Afghanistan in the whirlwind of US-Russia rivalry in Central Asia. (29th November 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Baiza, Yahia
• Other Names: Schetter Conrad reviewer.; Dzarasov Ruslan S. reviewer.
• Is Part Of: Cambridge journal of Eurasian studies. Volume 1(2017)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 13
• Publication Date: 2017-11-29
• Subjects: United States -- Russia -- Central Asia -- Afghanistan -- theories of conflict; Eurasia -- Periodicals; 950
• DOI: 10.22261/CJES.4ZEWGU
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2514-4634

Abstract

Abstract: Afghanistan has been the political and military focal points of the United States (US) and Russia (formerly the Soviet Union) for over a half a century. Initially, from the 1950s through to the 1970s, the superpowers competed for influence through educational, economic and technical development projects. They used their international development aid as a strategic tool to penetrate the country's political elite circles to create a space for their political and strategic influence. The nature of development aid then changed to a series of proxy military conflicts throughout the 1980s, which also changed the fate of Afghanistan from that of a developing to that of a conflict country. The current US occupation of Afghanistan (October 2001-present) is the latest in the cycle of conflict and rivalry between the US and Russia in Afghanistan and Central Asia. Against this background, this article presents an analysis of how (i) the US and Russia create a context and a situation in which they develop, advance, and implement their political and military discourses and strategic concepts, intending to influence each other's areas of strategic interests; (ii) the different components of conflicts and violence are interconnected with one another; and (iii) their rivalry for strategic influence in Afghanistan and the broader region of Central Asia triggered a cycle of conflict and a series of continuing proxy wars in Afghanistan. This article applies Johan Galtung's theories of conflicts as the broader theoretical framework. The developed framework combines Galtung's three theories of conflict, namely the ABC triangle of conflict, triangle of violence and triangle of peace strategy (Galtung, 1967, 1996). The findings of this article demonstrate that both the US and Russia fight each other in Afghanistan as well as in the wider Central Asia region by supporting and maintaining their satellite countries and periphery elites in power and negotiate each other's spheres of strategic influence on that basis. This article demonstrates that while this approach provides political leverage and strategic gains in the short and medium period, there are significant losses for both parties. While Afghanistan suffers from the continuing political game, the war in Afghanistan is also making a lasting impact on both the US and Russia as well as all other regional powers that are directly and indirectly involved in this conflict.