The struggle between Russia and Great Britain over Central Asia in the nineteenth century was the original "great game." But in the past quarter century, a new "great game" has emerged, pitting America against a newly aggressive Russia and a resource-hungry China, all struggling for influence over the same region, now one of the most volatile areas in the world: the long border region stretching from Iran through Pakistan to Kashmir. In
Great Games, Local Rules, Alexander Cooley, one of America's most respected international relations scholars, explores the dynamics of the new competition for control of the region since 9/11. All three great
powers have crafted strategies to increase their power in the area, which includes Afghanistan and the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. Each nation is pursuing important goals: basing rights for the US, access to natural resources for the Chinese, and increased political influence for the Russians. However, overlooked in all of the talk about this new great game is fact that the Central Asian governments have proven
themselves critical agents in their own right, establishing local rules for external power involvement that serve to fend off foreign interest. As a result, despite a decade of intense interest from the United
States, Russia, and China, Central Asia remains a collection of segmented states, and the external competition has merely reinforced the sovereign authority of the individual Central Asian governments. A careful and surprising analysis of how small states interact with great powers in a vital region, Great Games, Local Rules greatly advances our understanding of how global politics actually works in the contemporary era.
The struggle between Russia and Great Britain over Central Asia in the nineteenth century was the original "great game." But in the past quarter century, a new "great game" has emerged, pitting America against a newly aggressive Russia and a resource-hungry China, all struggling for influence over the same region, now one of the most volatile areas in the world: the long border region stretching from Iran through Pakistan to Kashmir. In
Great Games, Local Rules, Alexander Cooley, one of America's most respected international relations scholars, explores the dynamics of the new competition for control of the region since 9/11. All three great
powers have crafted strategies to increase their power in the area, which includes Afghanistan and the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. Each nation is pursuing important goals: basing rights for the US, access to natural resources for the Chinese, and increased political influence for the Russians. However, overlooked in all of the talk about this new great game is fact that the Central Asian governments have proven
themselves critical agents in their own right, establishing local rules for external power involvement that serve to fend off foreign interest. As a result, despite a decade of intense interest from the United
States, Russia, and China, Central Asia remains a collection of segmented states, and the external competition has merely reinforced the sovereign authority of the individual Central Asian governments. A careful and surprising analysis of how small states interact with great powers in a vital region, Great Games, Local Rules greatly advances our understanding of how global politics actually works in the contemporary era.
Chapter 1: The New Multipolar Politics of Influence in Central
Asia
Chapter 2: Local Rules: The Origins and Politics of Central Asian
Regime Survival
Chapter 3: Washington's Strategy: Juggling Interests and Values on
the Road to Afghanistan
Chapter 4: Moscow's Strategy: The Quest for a Privileged Role
Chapter 5: Beijing's Strategy: The SCO, Xinjiang and China's Great
Leap Westward
Chapter 6: Anti-Terrorism, Democratization and Human Rights
Chapter 7: Geopolitical Competition and Political Stability: The
Case of Kyrgyzstan
Chapter 8: Corruption and Governance: Competition and Collusion in
Contracting
Chapter 9: Regional Integration: So Many Proposals, So Little
Cooperation
Chapter 10: Conclusion: Central Asia's Multipolar Politics in
Comparative Perspective
Appendix 1: Laws Passed after Color Revolutions that Introduced New
Restrictions on NGOs
and the Media
Appendix 2: Election Monitor Assessments, ODIHR/SCO/CIS
Alexander Cooley is the Tow Professor for Distinguished Scholars and Practitioners in the Department of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University. His books include Contracting States, Logics of Hierarchy, and Base Politics.
"The borderlands of Central Asia are plagued with terrorism,
poverty and an immense power struggle for the land mass of Asia.
The region is ripe for large scale economic and political unrest.
Cooley combines scholarship with expertise and great skill as a
writer to give us by far the best analysis of Central Asia during
the past decadeELA well-conceived and comprehensive work."--Ahmed
Rashid, author of Taliban and Pakistan on the Brink
"Central Asia remains the enigmatic heartland of geopolitics. As
Alex Cooley's important book demonstrates, no great power-the U.S.,
Russia nor China-has yet mastered the art of
negotiating with a host of crafty patrimonial regimes who dictate
resources, contracts and access as much as the reverse. This is a
region that must, therefore, be understood from the inside out,
rather than during the first iteration of the Great Game in the
19th century. As it did with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Central
Asia could still create a perfect geopolitical storm as ossified
political systems undergo transition, American bases are vacated,
and energy pipelines extend in all
directions. The 21st century Great Game will have both new players
and new rules."--Parag Khanna, author of The Second World: Empires
and Influence in the New Global Order and How to Run the World:
Charting a
Course to the Next Renaissance
"Alex Cooley knows his stuff. With objective and penetrating
research and analysis, Cooley peels away the fog and shadow that
have always obscured this prime geopolitical region."--Steve
LeVine, author of The Oil and the Glory
"A book with multi-faceted value. Great Games, Local Rules provides
in-depth analysis of a key yet understudied region, and does so
informed by history, imbued with international relations theory,
and bearing on key policy issues, all from a well-respected
scholar."--Bruce W. Jentleson, Professor of Public Policy and
Political Science, Duke University
"The field of Central Asian studies needs this book. Cliché-ridden
thinking blights much popular commentary on the region and the
putative competition under way there among China, Russia, and the
United States. Cooley brings firsthand research and a detached,
sensible eye to a complex, fast-moving subject..."--Foreign
Affairs
"...an exceptional and critical analysis. Cooley's book offers the
prospect of a new research agenda to study the international
politics of Central Asia in terms of both its
powerful and misleading discourses and its corrupt and profitable
practices. It is an important book that deserves to be widely read
among scholars of IR who seek to make sense of what 'multipolarity'
means today."--International Affairs
"...wide-ranging and compelling..."--Survival
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