U.S. Interests and Central Asia Energy Security by Ariel Cohen, Ph.D--

In the past five years, real and present dangers to U.S. national security, especially Islamist terrorism and threats to the energy supply, have affected U.S. policy in Central Asia. The region has great energy potential and is strategically important, but it is land-locked, which complicates U.S. access and involvement there.[1] The United States has varied and at times compet­ing interests in Central Asia. The region, which includes the five post-Soviet states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbeki­stan, as well as Afghanistan and the Caspian basin, plays an important part in U.S. global strategy in view of its proximity to Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, and other key regional actors. No less important are its ethno-religious composition and vast deposits of oil, gas, coal, and uranium. U.S. interests in Central Asia can be summarized in three simple words: security, energy, and democ­racy. The United States is waging an enduring strug­gle to safeguard the West in general and America in particular, not only from terrorist threats emanating from Afghanistan, but also from overreliance on unstable sources of hydrocarbons in the Middle East. In that effort, it is essential that U.S. foreign policy not inflate the importance of one interest to the detriment of the others.