The New Great Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia

Crude oil, once seen as a wealth-creating blessing for mankind, is fast turning into the devils tears. The struggle to control the worlds remaining energy reserves increasingly culminates in bloody conflicts and the killing of innocent civilians, with the war in Iraq only being the latest example. If we started to have a fearless, insightful and exacting portrait of a new battleground in the violent politics and passion of oil: Central Asia, known as the "black hole of the earth" for much of the last century. Because this region contains the worlds largest amount of untapped oil and gas resources. It is estimated that there might be as much as one hundred billion barrels of crude oil in the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan alone. That is a reason that the American presence and influence in the region expanded rapidly after 9/11 and the United States become pitted in this struggle against Russia, China, and Iran, all competing to dominate the Caspian region, its resources and pipeline routes. In order to win this new game and achieve their interest the U.S., China, and Russia are taking a different approach treating this region, like a chessboard. For instance: The American strategic approach has been most clearly laid out by Secretary of State Clinton, who last year in Chennai, India told the audience of America's desire to "work together to create a new Silk Road, an international web and network of economic and transit connections. While For China, whose overriding priority is to develop Central Asia to help stimulate prosperity and stability in its restive Xinjiang province, the approach of tying the region together using trade and transport links is an old one. Russia, on the other hand, has taken an approach to the region that seeks to build on previous glory. Building on the already extant customs union that Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia formed in 2009.