In the News: 10/8/2012

I have updated the site with a set of links found in the sidebar to the right. These are links to sites or authors that are relevant to the interests of this blog. Cheers. 

• A retired Pakistani General gives his thoughts on the Great Game and the future of Pakistani relations in the region in this interview from the Voice of Russia. Considering the potential triumvirate forming with regards to the powers eyeing Central Asia, media from Russia and China must be considered in order to form a more well-rounded perspective with as little bias as possible. Other regional interests of the Game are discussed in this article where the divisions created by the partition of India are alive and well, unfortunately.
• This EurasiaNet.org commentary on the Northern Distribution Network (NDN) of NATO coalition forces in Afghanistan provides a current status of the supply chain as well as political implications of the scheduled draw-down of forces in 2014. Full analysis of the NDN by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, although it is from 2010, can be found here or a direct link can be found in the sidebar.
• Nicholas J. Spykman has been dubbed “The Godfather of Containment” for his geostrategic work outlining Cold War containment principles of Soviet forces in The Geography of the Peace. Since I cannot legally link to a work that is still protected by copyright, I present to you this scholarly article that considers Spykman’s other works and their implications. Spykman, Mackinder, and Huntington’s geopolitical/geostrategic theories will all be discussed in a future post and I’m hoping to add Kitsikis’ Intermediate Region if I can find an English version. Mackinder’s “Pivot” has been added to the sidebar.

Spykman’s Eurasian Conflict Zones

Central Asian Roundup

• China is using its most powerful means as a path to (or through) Central Asia, and that is economics. The resource-rich Fergana Valley is a “knot of difficult problems”. Kyrgyzstan’s flirting with the US appears to be all but finished since it is increasing its dependence on Russia. Update: Speaking of flirting. Russia and Kazakhstan are commited to bilateral trade but may disagree on a Eurasian Parliament.
• I have no choice but to appreciate a writer who can quote Shakespeare while discussing Sino-Russian relations, so I give you another M K Bhadrakumar article covering Tajikistan as well as Chinese and US interests relating to the small, landlocked, Persian-speaking, former Soviet Socialist Republic that is still very much authoritarian.
• Finally, I wanted to link to the article that began my interest in the Central Asian region and it’s most interesting politics which was written by F. William Engdahl. This is a repost of the 2010 article since I can’t find it on Engdahl’s site or Global Research in one piece.

Next up – Regions & Resources: A Central Asian Primer. A historical context will be provided along with a current status of each Central Asian state’s resources, trade relations, infrastructure and political orientation. The literature review for the project will likely be ready about the same time and I will use that for a post covering the geopolitical theories that I will be using.  They should ready sometime later this month and until then I will post news as it becomes relevant.