Scholarly record

THE ROLE OF ISLAMIC STATES IN FORMING CENTRAL ASIA REGION IN THE POST-COLD WAR WORLD

D. Borisov, S. Chirikhin, S. Klyuchanskaya, E. Savkovich, A. Serbina

Abstract

The article is aimed to follow the process of establishment and development of national approach of such international actors as Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia to the new international subsystem within Central Asia taking place at the first decade after the Soviet Union collapse. The authors focus on analysis of detailed and pragmatic fundamentals of political drivers of Islamic countries’ implementation of the foreign policy course in Central Asia. The work focuses on the identification of the idealistic and pragmatic motives of Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia during the implementation of the Central Asian vector of foreign policy. It may be noted that in the last decade of the 20th century geopolitical motives occupied a dominant position in the foreign policy of Islamic countries. During the 1990s Saudi Arabia formed two lines of cooperation with Central Asian countries. The first line is “geo-religious” as promotion the development of the religious revival of the peoples of Central Asia and their accession to the global Muslim community led by SA. The second line is economic as rising Arab capital and business on the regional markets in order to advance the interests of Saudi Arabia. Iran’s foreign policy in Central Asia proceeded from three major reasons. “Geo-economic” is the development of economic projects in the field of transport and energy for the unification of markets of Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. “Civilizational” is the reactualization of the historical involvement of the peoples of Central Asia in the Persian cultural and historical values. “Real-political” is the formation of a loyal regime of interaction with Russia and China in the region as a counterweight to the Western anti-Iranian policy. Turkey's foreign policy in Central Asia was based on economic interests conserning the Caspian and Central Asian hydrocarbons and regional lidership as head of Turkic peoples kinship project. The Muslim powers have shown the greatest activity and consistency in the implementation of the Central Asian direction among all international actors in the region. This renewed Islamic interest to the problems of Central Asia promoted to forming The Central Asia regional complex with own agenda in Post-Cold war world.

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