Analysis of the Effects of Competition between United States and Russia on Regional Convergence and Divergence of Central Asia, From 2001 to 2008

The collapse of the Soviet Union had unpredicted effects on its neighboring regions such as Central Asia. These conditions provided a situation for the powers such as United States and Russia to have a greater influence on Central Asia, and also to fill the absence of the power found by the collapse of Soviet Union. After September 11, 2001, United States of America, following the strategy of preventive action centered on the fight against terrorism and the threat of weapons of mass destruction, tried to have more direct influence on Central Asia. On the other hand, Russia, concerned about the risk to their relative position in the area, after a brief period of cooperation with the United States of America in the fight against terrorism, tried to stop United States from acting unilaterally in its own traditional sphere of influence. Accordingly, the authors try to analyze the effects of competition between United States and Russia on regional convergence and divergence of central Asia (after September 11, 2001) using the theories of Cantori and Spiegel. The research hypothesis is that the competition between the two powers in the area is responsible for the countries of Central Asia to tend toward one of these two powers for solving their problems and this delayed the formation of convergent regional agreements in Central Asia.