Central Asia is no longer a passive actor in its evolution in Eurasia

"For the conference entitled Emerging Asia: a new ""grand game"" setting in Central Asia?, experts from the academic, diplomatic and business worlds analysed the reasons why Eurasia (the land area that stretches from Lisbon to Vladivostok) is becoming a space that is offering significant possibilities with respect to cooperation, though also for disagreements and conflicts of interests. 

During the conference, particular attention was paid to Central Asia, a region rich in energy resources that has attracted the interest of all the major world powers. Nevertheless, as several speakers pointed out, a number of autonomous actors in Central Asia have succeeded in discovering their true potential: energy resources, in the main. This year, the courses featured a wide range of experts in the field, including Josep Ribera, director of CIDOB; Jesús Sanz, director general of Casa Asia; Luís Martínez Montes, Counsellor in the Spanish Permanent Representation to the OSCE; Zhang Wei Wei, a researcher at the Modern Asia Research Centre Institut Universitaire de Hautes Ettudes; Seán Golden, director of the CIDOB Foundation's Asia Programme and also of the Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI); Esther Barbé, lecturer in International Relations and director of the European Foreign Policy Observatory at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB); Eduard Soler, director of CIDOB's Mediterranean Programme; Eva Borreguero, director of Educational Programmes at Casa Asia; Max Spoor, coordinator of the Centre for the Study of Development and Transition and lecturer at the Institute of Social Studies at The Hague; Fred Halliday, lecturer in International Relations at the London School of Economics; Josep Maria Cervera, director of the Business Internationalisation Area of Barcelona's Chamber of Commerce; Nora Sainz, lecturer in International Relations and Coordinator of the Research Group on International Relations in Asia (GIRIA) at the UAB; Roger Serra, lecturer in International Relations at the UAB; Lluc López, lecturer in the Political Science at the Open University of Catalonia -Pompeu Fabra University; Anahita Nasirosadat, PhD student of International Relations at the UAB and a member of the Programming Department at Casa Asia and Laura Vea, a researcher at the Centre for International and Intercultural Studies (IEII) at the UAB. Following the inauguration of the course, Luís Martínez Montes, Counsellor in the Spanish Permanent Representation to the OSCE, emphasised the importance of supranational projects, such as the one being proposed by the EU to prevent conflict in Eurasia, as well as to reduce the distance between the different views on the region held by the Anglo-American and continental schools. Martínez Montes analysed the actors and dynamics that have featured in Eurasia since the end of the Cold War heralded the recommencement of competition between different geopolitical projects in the region. According to the OSCE diplomat, the current Euro-Atlantic project (led by the United States, and which champions the idea of a great Central Asia) is aimed at avoiding a build-up of Euro-continental and Slavonic power in Eurasia. As part of this, Martínez Montes believes, the United States is trying to bring France and Germany round to its own way of thinking, at the same time as the US Atlantic values to the peripheral regions of Russia and China. Given the situation, France and especially Germany could be using the EU's supranational instruments to strengthen their presence in Inner Eurasia, while Russia looks on as western Eurasia attempts to grow eastwards. The speaker recommended taking a global perspective to deal with the challenge represented by the opening-up of the Eurasian region.

Later on in the session, Zhang Wei Wei, a researcher at the Modern Asia Research Centre Institut Universitaire de Hautes Ettudes in Geneva, analysed China as a factor in this space, focusing particularly on the importance of the country's autonomous region of Xinjiang and on the role that it could play in Central Asia. In addition to stressing the need for establishing terrestrial infrastructures that will link up the region as a whole, Wei Wei also emphasised the similarities between Iran and Russia positions, though he gave a very different description of the latter country: according to the Chinese researcher's analysis, while Europe is still debating what should be done with Russia, China has already accepted the fact that Russia is a major power, and should be consulted on any proposed initiatives within Eurasia. Meanwhile, Seán Golden, director of the CIDOB Foundation's Asia Programme and of the Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI), spoke of a current trend in China to view the EU as an incipient imperial actor, and in his analysis he went on to criticise the theory that only nation states should be legitimate subjects within contemporary international society. In his speech, Golden made comparisons between China and the EU, specifically comparing the European Commission to the old Chinese Mandarin system, in its efforts to grant the project continuity and a political boost. The director of the course also criticised the contradictions existing in organisations such as NATO, which have global pretensions at the same time as rejecting the expansionist ambitions of other bodies such as the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation).

Furthermore, Eduard Soler, coordinator of the CIDOB Foundation's Mediterranean Programme, pointed out that following the dismantling of the iron curtain that separated Turkey from the Caucasus and Central Asia (owing to the Ottoman country's alignment with the West), Turkey has now consolidated itself as an access route to the Caspian regions hydrocarbon resources, and has also become involved in the various facets of the Eurasian agenda, adopting a posture close to Western interests. The speaker stressed that Turkey's admission to the EU could be viewed either as an asset (in that it would strengthen relations between the EU and Central Asia) or as a risk factor for relations between the EU and Russia or other regional actors, given that the EU could internalise conflicts such as those involving the Kurds or Armenia.

Finally, Fred Halliday, lecturer in International Relations at the London School of Economics and at the IBEI, presented a review of Iran's recent history in terms of national policy, as well as examining the Iranian factor in international politics. Halliday considers the Shi'ite rhetoric currently existing in Iran to be dangerous, exaggerating as it does the country's potential and presenting Iran as the great Asian power, along with China, and using the nuclear question as a symbol of this "" supposed status"". The academic also emphasised the clash between the United States and Iran, a confrontation that underlies the conflict in the Middle East. In Halliday's opinion, this conflict has become entrenched since Iran humiliated the United States over the hostage crisis, and has led to a situation in which there is a majority in US Congress in favour of initiating armed action against Iran. Halliday added that Mahmud Ahmadineyad, the president of Iran, represents the nationalist, populist and militarist elites that were formed during the war with Iraq. In the short term, the speaker claimed that only a change in leadership within the Iranian regime is possible, but not a change of the regime in itself. Meanwhile, with respect to relations with the East, Fred Halliday stressed that Iran - and the Middle East in general - considers that Europe has had its day, and that China and India are now the powers of the future. >> See complete programme"