The originalGreat Game was the 19th-century political and diplomatic competition between theBritish andRussian empires for territory and influence among Central Asian states.[1] The term entered into widespread use following theSoviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.[2][3]
Some historians view events from theRussian Civil War andSoviet wars in Asia in theInterwar period, and categorize them as a continuation of the original Great Game, or as a second Great Game up to the mid-20th century.[5][6][7][8][9] According to Morris, in a review of a history book by Meyer and Brysac,[10]
the Raj more or less bows out, the Tsar is removed and the Great Game is diffused into a miasmic free-for-all among the states. Now Americans, Germans, Chinese and Soviet Russians throw themselves into the power vacuum of Central Asia, to many theorists the heartland of the world, and riddled with symbolism.
Historian David Noack writes that the Great Game resumed from 1919 to 1933 as a conflict between Britain and the Soviet Union, with theWeimar Republic andJapan as additional players. Noack calls it a "Second Tournament of Shadows" over the territory composing the border ofBritish India,China, theSoviet Union andJapanese Manchuria. To Britain, the Germans appeared to be a secret Soviet ally. In 1933–1934, it "ended with Mongolia,Soviet Central Asia,Tannu-Tuva andXinjiang isolated from non-Soviet influence."[6]
According to scholars Andrei Znamenski andAlexandre Andreev [ru] the Soviet Union continued elements of the Great Game into the 1930s, focused on secret diplomacy and espionage in Tibet andMongolia. Agents in the new Soviet version included figures such asAgvan Dorzhiev, who had supported the Russian Empire previously.[8][7] Historian Heather Campbell describes the continuation of elements of the Great Game by the British as well;Lord Curzon, a former viceroy of India who was concerned heavily with Russia strategy, would heavily influence policy in supporting theTsarist Whites against the Soviet Union, as well as participating in theSykes–Picot negotiations dividing the Middle East between Britain and France with the diplomatic support of Russia.[9] Andreyev highlights that one of the original issues of the Great Game, a projected Russian invasion of India, was also revived byTrotsky with the plannedKalmyk Project.[11]: 83–97
Znamenski wrote that Soviet Communists of the 1920s aimed to extend their influence over Mongolia and Tibet, using the mythical Buddhist kingdom ofShambhala as a form of propaganda to further this mission, in a sort of "great Bolshevik game".[8] The expedition of RussiansymbolistNicholas Roerich has been put in context of the Great Game due to his interest in Tibet,[12][13] Although Roerich did not like the Communists, he agreed to help Soviet intelligence and influence operations due to a shared paranoia towards Britain, as well as his goal to form a "Sacred Union of the East".[14]: 181–182 Jan Morris states that "Roerich brought the bewilderments of the later Great Game to America" throughmysticism movements[10] called Roerichism.
While few have noticed, Central Asia has again emerged as a murky battleground among big powers engaged in an old and rough geopolitical game. Western experts believe that the largely untapped oil and natural gas riches of theCaspian Sea countries could make that region thePersian Gulf of the next century. The object of the revived game is to befriend leaders of theformer Soviet republics controlling the oil, while neutralizing Russian suspicions and devising secure alternative pipeline routes to world markets.[17]
In 2004, journalistLutz Kleveman wrote a book that linked the expression to the exploration of mineral wealth in the region.[18] While the direct American military involvement in the area was part of fighting the "war on terror" rather than an indirect Western governmental interest in the mineral wealth, another journalist Eric Walberg suggests in his book that access to the region's minerals and oilpipeline routes is still an important factor.[19][20] The interest in oil and gas includes pipelines that transmit energy to China's east coast. One view of the New Great Game is a shift to geoeconomic compared to geopolitical competition.Xiangming Chen believes that China's role is more like Britain's than Russia's in the New Great Game, where Russia plays the role that the Russian Empire originally did. "China and Russia are the two dominant power players vs. the weaker independent Central Asian states".[21]
Other authors have criticized the reuse of the term "Great Game".[22] According to strategic analyst Ajay Patnaik, the "New Great Game" is a misnomer, because rather than two empires focused on the region as in the past, there are now many global and regional powers active with the rise of China and India as major economic powers. Central Asian states have diversified their political, economic, and security relationships.[23]David Gosset ofCEIBS Shanghai states "theShanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) established in 2001 is showing that Central Asia’s actors have gained some real degree of independence. But fundamentally, the China factor introduces a level of predictability " In the 2015 international relations bookGlobalizing Central Asia, the authors state that Central Asian states have pursued a multivectored approach in balancing out the political and economic interests of larger powers, but it has had mixed success due to strategic reversals of administrations regarding the West, China, and Russia. They suppose that China could counterbalance Russia. However, Russia and China have astrategic partnership since 2001. According to Ajay Patnaik, "China has advanced carefully in the region, using the SCO as the main regional mechanism, but never challenging Russian interests in Central Asia."[23] In theCarnegie Endowment, Paul Stronski and Nicole Ng wrote in 2018 that China has not fundamentally challenged any Russian interests in Central Asia. They suggested that China, Russia, and the West could have mutual interests in regional stability in Central Asia.[24] According to Paul Stronski and Nicole Ng, China uses its policy in Central Asia to "manage" Russia's concerns, satisfying Russia by showing China's economic aims do not threaten Russian political-military interests in the Russian Far East and elsewhere besides Central Asia, and assuaging Russia's demographic fears about Chinese immigration.[24]
The historianJames Reardon-Anderson stated in 2014, during thefirst withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, that, "There may be a new Great Game in Central Asia, but it is going to have a lot less importance to the United States than the new Great Game in the Western Pacific and East Asian waters."[25][26] In August 2021,Reuters reported that following the Taliban takeover, the "new Great Game has Pakistan in control" of Afghanistan and also involves India and China.[27] InNikkei, writer and retired AdmiralJames Stavridis stated that the "new Great Game" involves Russia's interest in the regulation of opium production, China's interest in rare earth minerals, a growing role for India, while the West will be reluctant to enter.[28] Following the 2021U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan,RFE/RL reported that "Russia, China, Pakistan, and Iran could come together in the next chapter of the Great Game," or "Moscow, Beijing, Islamabad, and Tehran are each merely looking to advance their own interests in the new geopolitical order."[26]
The "Great Game" as a term has been described as a cliché-metaphor,[30] and there are authors who have now written on the topics of "The Great Game" in Antarctica,[31] the world's far north,[32] and in outer space.[33]
^abAndreev, A. I. (2003).Soviet Russia and Tibet : the debacle of secret diplomacy, 1918-1930s. Leiden: Brill. pp. 13–15,18–20.ISBN90-04-12952-9.OCLC51330174.
^abcZnamenski, Andrei (1 July 2011).Red Shambhala: Magic, Prophecy, and Geopolitics in the Heart of Asia. Quest Books. pp. 19–20,232–233.ISBN978-0-8356-0891-6.Archived from the original on 24 January 2023. Retrieved3 May 2022.No less tragic was the fate of those romantic Bolsheviks who... rushed into Mongolia, western China, and farther to Tibet to build the Red Shambhala paradise by stirring indigenous prophecies and instigating lamas to revolution. [...] Agvan Dorzhiev, another player in the great Bolshevik game in Inner Asia, ended his Shambhala quest in a secret police prison morgue. By the 1930s, futile compromises with the Bolshevik regime morally broke down this former Dalai Lama ambassador to Russia.
^Andreev, A. I. (2003).Soviet Russia and Tibet : the debacle of secret diplomacy, 1918–1930s. Leiden: Brill. pp. 13–15,18–20.ISBN90-04-12952-9.OCLC51330174.
^Znamenski, Andrei (1 July 2011).Red Shambhala: Magic, Prophecy, and Geopolitics in the Heart of Asia. Quest Books. pp. 19–20,232–233.ISBN978-0-8356-0891-6.Archived from the original on 24 January 2023. Retrieved3 May 2022.No less tragic was the fate of those romantic Bolsheviks who... rushed into Mongolia, western China, and farther to Tibet to build the Red Shambhala paradise by stirring indigenous prophecies and instigating lamas to revolution. [...] Agvan Dorzhiev, another player in the great Bolshevik game in Inner Asia, ended his Shambhala quest in a secret police prison morgue. By the 1930s, futile compromises with the Bolshevik regime morally broke down this former Dalai Lama ambassador to Russia.
Contessi, Nicola (2013). "Central Eurasia and the New Great Game: Players, Moves, Outcomes, and Scholarship".Asian Security.9 (3):231–241.doi:10.1080/14799855.2013.832214.S2CID144592857.
Walberg, Eric (2011).Postmodern Imperialism: Geopolitics and the Great Games. Clarity Press.ISBN978-0-9833539-3-5.
Brobst, Peter John (2005).The Future of the Great Game: Sir Olaf Caroe, India's Independence, and the Defense of Asia. Series on International, Political, and Economic History. University of Akron Press.ISBN978-1-931968-10-2.
Johnson, Robert (2006).Spying for Empire: The Great Game in Central and South Asia, 1757–1947. Greenhill Books.ISBN978-1-85367-670-3.
