads of Cuisine: The Eurasian Heartland, the Silk Roads and Food, written by Paul D. Buell, E. N. Anderson, Montserrat de Pablo Moya, and Moldir Oskenbay

‘What have you done, brother Putin?’: Everyday geopolitics and Central Asian labour migration to Russia

ABSTRACT The geopolitical positioning of Central Asia as the centre of the ‘Eurasian Heartland’ has been the subject of extensive debates in academic and policy circles over the last three decades. However, the mainstream geopolitical narratives on Central Asia tend to focus on grand-level geopolitical players and discourses, thereby reducing the region and its populations to passive entities without any agency. Not much has been said about how these grand-level narratives are reflected and operate within the micro-level, everyday spaces, relationships and experiences of ordinary people. This paper addresses this lacuna by examining the everyday, micro-level discourses and experiences of geopolitics amongst Uzbek migrant workers in Russia and their left-behind families in Uzbekistan – a form of ‘everyday geopolitics’. The paper is based on a transnational ethnography of Uzbek migrant workers in Russia and in their home village in Uzbekistan, conducted between January 2014 and November 2019.

The EU at a Strategic Crossroads: A Geopolitical Player in Great Power Games?

The current shifts in the post-Cold War international order are bringing the attention to notions of great power competition, demonstrating once again the geopolitical significance of Europe and Asia for global politics. This article applies concepts from the classical geopolitical thinking of Halford Mackinder and Nicholas Spykman as an ‘optic tool’ for analysing current global events and for considering the European Union’s (EU’s) strategic direction in light of the interests of the United States, Russia, and China in Europe’s wider region. With the American post-Cold War global preponderance steadily waning and the rising challenges from the east in the face of Russia and China, the EU finds itself in a position that requires the redefinition of its geopolitical identity and strategic pursuit of its own interests. A look through the classical geopolitical concepts of the Heartland and the Rimland reveals that the EU is an extraordinary player in geopolitics as it has the potential to determine (1) access to the Eurasian Heartland via its influence over Eastern Europe and (2) control of the maritime Rimland by virtue of its geography, alliances, and its potential participation in Beijing’s New Silk Road initiative. These findings are discussed by considering the EU’s potential foreign policy directions vis-à-vis the US, Russia, and China. European Union, United States, Russia, China, Eurasia, Geopolitical theory, Foreign policy, Grand strategy, Strategic Autonomy

Trans-Regional Connectivity in Eurasia’s Heartland and the Role of Uzbekistan

Eurasia has been increasingly integrating mainly due to the Eurasian powers’ collaboration. Uzbekistan occupies the heart of Eurasia’s heartland having borders with all Central Asian Republics including Afghanistan. The land locked nature of the country induces it to search for outlets towards regional and global markets to capitalize upon its tremendous growth for expanded development. Pakistan provides the most economical and historical outlet to Uzbekistan and to the Eurasian heartland via Afghanistan. Despite having a common past the countries of Central and South Asia are least integrated in the contemporary era. Pakistan and Uzbekistan also realize that Central and South Asian connectivity via Afghanistan will help build a solid basis for sustainable peace, stability and prosperity in Afghanistan. Uzbekistan is part of important transportation corridors linking the Eurasian heartland in all directions. Pakistan has framed “Vision Central Asia Policy” and envisaging Pakistan-Afghanistan-Central Asia Corridor to supplement CPEC in fundamentally changed regional geo-political and geo-economic circumstances. The paper mainly argues that the changed regional and global state of affairs make the regional environment conducive for enhanced connectivity between Central and South Asia via Afghanistan while Pakistan and Uzbekistan have to play leading roles necessitated by their significant geographical locations in respective regions in an altered regional scenario

Ancient Components and Recent Expansion in the Eurasian Heartland: Insights into the Revised Phylogeny of Y-Chromosomes from Central Asia.

In the past two decades, studies of Y chromosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms (Y-SNPs) and short tandem repeats (Y-STRs) have shed light on the demographic history of Central Asia, the heartland of Eurasia. However, complex patterns of migration and admixture have complicated population genetic studies in Central Asia. Here, we sequenced and analyzed the Y-chromosomes of 187 male individuals from Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Karakalpak, Hazara, Karluk, Tajik, Uyghur, Dungan, and Turkmen populations. High diversity and admixture from peripheral areas of Eurasia were observed among the paternal gene pool of these populations. This general pattern can be largely attributed to the activities of ancient people in four periods, including the Neolithic farmers, Indo-Europeans, Turks, and Mongols. Most importantly, we detected the consistent expansion of many minor lineages over the past thousand years, which may correspond directly to the formation of modern populations in these regions. The newly discovered sub-lineages and variants provide a basis for further studies of the contributions of minor lineages to the formation of modern populations in Central Asia.

EU Policy in Central Asia

Geography and a preference for regional approaches have an impact on EU foreign policy. From the EU perspective, the countries of Central Asia are classified as “neighbors of EU neighbors.” The EU’s policies assume the existence of strong centripetal forces in the Eurasian heartland, whereas in fact the regionalization is still in the initial stages there. Consequently, EU foreign policy in Central Asia pursues both structural and relational objectives. The specific goals and performance of EU member states add a two-tier dimension to this process. In parallel with other external actors such as Japan, the United States, South Korea, and India, the European Union conducts its dialogue and cooperation with the Central Asian states in a 5+1 format. Compared to the policies of China, Turkey, or Russia, the EU has much more limited influence. It primarily aims to support the independent development of the Central Asian countries, for which some degree of regionalization appears to be a prerequisite.

The Great Game of the twenty-first century: Can Europe compete?

ESAANZ ESSAY PRIZE WINNERWith China’s Belt and Road Initiative in full swing, this paper identifies a new “Great Game” in the Eurasian heartland. However, rather than the geopolitical chess of the nineteenth century, the new game is wei qi. In a process of gradual encirclement and subtle coercion, China is outplaying the EU on the Eurasian continent while avoiding direct confrontation. Following the logic of wei qi, China has shown a tendency to occupy the spaces that the EU has neglected – namely the Balkans and the East Mediterranean. Yet the game has not been won yet. Recent crises have undermined China’s global image, and hitherto overeager Eastern European countries are now acting with more caution towards Chinese investors. The EU can be an equal player, but it must do more to “bring along” the struggling economies in its periphery, while counterbalancing China’s influence with alternative partnerships in the Middle East and Asia.

China’s Eurasia: the Belt and Road Initiative and the Creation of a New Eurasian Power

Abstract The Belt and Road Initiative alongside the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation are the latest phase of China’s return to the Eurasian landmass after the collapse of the Soviet Union. China has reshaped Eurasia in several ways, which includes the common definition of this concept, which had largely been perceived as a chiefly Russian entity. This is rooted in Halford Mackinder’s The Geographical Pivot of History, which depicted the Eurasian landmass as a threat to Britain’s maritime hegemony with the advent of rail. While the traditional focus had been on Eurasia as the Russian empire, Mackinder also alluded to a Eurasian empire created by ‘Chinese organised by Japanese’ as a result of the latter’s development during the Meiji Restoration. While this did not come to pass, it has become an imperative to consider the notion of an Asian power in Eurasia due to China’s rise. The purpose of this paper is to argue that China is as much a Eurasian power in the vein of Mackinder’s theories as Russia is, with the BRI providing a potential opportunity to further integrate with Eurasia. In addition, the initiative is also symbolic of China’s bid to create an alternative order both in Eurasia and the wider world as part of its global role to challenge the dominance of the United States, which raises the spectre of Mackinder’s warning over a challenger emerging from the Eurasian Heartland.

Re-centering Central Asia: China\u2019s \u201cNew Great Game\u201d in the old Eurasian Heartland

China’s President Xi Jinping’s Central Asian tour in fall 2013 marked Beijing’s unprecedented (re)turn to Central Asia as a lynchpin of the “Silk Road Economic Belt” of the globally ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China’s BRI positions Central Asia as the crucial nexus for the cross-regional long-distance loops of trade, investment, and infrastructure development. By revisiting the classical geopolitical theory about the original Eurasian Heartland and its contemporary offshoots, we extract some insights for understanding the new China-Central Asia transboundary regional nexus. In a double-pronged empirical analysis of China’s development strategies regarding Central Asia, we examine: (1) the construction of oil and gas pipelines from Central Asia to transmit energy all the way to China’s east coast, and (2) the launch and expansion of the Eurasian Railroad to transport goods from China’s manufacturing bases in both coastal and inland regions to Europe and Central Asia. In synthesizing the findings from this coupled analysis through classical and contemporary theoretical lenses, we discuss how China’s growing influence in Central Asia via the BRI can reshape the region’s diverse national interests, development opportunities and constraints while fostering closer China-Central Asia bilateral cooperation across multiple national boundaries. In light of the analysis, we also offer an updated view and critique of the classical Heartland/Rimland theories and discuss how a China-centric “New Great Game” differs from its original nineteenth century antecedent while pointing to similar underpinnings.

Geo-Economics of the Eurasian Heartland

This part of the world is a diverse, complex and dynamic region, combining ancient culture and traditions with forward-looking aspirations. Although all eight countries were part of the USSR just quarter of a century ago, now they are living in diverse political models and different economic realities. There are 85 million people of growing population, of over a hundred ethnicities, tens of languages, diverse in religious confessions, literate, educated and entrepreneurial. This is a tremendous potential that now gets its chance to be realized. In this report, we provide an insight into the dynamic geopolitical context of the region influenced by the neighbor and international powers. We also analyze internal dynamics of the region with the special emphasis on the growing security concerns, promising political transition and demographic trends. Finally, we address one of the major impediments to the economic growth and social development of the region - an infrastructure gap. We overview current state of infrastructure development, as well as discuss key infrastructure development initiatives in the region.

The South Caucasus Conflicts in the Context of Struggle for the Eurasian Heartland

The article examines the geopolitical developments in the South Caucasus after the collapse of the USSR in the context of the Russian-American geopolitical struggle. Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, three recognised states of this region, should not only solve a set of complex problems such as to pass effectively through the difficult path of state-building, to respond adequately to the developments of the Russian-American struggle, but they should also take into consideration the impact of that struggle on the resolution of the conflicts in the region. The article aims to disclose the patterns and the peculiarities of geopolitical struggle in the South Caucasus, its impact on the process of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, that recently gained more significance, and also the obstacles and perspectives of the resolution of this conflict.

Geopolitics of a changing world order: US strategy and the scramble for the Eurasian Heartland

Geopolitics is about power and hegemony, with its dual components of domination and consent. Controlling space requires dominion. Organizing and administering space at reasonable costs demands authority and acquiescence. This conceptualization of geopolitics pertains to the underlying causes behind current instabilities in the Middle East as they link with broader geopolitical and strategic interests of great powers, particularly the US. Geopolitical theory helps offer deeper insights into how American decision makers are likely to think and act in the post-Cold War era, and in explaining, understanding, and possibly reading and forming expectations about US policies. It allows for more clarity in observing continuities in US strategy and in shaping expectations about tactics and policies in the service of its durable strategic international and global interests. The main argument of this paper is that the American ruling establishment, together with its supporting intellectual and military structures, persists in observing the emerging global venture geopolitically. In those terms much of what is occurring in the Arab region, more specifically in countries such as Syria among others, can be understood. It is also in those terms that one can conceptualize the American approach toward regional and world powers such as Iran, China and Russia.

In the heartland of Eurasia: the multilocus genetic landscape of Central Asian populations

Located in the Eurasian heartland, Central Asia has played a major role in both the early spread of modern humans out of Africa and the more recent settlements of differentiated populations across Eurasia. A detailed knowledge of the peopling in this vast region would therefore greatly improve our understanding of range expansions, colonizations and recurrent migrations, including the impact of the historical expansion of eastern nomadic groups that occurred in Central Asia. However, despite its presumable importance, little is known about the level and the distribution of genetic variation in this region. We genotyped 26 Indo-Iranian- and Turkic-speaking populations, belonging to six different ethnic groups, at 27 autosomal microsatellite loci. The analysis of genetic variation reveals that Central Asian diversity is mainly shaped by linguistic affiliation, with Turkic-speaking populations forming a cluster more closely related to East-Asian populations and Indo-Iranian speakers forming a cluster closer to Western Eurasians. The scattered position of Uzbeks across Turkic- and Indo-Iranian-speaking populations may reflect their origins from the union of different tribes. We propose that the complex genetic landscape of Central Asian populations results from the movements of eastern, Turkic-speaking groups during historical times, into a long-lasting group of settled populations, which may be represented nowadays by Tajiks and Turkmen. Contrary to what is generally thought, our results suggest that the recurrent expansions of eastern nomadic groups did not result in the complete replacement of local populations, but rather into partial admixture.

The US Grand Strategy and the Eurasian Heartland in the Twenty-First Century

From an offensive realist theoretical approach, this paper assumes that great powers are always looking for opportunities to attain more power in order to feel more secure. This outlook has led me to assert that the main objective of the US grand strategy in the twenty-first century is primacy or global hegemony. I have considered the US grand strategy as a combination of wartime and peacetime strategies and argued that the Caspian region and its hinterland, where I call the Eurasian Heartland, to use the term of Sir Halford Mackinder, has several geo-strategic dimensions beyond its wide-rich non-OPEC untapped hydro-carbon reserves, particularly in Kazakhstan. For my purposes, I have relied on both wartime strategy (US-led Iraq war) and peacetime strategy of supporting costly Baku-Tbilis-Ceyhan (BTC) to integrate regional untapped oil reserves, in particular Kazakh, into the US-controlled energy market to a great extent. This pipeline's contribution to the US grand strategy is assessed in relation to potential Eurasian challengers, Russia and China. The article concludes with an evaluation of the prospects of the US grand strategy in the twenty-first century.

Cold Peace: Russia's New Imperialism by Janusz s> Bugajski (review)

REVIEWS 373 by economic reform. The contrast is then perhaps not so much that China and the Soviet Union followed alternative paths, but that China was able to accommodate the conflicts that accompanied economic reform within the existing political system, while Russia was not. The fact that reforms in China were economically successful, while in Russia they were not, made an enormous difference to the political outcomes. That, of course, begs the other question, of why reform succeeded in China but failed in Russia. Again, I think that it is very difficultto attributethe difference in outcome to radical differencesin policy. The key differenceis surelythe prior level of development of each country,on the one hand, and its role in the globalizing capitalisteconomy, on the other. How interdependentwere the Chinese and Russian reforms?Although we might expect them to learn from each other, Marsh actually provides very little evidence that they did so. If they were to learn from each other'sexperience , the leaders of each country should regard the experience of the other as relevant to themselves and would require a thorough understanding of the experience of the other. In reality, neither condition applied. The Soviet leaders did not think that they had anything to learn from China for racist reasonsor, as Marsh more tactfullyputs it, because they thought of China as an underdeveloped country. The Chinese did not think that they had anything to learn from the Soviet Union because the Soviet Union had long ago betrayed socialism. Correspondingly,the knowledge and understandingthat the specialistsin each country had of the other was very limited and their conceptions very stereotyped,so that there was little basis on which to draw any serious lessons. The strongest evidence for interdependence that Marsh provides is in his account of the reactions of the Chinese leadership to the collapse of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, but there is no indicationthat the Chinese specialistshad the firstidea of why the Communist system collapsed and really the only lesson that they drew was to congratulatethemselves on having maintained political stability and order, even to the extent of the severe repressionafter the Tiananmen crack-down. Although I do not think that there is much here for specialists,the book is well-writtenand the evidence and argument clearly presented so that it will make a useful text for introductorycourses. Department of Sociologv SIMON CLARKE University of Wanvick Bugajski,Janusz. ColdPeace: Russia's New Imperialism. Praeger, Westport, CT, and Oxford, 2004. ix + 303 pp. Notes. Bibliography.Index. 128.99. CuRRENr Western preoccupations with the 'War on Terror' have pushed down the political agenda concerns about the residual tensions between Westernand CentralEurope on the one hand and post-CommunistRussiaon the other. Bugajski'sdetailed and well researched study presents a forceful case that the Cold War, far from being over, has resumedin a differentform. 374 SEER, 85, 2, 2007 Bugajski charts Russia's evolving strategy to regain its position on the Eurasianstage. In doing so he challengesthe assumptionsof those in the West who claim that the new Russia lacks the resources, capabilitiesand the will to dominate the Eurasian heartland, and that it poses no threat to US and European interests.Bugajskicontends that Russia has experiencedfar greater psychological and political traumasin adjustingto its reduced role than have other post-imperialpowers. It is as a consequence, Bugajskisuggests,strongly motivated to regain its former position along its Western borderlands. This recovery strategy,he demonstrates,rests primarilyon Russia's growing importanceas an energy supplierto both Centraland WesternEurope. Other leversof influence, as the take-overof energy suppliersand deliverynetworks, the exercise of diplomatic pressure, propaganda attacks, disinformation campaigns,the fomentingof ethnic tensions,particularlythroughthe exploitation of the Russian diaspora in the independent states of the former Soviet Union, and even the manipulationof criminalnetworksform part of Russia's recovery strategy. Published before Russia's widely publicized and heavy handed energy blackmailof the Ukraine in early 2006, Bugajskicataloguesthe frequentoccasions on which Russia has used such methods againstthose stateswhich have recently left the Russian orbit. By subordinatingoil and gas companies, and most particularly Russia's largest company, Gazprom, to greater central government control Putin has made this arm of Russian foreign policy more coherent and focused. Russia...

South American heartland: the Charcas, Latin American geopolitics and global strategies

Mackinder's 1904‘geographical pivot of history’ concept, subsequently developed into his famous ‘Eurasian heartland thesis’, marginalizes South America, yet his ideas have attracted considerable interest there, including interpretations (and fantasies) of a ‘South American heartland’. This paper examines the reception of Mackinder's ideas in Latin American geopolitics and how his heartland thesis was adapted for the South American context. It traces the roots of this adaptation in earlier South American geopolitical writing, and examines these ideas of counter‐insurgency policies and global geopolitical strategies, analysing their relationship to military and anticommunist perspectives.

A ‘Risky Westward Turn’? Putin's 9–11 Script and Ordinary Russians

SINCE THE TERRORIST ATTACKS OF 11 September 2001 Russia has played a key part in the efforts of the Bush administration to build an international coalition to conduct the war on terrorism. In the hours immediately after the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre President Vladimir Putin was the first foreign leader to speak with President Bush and to personally offer his condolences.' Putin also dispatched a telegram to Washington DC conveying 'anger and indignation' against the 'series of barbaric terrorist acts directed against innocent people'.2 In a national television address later that day he described the 9-11 attacks as 'an unprecedented act of aggression on the part of international terrorism'. The attacks, he claimed, were not a localised American drama but an event that 'goes beyond national borders'. Terrorism, Putin declared, was the 'plague of the twenty first century' and 'Russia knows first hand what terrorism is. So, we understand as well as anyone the feelings of the American people'. Broadening the common identification with America into a transcendent community, he described 9-11 as 'a brazen challenge to the whole of humanity, at least to civilised humanity'. This common identity formation and divide-terrorist barbarism versus 'civilised humanity'-led Putin to declare that 'we entirely and fully share and experience your pain. We support you'.3 Putin later declared a national minute of silence in commemoration of the victims of the attacks. Less than two weeks after this first reaction Putin went on national television again and articulated what some have described as Russia defining its 'strategic choice'.4 The Russian Federation, he stated, 'has been fighting international terrorism for a long time' and 'has repeatedly urged the international community to join efforts'. The forums for those efforts were 'international agencies and institutions', most especially 'the UN and the UN Security Council'. Putin outlined a series of specific measures that Russia would adopt to aid the emergent American-led coalition against the Taliban government of Afghanistan. The Russian government would supply intelligence about 'the infrastructure and locations of international terrorists' and would 'make the Russian Federation's air space available for the through-flights of planes carrying humanitarian cargo to the area of that anti-terrorist operation'. In a noteworthy break from traditional Russian geopolitical thinking about controlling the Eurasian Heartland, he accepted the establishment of bases by America and its allies in Central Asia for operations against 'international terrorism'.5

The Eurasian heartland: a continental perspective on Y-chromosome diversity.

The nonrecombining portion of the human Y chromosome has proven to be a valuable tool for the study of population history. The maintenance of extended haplotypes characteristic of particular geographic regions, despite extensive admixture, allows complex demographic events to be deconstructed. In this study we report the frequencies of 23 Y-chromosome biallelic polymorphism haplotypes in 1,935 men from 49 Eurasian populations, with a particular focus on Central Asia. These haplotypes reveal traces of historical migrations, and provide an insight into the earliest patterns of settlement of anatomically modern humans on the Eurasian continent. Central Asia is revealed to be an important reservoir of genetic diversity, and the source of at least three major waves of migration leading into Europe, the Americas, and India. The genetic results are interpreted in the context of Eurasian linguistic patterns.

Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia

From the romantic conflicts of the Victorian Great Game to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, Tournament of Shadows traces the struggle for control of Central Asia and Tibet from the 1830s to the present. . The original Great Game (18001917), the clandestine struggle between Russia and Britain for mastery of Central Asia, has long been regarded as one of the greatest geopolitical conflicts in history. The prize, control of the vast Eurasian heartland, was believed by some to be key to world dominion. Teeming with improbable drama and exaggerated tensions, the conflict featured soldiers, mystics, archeologists, and spies, among them some of historys most colorful characters. While the original Great Game ended with the Russian Revolution, the geopolitical struggles in Central Asia continue to the present day. Beginning with the soldiers and propagandists of the Victorian era, Tournament of Shadows chronicles nearly two centuries of conflict in the Eurasian heartland, conflict that has spawned wars in Afghanistan, the invasion of Tibet, and economic scrambles for control of Caspian oil. Karl E. Meyer, formerly of the New York Times, and his wife, Shareen Blair Brysac, formerly of CBS News, have created a vivid narrative that brings to life the engaging personalities in this colorful conflict: Russias greatest explorer, Nicholas Przhevalsky, who died trying to shoot his way to Lhasa; Nicholas Roerich, the Russian artist and mystic who searched for fabled Shambhala under the patronage of Henry Wallace, the American Secretary of Agriculture; Philadelphia socialite Brooke Dolan, like a figure out of Hemingway, who reached Lhasa as an OSS operative; SS Captain Ernst Schfer, who led an expedition to Tibet in the late 1930s in an attempt to confirm Nazi racial theories; William Rockhill, the first American to befriend and advise a Dalai Lama; Sarat Chandra Das, the Bengali explorer who went to Lhasa in the secret service of the Raj. Revealing a wealth of new material that has never before been published, Meyer and Brysac have written a sweeping history of a riveting tournament, a two-century joust with political and economic implications that remain as topical today as this mornings newspaper.

Dreams of the Eurasian Heartland: The Reemergence of Geopolitics

Few modern ideologies are as whimsically all-encompassing, as romantically obscure, as intellectually sloppy, and as likely to start a third world war as the theory of geopolitics. Popularized at the beginning of the twentieth century by an eccentric British geographer, Sir Haiford Mackinder, geopolitics posits that the earth will forever be divided into two naturally antagonistic spheres: land and sea. In this model, the natural repository for global land power is the Eurasian ?the territory of the former Russian empire. Whoever controls the heart land, wrote Mackinder, will forever seek to dominate the Eurasian land mass and ultimately the world. Unsurprisingly, this theory of geopolitics has not gone unnoticed in the heartland itself. Today, in the shadow of the Kremlin's spires, geopolitical theory has a fast growing set of devotees. Many Russian intellectuals, who once thought their homeland's victory over the world would be the inevitable result of history, now pin their hope for Russia's return to greatness on a theory that is, in a way, the opposite of dialectical materialism. Victory is now to be found in geography, rather than history; in space, rather than time. A geopolitical theory called Eurasianism has become the common focus of Russia's red-brown coalition?the alliance of