The Specter of Afghanistan: Security in Central Asia

The Specter of Afghanistan: Security in Central Asia is a book co-authored by Kilill Nourzhano and Amin Saikal. The book is published by I.B. Tauris on February 11, 2021. The book contains five chapters and 230 pages.

Major Argument of the Book

The sense of security is pivotal to understand world politics. Security is the basic ingredient of the sovereignty of a country, which is the major theme of the book titled “The Specter of Afghanistan: Security in Central Asia,” as its title suggests. The book has a particular focus on Afghanistan’s instability and its impact on the foreign policy of the Central Asian states: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan since 2014. Afghanistan has ethnic, linguistic, and cultural resemblances with these Central Asian states. Although Afghanistan shares its borders with the Central Asian states, these states and Afghanistan mainly remain like strangers. According to the authors, Central Asian states are more concerned about the potential threat rather than the actual threat.

Hegemony or Survival; America’s Conquest for Global Dominanc

Afghanistan has been in a state of war for several decades. According to the authors, Washington’s major narrative of the Afghan mission in 2001 was to eradicate terrorism and bring peace and stability to Afghanistan. The intervention of major powers in Afghanistan has created an alarming situation in the Central Asian States. The authors have identified various forums’ perceptions of threats, such as terrorism, drug smuggling, fighting spillover from Afghanistan, refugee crises, cross-border ethnic fidelity, and risk of involvement in superpower rivalry in the region.

Analysis and Conclusion

The book provides various paradigms of threats, their perceptions, and the response of various Central Asian states towards these threats. The book also evaluates the foreign policies of major powers like the USA, Russia, and China toward Central Asia, keeping the Afghan factor in mind. It is a well-researched book and has the potential to become an important source for readers generally and for scholars particularly those who want to understand this crucial Eurasian region.

Russia felt threatened by the U.S. presence in the region. While China is also mindful of the situation, as the spillover effects of terrorism and extremism can easily affect its Xinjiang province, where China started suppressing the minority Muslim population under the label of the U.S.-led War on Terror since 9/11.

An unstable Afghanistan is also a threat to the entire Central Asian region. The CARs initially played an important role in helping the U.S. establish bases in the region and ensured the smooth supply of logistics. However, in the post-2014 scenario, the U.S. has been expelled from the bases, and Afghanistan is seen as a security threat to the region. The CARs have strengthened their boundaries with Afghanistan, as terrorism, extremism, narcotics trafficking, illegal migration, and geopolitical competition present serious security threats.

In order to solve the Afghan Problem and eradicate the threats, CARs have tried their best to help Kabul. Diplomatically, they have raised voices in all forums, including the UN Security Council, for the Afghan issue to be resolved peacefully. They have stressed both the government in Kabul and insurgents, particularly the Taliban, to start intra-Afghan peace talks, and they have reached out to both sides.

Central Asia is well embedded among its independent states and shares borders with Russia, China, and Afghanistan. Due to close linguistics and ethnic associations of the inhabitants of this region, the danger of security issue in one state can escalate very rapidly across the whole region. No country can independently counter or eradicate the actual or potential threat.

According to the authors, the role of the big three powers cannot be undermined. The U.S. needed the CARs for operations in Afghanistan. Similarly, Russia felt threatened by the U.S. presence in the region. China is also mindful of the situation, as the spillover effects of terrorism and extremism can easily affect its Xinjiang province, where China started suppressing the minority Muslim population under the label of the U.S.-led War on Terror since 9/11. Meanwhile, Russia alleges that the U.S. provided support to ISIS-K to destabilize the CARs and, eventually, Russia, whereas the U.S. accuses Russia of providing support to the Taliban insurgents against the U.S.

The book provides deep insight into contemporary security issues in the Central Asian region. Central Asia is well embedded among its independent states and shares borders with Russia, China, and Afghanistan. Due to the close linguistics and ethnic associations of the inhabitants of this region, the danger of security issues in one state can escalate very rapidly across the whole region. No country can independently counter or eradicate the actual or potential threat. The authors rightly propagated the need for a collective securitization process in Central Asia. In a nutshell, the book provides forward-looking knowledge about the future developments in the region concerning economic and security matters. According to ongoing political debates by prominent political scientists, the Eurasian region has the potential to dominate the world.

It is a well-researched and comprehensive book on Afghanistan, CARs, and the big three powers. However, it is not inappropriate to say that the conclusion of the book is too lengthy and it contains information which was not detailed in the chapters. A separate chapter should have been devoted to the peace talks for the settlement of the Afghan dispute.