Foul play in the Great Game

[mom cat]

Jul 13, 2005



Foul play in the Great Game
By M K Bhadrakumar

In a landmark speech at Johns Hopkins University in 1997, the then-US deputy secretary of state, Strobe Talbott, said: "For the last several years, it has been fashionable to proclaim or at least to predict, a replay of the 'Great Game' in the Caucasus and Central Asia. The implication of course is that the driving dynamic of the region, fueled and lubricated by oil, will be the competition of great powers to the disadvantage of the people who live there.

"Our goal is to avoid and to actively discourage that atavistic outcome. In pondering and practicing the geopolitics of oil, let's make sure that we are thinking in terms appropriate to the 21st century and not the 19th century. Let's leave Rudyard Kipling and George McDonald Fraser where they belong - on the shelves of historical fiction. The Great Game, which starred Kipling's Kim and Fraser's Flashman, was very much of the zero-sum variety. What we want to help bring about is just the opposite, we want to see all responsible players in the Caucasus and Central Asia be winners."

The chancelleries in the region, and indeed all chroniclers of Central Asian politics, studied Talbott's speech with interest. Talbott's erudition as a scholar-diplomat in Russian language and literature, history and politics was worthy of the highest respect. Of course, the Bill Clinton presidency was at its high noon and it was the first time that US policy towards the "newly-independent states" of the Central Asian region had been spelt out authoritatively.

Yet, eight years on, precisely what Talbott was keen on avoiding seems to be unfolding in Central Asia. The geopolitics in Central Asia have lately begun to engender rivalries. The summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held in Astana on July 5-6 draws attention to it. The summit's call on the US-led "anti-terrorist coalition" to define a deadline on its military presence on the territory of SCO member countries is a strong signal. Washington tried to deflect SCO's call by claiming that it was guided by bilateral agreements with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/GG13Ag01.html