Document Type : Research Paper
Abstract
The United States has been one of the most dynamic and influential actors in Central Asia during the past two decades. In fact, the imperatives of the US hegemony in the post-cold war world, in different terms such as colonialism and imperialism, caused the United States to be present in a far distant region on the basis of the three principles of promotion, expansion and interventionism. The existence of three US rivals; Russia, China and Iran in the neighborhood of this region and interaction or opposition of these three regional powers with the US goals, policies and approaches has shaped a large part of the New Great Game.
The above circumstances raise the following question: What approaches are taken by Russia, China and Iran to oppose or reduce the US influence in Central Asia? Have these approaches or reactions been the same or they have different natures? To answer these questions, a hypothesis is advanced that the behavioral models of Russia, China and Iran have not been the same and they have had some different experiences based on their relative advantages in geographical, geopolitical, political, defensive, security, cultural and civilizational fields of Central Asia as well as their respective bilateral relations with the US.
This article tries to test this hypothesis and to provide a convincing, comprehensive and logical answer to the mentioned question by applying the theory of hegemony and some concepts such as counter- hegemonic as well as hard and soft balance
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