The Great Game 2.0" in Central Asia (the beginning: 1990-2000)

The article deals with the development of the Central Asian sub-system of international relations in the first decade after the end of the bipolar confrontation. The growth of state interest to Central Asia of such countries as Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia is specially noted. This work studies the formation of the Central Asian direction of foreign policy among Islamic actors through the prism of geopolitical analysis. The focus of the work is on the identification of the idealistic and pragmatic determinants of the foreign policy of Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia during the implementation of the Central Asian vector of foreign policy. It may be noted that in the last decade of the 20th century geopolitical motives occupied a dominant position in the foreign policy of Islamic countries interested in the CAR. During the 1990s Saudi Arabia formed two lines of cooperation with Central Asian countries. The first line is "geo-religious", which in the public diplomacy sphere started to promote the development of the religious revival of the peoples of Central Asia and their accession to the global Muslim community led by SA. The second line is economic, where the share of Arab capital and business in the regional markets increased in order to advance the interests of Saudi Arabia. Iran's foreign policy in Central Asia received three major reasons: a) "geo-economic", the development of economic projects in the field of transport and energy for the unification of markets of Central Asia and the Persian Gulf; b) "civilizational", the reactualization of the historical involvement of the peoples of Central Asia in the Persian cultural and historical values; с) "real-political", the formation of a loyal regime of interaction with Russia and China in the region as a counterweight to the Western anti-Iranian policy. Turkey formed its own foreign policy motivations in Central Asia which combined both economic interests to the Caspian and Central Asian hydrocarbons and strategic ethnolinguistic projects for the establishment of a regional center of power headed by Turkey on the basis of the Turkic peoples kinship. Among all international actors in Central Asia, the Muslim powers have shown the greatest activity and consistency in the implementation of the Central Asian direction. Because of this renewed Islamic interest of Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the problems of Central Asia firmly fixed in the forefront of the international agenda by the beginning of the new millennium. The dynamics of this competition between the states in the region gives reason to draw parallels with the historical events called "The Great Game".

Keywords

Authors

References