Central Asia Security in the Post 9/11 era: Challenges for Russia
Central Asia Security in the Post 9/11 era: Challenges for Russia

Summary/Abstract: In light of the 9/11 attacks, the article attempts to examine the security issues in Central Asia as well as the challenges facing Russia when the US was stationed there to fight an anti-terror war in Afghanistan from 2001– 2014. Central Asia has served as a centre of global trade, a hub of world culture, with significant contributions to intellectual achievements. Ten years after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the 9/11 incident changed the course of global politics. Terrorism emerged as a unified threat to the whole world, and Central Asia rose to prominence in world politics owing to its borders with landlocked Afghanistan. Central Asia was a former part of Russia with a deep-rooted history in its security, politics, and socio-economic development. Russia’s anti-terrorism policy was unambiguous. It employed all legal means to stop or respond to terrorist activities, opposed terrorism in all its forms, and regarded international terrorism as a threat to its national security. Three Central Asian nations could support the US in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in the post-9/11 security situation. Russia extended full support to the US in opening air bases in Central Asian states that had borders with Afghanistan. The US relations with Central Asian states began just a decade before the Twin Towers attack, but Russian historical ties gave it a deeper understanding of and insight into the regional dynamics. The paper is based on the hypothesis that Central Asia and Russia supported the US in its war endeavours, and at the same time the US was busy reducing the Russian role in this region. However, Central Asian states could not abandon Russia at the cost of strategic cooperation with the US.

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