China-Russia Competition Opens A Door For America

Central Asian nations need money and security, and Washington can help keep the peace

By Jeffrey Mankoff and Leland R. Miller
Monday, May 3, 2010

For the past two decades, many in the West have worried about the growth of Russo-Chinese influence over the newly independent states of Central Asia. Through the mutual-security group called the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and in scores of joint military exercises, counter-terrorism maneuvers and energy projects, the two great powers collaborated closely in order to keep these buffer states peaceful, compliant and relatively free of American penetration. Lately, however, a perceptible shift has overtaken the region. In 2010, the biggest threat to China and Russia's Central Asian interests may now be each other.

This weakening of Russia's traditional influence is changing the fundamental dynamics of the region, encouraging Central Asian leaders to become less deferential to the Kremlin. In August 2008, for example, following Russia's invasion of Georgia, the Central Asian states followed China's lead in refusing to recognize the Russia-backed separatist states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Yet the other beneficiary of this increased Chino-Russian tension has been the United States, which many Central Asians would like to see play a greater role in the region to balance Russian and Chinese influence.

(From Forbes.com)