The SCO and the future of American Central Asian strategy (III)
Cross-regional and Blogosphere, Politics and SocietyOne Comment
After a highly successful SCO Conference in Moscow, the ball is now in America’s court — but will America swing and miss? Reflecting upon the subsequent Hague Conference on March 31st, in which 70 foreign ministers and diplomats were in attendance, SCO expert Alexander Lukin detects a mis-play:
Washington’s desire to hold its own conference on Afghanistan [...] suggests that the United States wanted to control the process. But then it seemed that the organizers thought again and realized that such a format would be too limited. The United States later expanded the conference to fall under the auspices of the UN. [...] There is urgency to the task because even some of Washington’s closest allies are currently planning to withdraw their forces from Afghanistan.
[In contrast] the Moscow SCO conference will have a regional and more practical character. Its main objective is to put aside old disagreements and increase cooperation among Russia, Afghanistan’s neighbors and the West. This broad approach offers the best opportunity to stabilize Afghanistan.
In other words, more jockeying from the United States in an attempt to wrestle with the looming Russian presence in Central Asia. America’s pledge to commit an additional 21,000 troops, including 4,000 to help train Afghanistan’s National Army, could arguably be seen in this light as one such counter-initiative; so, too, the recent “olive branch” made to the Taliban by American Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton.
More telling was perhaps when Clinton mentioned the need for a “more regional approach to the conflict, bringing in neighbours such as Iran” — signalling a break with the unilateralism of the previous administration. Considering Europe’s lacklustre support for the ongoing Afghanistan campaign, could Clinton’s call really be an attempt to defang the Russian bear with overtures of multilateralism?
Editor’s note: This is the third in a post series.
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