Pepe Escobar — How Astana is leading the way in Central Asia

Backgrounder on newly emergent Central Asia aka "the stans." The area is important for understanding geopolitics, geostrategy, and the future development of the global economy.

Central Asia is the "sleeper" in the unfolding history of the 21st century. But it's not yet even a blip on the screen for most in the West, other than the elites, multinational corporations, and the militaries, which regard it as a prize to be captured, and certainly not lost to adversaries. It is a key piece in neoliberalism, neo-imperialism, and neocolonialism.

While not mentioned in this post, it is also relevant to US interest in Afghanistan and Iraq-Syria, as well adversarial toward Russia, China and Iran, which surround Central Asia. It also explains why the US would be greatly hampered by "losing" Turkey, which is also adjacent to the region, where many Turkic people also live. India is also a factor in the mix.

Obviously, the US and West are disadvantaged if only by distance. Moreover, the West is viewed in the region as historically imperialistic and liberalism is not in favor in countries where Islam (real traditionalism) is dominant.

Asia Times
How Astana is leading the way in Central Asia

Pepe Escobar