«Big Game» with unknown rules: World politics and Central Asia, 2008

This monograph analyzes the structure of international relations in Post-Soviet Central Asia and Caspian Sea region. In the first part of the book the author studies historical evolution of this international region and assesses the influence of history on present situation. He also analyzes the influence of uncertainty and unpredictability of the situation in the region on present day policies of major international actors. Combinations of different policy instruments (military, economical, soft power) used by major groups of international actors and different types of their strategies are studied.

The second part of the book contains detailed study of Russian, American, European, Turkish, Iranian, Pakistani, Saudi, Chinese, Japanese, South Korean and Indian policies in the region. Complex combinations of common and diverging interests and different types of unstable ad hoc coalitions in different periods and on different issues are studied. Special attention is paid to combinations of interests and policies around different routes of resource (mostly, oil and gas) transportation routes.