%0 Journal Article
%T A Forgotten Core? Mapping the Globality of Central Asia
%A Robert A. Saunders
%J Globality Studies Journal : Global History, Society, Civilization
%D 2010
%I Stony Brook University
%X The article explores Central Asia as a global region in an attempt to explain its dramatic reversal of fortune from a world core to a forgotten cul-de-sac to its current, partially global status. It briefly recounts Central Asia¡¯s ¡°spatially central¡± situation during the Silk Road centuries, the Islamic Golden Age, and the Mongol Empire, before moving to an investigation of the region¡¯s functional ¡°disappearance¡± in world affairs during the Early Modern Period. Using geopolitical and cartographic analysis of Central Asia as an increasingly relevant world region, the article then focuses on the Russo-British ¡°Great Game,¡± followed by an analysis of the region¡¯s ¡°cocooned globality¡± during the Soviet era. Lastly, the article analyzes the ¡°opening¡± of Central Asia after 1991 and how the events of 11 September 2001 and the region¡¯s petro-wealth have put it ¡°back on the map¡± and provided the region with a measurable level of globality.
%K cartography
%K Central Asia
%K Geopolitics
%K Globality
%K Islam
%K Silk Road
%K Soviet Union
%U https://globality.cc.stonybrook.edu/?p=123