Threats And Challenges Of The US Central Asia Policy

Central Asia is located in the middle of the Eurasian,has abundant natural resources,and its geographical advantages attract countries such as the United States,Russia and China to get involved in the “great game”.The US Central Asia policy has been changing over 20 years after Central Asia's independence.However,the US has always had the interests of safety,energy and democracy in Central Asia,as well as the strategic goals of containing external forces,integrating Central Asia into the western system and shaping the development direction of this region.The United States began to implement the strategy of "the new silk road" in Central Asia since 2011.This plan regards Afghanistan as the center to integrate Central Asia and South Asia,and aims to strengthen economic engagement and promote regional security and stability through developing regional trade,enhancing energy cooperation and improving the construction of transport network.The US Central Asia policy has made a few achievements in some fields such as the economic and trade development,energy cooperation etc.However,it still has limitations and constraints,facing with many threats and challenges.First of all,from the perspective of the central Asia inside,the region has many problems of development: Central Asia has deeply divided;There are serious and complex security threats including ethnic conflicts,enclave and border disputes in the Fergana valley,a series of problems caused by climate change and loss of water;Weak governance;The Lack of economic and trade mechanism;Less developed democracy and human rights;The threat combinations of radicalism,terrorism and the regional penetration of “IS” etc.Secondly,from the view of external factors,the US Central Asia policy is confronted with the challenges of Russia and China.Russia regards Central Asia as the priority of its foreign policy in the region.Relying on its power and the economic,political,security and historical ties with central Asia,Russia plays the leading role in engaging Central Asian affairs.Meanwhile,China has implemented the mutually beneficial and win-win policy in central Asia.China also plays a rising role and has become a comprehensive public goods provider in the region.Finally,from the Angle of the United States itself,its Central Asia policy has inner contradictions and lacks of the support of implementation.Seeing Afghanistan as the center in the US Central Asia policy caused weightlessness and disorders;Relying on the bilateral approach and taking advantages of multilateral organizations created the security dilemma;Policies which are not transparent covered the actual contradictions;Limited resources and budgets restrained the policy implementation.The analysis above could have some implications for China in cooperation with central Asia and the building of “One Belt and One Road”: China needs to focus on security cooperation;To upgrade the "software" of economic cooperation with central Asia and improve Central Asia's governance;to link “One Belt and One Road” and "the new silk road" by considering Afghanistan,Pakistan and Iran factors;to view Russia dialectically,unite Russia and keep the flexible and practical cooperation with central Asia.