China, The United States, and the Future of Central Asia

These “timely . . . high quality essays . . . identify . . . emerging governance, security and economic challenges that Central Asia poses to Washington and Beijing” (Alexander Cooley, author of Great Games, Local Rules: The New Great Power Contest in Central Asia).

The first of a three-volume series on the interaction of the US and China in different regions of the world, China, the United States, and the Future of Central Asia explores the delicate balance of competing foreign interests in this resource-rich and politically tumultuous region. Editor David Denoon and his internationally renowned set of contributors assess the different objectives and strategies the U.S. and China deploy in the region and examine how the two world powers are indirectly competitive with one another for influence in Central Asia.

This book covers important issues such as the creation of international gas pipelines, the challenges of building crucial transcontinental roadways that must pass through countries facing insurgencies, the efforts of the US and China to encourage and provide better security in the region, and how the Central Asian countries themselves view their role in international politics and the global economy.

The book also covers key outside powers with influence in the region such as Russia, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, and India. A comprehensive, original, and up-to-date collection, China, the United States, and the Future of Central Asia is a wide-ranging look from noted scholars at a vital part of the world.

"Readers of this well-crafted volume will inadvertently be led to ask whether, and how, Central Asian countries can take charge of their own security, or at least shape it." — S. Frederick Starr,author of Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane