By Ankit Panda
Earlier in October, the U.S. Department of Defense announced its intent to transfer the Transit Center at Manas (TCM) International Airport in Kyrgyzstan to the Government of Kyrgyzstan by July 2014. Normally, any such high-level action regarding a military base would raise eyebrows across the United States, but the move went unnoticed by most. Central Asia, after all, hasn’t been the United States’ main strategic theater.
In a feature for The Diplomat, I discussed China’s pivot to Central Asia, guided by a healthy balance of strategic vision and geopolitical savvy. The U.S., on the contrary, has decided that Central Asia simply isn’t worth the trouble. The transfer of TCM is but a symptom of this broader trend. The nexus of U.S. Central Asia policy has been driven by its entrenchment in Afghanistan since 2001. With withdrawal on the horizon in 2014, the U.S. faces a critical choice regarding its involvement in Central Asia.
Read the full story at The Diplomat