Micro-Geopolitics of Central Asia: A Uzbekistan Perspective

Everything is geopolitical in Central Asia where the newly independent state (NIS) Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are located. In other words, the major international political events in the region and most fateful political turns in regional developments bear, or are saturated with, geopolitical essence. However, contemporary geopolitics points to the necessity of revisiting the basis of classical geopolitical theory, which proved unable to explain and foresee the world political processes of that time, especially the collapse of the Soviet Union and geopolitical implications of that event.

The NIS – members of the CIS – in their endeavour to take full advantage of independence often manoeuvre within both the CIS and the international system. As a result, Central Asia is facing the by-product of the ‘Great Game’, which can be called the ‘Small Game’ between and among five countries of Central Asia – a phenomenon peculiar to micro-geopolitics. The new strategy is required from Uzbekistan in such conditions implying: democratic geopolitics, a new security outlook and a region-building goal-setting.