Against the backdrop of a recent overall decline in US standing and influence due to the current administration’s policies, Washington has started to fight ever more desperately to maintain a foothold in regions of geopolitical interest. One graphic illustration of this is the US’ deepening struggle over Central Asia (CA).
Media commentary in recent weeks has focused on the alleged plan of United States president Donald Trump to vacate US troops from Afghanistan. Those troops, together with representatives of other countries including the United Kingdom and Australia, have been in Afghanistan since that country was first invaded in October 2001.
For many years now, there has been talk of pulling American troops out of Afghanistan, where a civil war has been raging for 40 years and substantial amounts of territory are under the control of terrorists. The US is now getting ready to carry out this project. There is one opinion that immediately after American troops leave Afghanistan there will be an explosion of terrorist activity that will be felt by other countries, including Russia and nations in Central Asia.
If you live in the United States the mention of a country like Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan probably only registers on a subconscious “movie memory” level. Or, you assume all those countries with “stan” at the end are the same – foreign, off this world, and too far distant to matter. Unless, of course, you work in the intelligence community or at the US State Department. In this case, there is a job to do. The following is a crucial primer on what the term “national interest” really means.
