The Great Powers for Central Asian Security — rom the Structural Realism Perspective
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
Lee, Lin
Abstract
The collapse of the Soviet Union has tremendously changed the international system. On this new world stage, the geopolitical space comprised of the fifteen former Soviet republics is of considerably strategic values. Zbigniew Brzezinski hence named it “The Eurasian Balkans” to stand out the national and geopolitical complexity and importance of this region. The Central Asia is from many strategists’ view the heartland of the Eurasian Balkans, and to achieve the predominance in this area is the key point to become world hegemony. However, due to being the geographical inner land and historically being colonized by the Soviet Union, Central Asia had had been hard reached until the end of the Cold War. he independence of the five countries, including Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, contributes to the power vacuum status in Central Asia. Among other things, the fruitful oil and gas resources are also of great interest to many countries. Sliding the time capsule to the 21st century, since the September 11 attack the Central Asia has further become the front-line of fighting terrorism. Therefore, without Soviet governance anymore, the geopolitical, energy and non-traditional security factors of the time play an important role as vital nation interests in appealing to the great powers to this region.he five countries though comprise contemporary political central Asian region, they nevertheless may wield only limited influence on the regional security. The internal reason is that they are still at the stage of economically and politically transition. It is going to be difficult for them to maintain regional security before reaching certain development. The external one is that the geopolitical, oil & gas and the non-traditional security interests have been accelerating the race among the United States, Russia and China. In other words, it is the Great Powers which currently dominate the security and stability of the Central Asia. ccording to theories of International Relations, Structural Realism emphasizes the study of international system and nation states. The core statement is: the structure of international system will be influential in the outcome of the nation states, i.e. in an anarchic society, the state behavior is constrained by the structure. Furthermore, it is only the great powers contribute to the formation of the international system, hence the allocation, either unipolar, bipolar or multipolar, of the main state power counts for the possibility of conflicts. he thesis focuses on the United States, Russia and China’s policy in Central Asia after Cold War. The observation on the one hand will be divided into three parts: geopolitical, gas & oil energy and non-traditional security interests. On the other hand, to analyze issues concerned, Structural Realism will be applied as the research approach. The thesis also explores the influence of great powers on the security of Central Asia. “Theory of Balance of Power” and “Power Transition Theory” are main tools to examine whether the existence of this three states are going to bring a more stable or conflicting Central Asia in the future.
Subjects
Central Asia
the Great Powers
Structural Realism
Balance of Power Theory
Power Transition Theory
Conflict
Regional Security
Geopolitics
Oil & Gas Energy
Non-Traditional Security
SDGs
Type
thesis
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