The Afghanistan-2014 Factor and the Change in Relations of the United States, Russia, and China Towards Central Asia

Abstract

The decision to withdraw international troops from Afghanistan by 2014 has created new conditions for the scholarly world and has generated a variety of scenarios and assumptions on what will happen to Afghanistan and Central Asian region after 2014. Despite the wide range of predictions and forecast circumstances both for Afghanistan and the region, one of the hidden dimensions of this development, the change, is missed. This research aimed to emphasize on the theoretical framework of the “Afghanistan-2014” factor and alterations happened in the foreign policies of the United States, Russia, and China towards Central Asia. Approaching the most important concepts of change and its markers and indicators, the changes in relation towards the region were assessed from the perspectives of International Relations and Foreign Policy Analysis. As a result, the research gave an assessment of the changes that have already occurred in the context of the “Afghanistan-2014” factor.