Abstract
Once a central point of competition in the 19th-century “Great Game” between the Russian and British Empires, with Afghanistan as the “pull-and-tug” buffer zone, the Greater Central and South Asia regions have once again become the theater for a Great Power Competition (GPC). Vying for influence, resources, and interests are the modern Great Powers, namely the United States, China, Russia, and the Regional Powers, namely Iran, India, Pakistan, Turkey, and the Central Asian and Gulf countries. The rival powers of Russia and China, in particular, continue to compete with the United States for hegemony through economics and other non-military soft-power means. Despite the high-stakes complexity and global implications, no consensus has yet been reached on a conceptual underpinning for the GPC that might effectively guide the U.S. strategic engagement in the region. This chapter attempts to fill this gap by defining and conceptualizing GPC with a focus on geoeconomics in the Central and South Asia region. The chapter furthermore recommends the U.S. transition to the New Silk Road Initiative’s soft-power strategy in the CASA region to preserve the hard-fought gains of the last two decades in Afghanistan and advance U.S. relevance and influence in this critical Great Power battleground. Geoeconomic and New Economic Geography theories support the recommendation.
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Farhadi, A. (2021). Conceptualizing the Great Power Competition and U.S. Geoeconomic Strategy for the Central and South Asia (CASA) Region. In: Farhadi, A., Masys, A.J. (eds) The Great Power Competition Volume 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64473-4_2
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