Abstract
The “green threat” associated with Islamic fundamentalism, would take the place of the “red scare”, once represented by the Soviet Union, and “international terrorism” would start to occupy a significant space in the international agenda of the United States instead of “international communism”. President Reagan would still add fuel to the arms race in order to worsen the “serious economic and political problems” of the Soviet Union, as evaluated by the CIA’s Bureau of Soviet Analysis (SOVA) [Douglas J. MacEachin—“CIA Assessments of the Soviet Union—The Record Versus the Charges”—Historical Document. This article originally appeared as an unclassified Intelligence Monograph published by CIA’s Center for the Study of Intelligence (CSI 96-001, May 1996)]. By 1984, however, he would not target the organizations responsible for the attacks, but certain States in the Third World, which he classified as rogue states (irresponsible, undisciplined states) and accused of sponsoring terrorism (state-sponsored terrorism). And after the implosion of the Soviet Union, in the midst of “growing consumer discontent, ethnic divisions” (Ibid.) due to “long continued investment priorities favoring heavy industry and defense, coupled with the rigid and cumbersome system of economic organization” (Ibid.), terrorism and drug trafficking would rise to the fore as the new enemies (GUIMARÃES, Samuel Pinheiro—“Esperanças e Ameaças: notas preliminares”. 23.10.1995. Original. Rio de Janeiro) that could justify the vast budgetary resources consumed by the industrial-military complex. The “evil empire” (President Reagan’s Speech to the National Association of Evangelicals—Orlando, Florida, March 8, 1983), as President Reagan called the Soviet Union, lay in ruins.
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Notes
- 1.
“The Heartland for the purpose of strategic thinking, includes the Baltic Sea, Asia Minor, Armenia, Persia, Tibet, and Mongolia. Within it, therefore, were Brandenburg-Prussia and Austria-Hungary, as well as Russia—a vast triple base of man-power, which was lacking to the horse-riders of history”. Mackinder (1981, p. 110).
- 2.
Halford J. Mackinder, “The Geographical Pivot of History”, Geographical Journal, Royal Geographical Society London, April 1904, vol. XXIII pp. 421–444.
- 3.
Mckinder (1981, p. 110).
- 4.
“The over setting of the balance of power in favor of the pivot states, resulting in its expansion on the marginal lands of Euro-Asia, would permit the use of vast continental resources for fleet-building, and the empire of the world would then be in sight”. Idem, ibidem, p. 436. See a map in: CENTRAL ASIA—HEARTLAND. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACaucasus_central_asia_political_map_2000.jpg. Accessed 26.04.2015.
- 5.
Luxemburg (1979, p. 149).
- 6.
The main branches of Islam are the Sunni (Sunni) and Shia (Shiites). After the death of the Prophet Muhammad (ca.26.04.570–08.06.632), the Islamic peoples divided and waged a civil war after the death of the third caliph Otman. Two relatives of the Prophet Muhammad faced off in a dispute for the Caliphate. One was Ali, cousin of the prophet and husband of his daughter (Fatima). The other was Muawiyah, governor of Damascus and cousin of the last caliph. The Sunnis believe that the entire Islamic community (ummah) should recognize the authority of the first caliph Abu Bakr. Other currents of Islam, known as Shia-t-Ali (Party of Ali) or simply Shia (Shiites), however, believe the son-in-law of Muhammad, Ali, to be the legitimate successor of the Caliphate. Sunnis represent around 85% of Muslims, but the Shiites are predominant in Iran (ca 93.4%), Azerbaijan (75%), Iraq (62.5%), Bahrain (61.3%), and minorities in all other Muslim and Central Asian countries. There are, however, several currents and sub-branches, both among the Sunni and Shia Muslims.
- 7.
Baddeley (1969, p. 23).
- 8.
Brzezinski (1986, p. 16).
- 9.
Haushofer (1939, p. 188).
- 10.
Ratzel (1941, p. 232).
- 11.
Spykman (1942, pp. 43–44).
- 12.
Ibid., p. 43.
- 13.
Ibid., p. 187.
- 14.
Mahan (1987, p. 87).
- 15.
Mackinder (1925, p. 334).
- 16.
Brzezinski (1997, pp. 30–31).
- 17.
Spykman (1971, p. 174). See also Heartland and Rimland in: http://infomapsplus.blogspot.de/2014/07/geostrategywhat-is-heartland.html. Accessed 18.04.2015.
- 18.
Ibid., p. 177.
- 19.
Brzezinski (1997, p. 31).
- 20.
Brzezinski’s strategy was based on the work L’Empire éclaté, in which its author, the French political scientist Hélène Carrère D’Encausse, predicted the disintegration of the Soviet Union as a consequence of the revolts of the Muslim populations of its Asian Republics, such as Armenia, Azerbaydzhan, Kazakhstan and Chechnya. Carrère D’Encausse (1978, p. 282).
- 21.
The green color is a symbol of the Islamic flag.
- 22.
- 23.
Said (1979, p. 124).
- 24.
Jihad, word of Arab origin - Ji-’häd—means the Muslim’s inner struggle of moral discipline to improve himself and to help the community (Rashid 2002, p. 2). Jihad also means the war against those who threaten the community, against the non-believers or non-Muslims who break the pact of protection. The duty of Jihad is based on the 6th pillar of the Qur’an, which some currents in Islam believe to exist (Hourani, 1991, p. 151). There are two different forms of Jihad. The greater Jihad, the constant struggle of man for spiritual purity. And the lesser Jihad, which dictates the struggle against the unfaithful. There is the daru-I -Islam, the house of Islam, of faith, and there is daru-I -harb, the war against the infidels that needs to be won for the tranquility of the faithful. Jihad can be defensive or offensive. The Jihad against the infidels is an obligation, whether it’s defensive or offensive. But only a few need wage it: the shaids, i.e., martyrs. In light of certain criteria defined by religious jurisprudence, the word can roughly be translated as “Holy War”. In the Koran it is written: “O you, who believe! Fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness.” Der Koran (Arabisch-Deutsch). Aus dem Arabisch von Max Henning. München: Diederich Verlag (Verlagsgruppe Random House), 2011. Teil 11—Sure 9—Die Reue, 125, p. 207.
- 25.
A Mujahid is someone who practices Jihad, who dies in the battlefield during combat and can enter paradise immediately, while the enemies, the infidels, those who do not practice Islam, go to hell. “So when you meet those who disbelieve in battle, strike their necks until, when you have inflicted slaughter upon them, then secure their bonds, and either confer favor afterwards or ransom them until the war lays down its burdens. That is the command. And if Allah had willed, He could have taken vengeance upon them Himself, but He ordered armed struggle to test some of you by means of others. And those who are killed in the cause of Allah—never will He waste their deeds. He will guide them and amend their condition. And admit them to Paradise, which He has made known to them.” Der Koran (Arabisch-Deutsch). Aus dem Arabisch von Max Henning. München: Diederich Verlag (Verlagsgruppe Random House), 2011. Teil 26—Sure 47—1—Muhammad—Geoffenbart zu Medina, p. 507.
- 26.
Brzezinski (1986, p. 226).
- 27.
Hunter (2004, p. 30).
- 28.
When Kublai Khan died in 1294, the mongol empire fractured into various Khanates—dominions under the rule of a Khan, Lord.
- 29.
Sheikh Mansour was captured in the fortress of Anapa, on the Black Sea, and taken to St. Petersburg, where he was incarcerated and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died on April 13, 1794 in Shlisselburg.
- 30.
Brzezinski (1983, pp. 443–446).
- 31.
Ibid., pp. 443–446.
- 32.
The term The Great Game was coined by Arthur Conolly, lieutenant of the 6th Bengal Light Cavalry of the British East India Company, who was sent as agent of the intelligence service to explore the area between the Caucasus and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, to the northwest of Pakistan, which was then part of British India on the border with Afghanistan. In 1842, he was captured with colonel Charles Stoddart. Both were decapitated as spies of the British Empire by order of the Emir Nasrullah Khan (Nasr-Allah bin Haydar Tora) of Bukhara, the emirate that existed until 1929 and whose territory is now mostly occupied by Uzbekistan, and less so by Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, See Hopkirk, 1994, pp. 123–124. Kleveman, 2003, p. 116. The British poet and writer Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), born in Bombay, made the term Great Game popular, which he used several times in his novel Kim (1901): “When he comes to the Great Game he must go alone—alone, and at peril of his head. Then, if he spits, or sneezes, or sits down other than as the people do whom he watches, he may be slain. Why hinder him now? Remember how the Persians say: The jackal that lives in the wilds of Mazanderan can only be caught by the hounds of Mazanderan.” And later: “Go up the hill and ask. Here begins the Great Game. (…) He considered the years to come when Kim would have been entered and made to the Great Game that never ceases day and night, throughout India. He foresaw honour and credit in the mouths of a chosen few, coming to him from his pupil. Lurgan Sahib had made E.23 what E.23 was, out of a bewildered, impertinent, lying, little North-West Province man.(…).” “When everyone is dead the Great Game is finished. Not before. Listen to me till the end There were Five Kings who prepared a sudden war three years ago, when thou wast given the stallion's pedigree by Mahbub Ali. Upon them, because of that news, and ere they were ready, fell our Army.”
- 33.
For four centuries, the Russian Empire had expanded 20,000 square miles per year, on average, the equivalent to 55 square miles per day. Hopkirk (1994, p. 5).
- 34.
A finding is an authorization given by the president of the United States, almost always in writing, in which he states (finds) that a covert action is important for national security. The finding is the most secret among the documents of the American government.
- 35.
Jimmy Carter—State of the Union Address 1980. January 21, 1980.
- 36.
Memorandum—Secret—The White House, Washington. Memorandum for: The President—From: Zbigniew Brzezinski. Reflections on Soviet Intervention in Afghanistan. Archive of the Author.
- 37.
Ibid.
- 38.
Ibid.
- 39.
Gates (1997, pp. 251–252).
- 40.
- 41.
Musharraf (2006, p. 209).
- 42.
Ralph (2008, p. 256).
- 43.
Yousaf and Adkin (2001, pp. 83, 90).
- 44.
- 45.
- 46.
Ahmed (2002, pp. 194–195) and Stich (1994, pp. 408–410). See the US-flow of resources to parties in: Us Aid to “Parties”. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Afghanistankrieg-Ressourcen.svg. Accessed 05.03.2015.
- 47.
Ibid., p. 118 and Johnson (2010, p. 49).
- 48.
Urban (1996, pp. 35–37).
- 49.
Sultan Salah el-Din el-Ayyoubi (1138–1193), better known as Saladin, first established the madrassah—an Islamic school for the exclusive study of the Qur’an, in order to fight the unorthodox Islamic sects in Egypt. Saladin took control of Egypt after the death of the Fatimid caliph in 1171. When the Crusaders attacked Egypt, setting fire to Cairo, Saladin fortified the city, resisted and became one of the great heroes of Islam through his humility, personal courage and administrative and military acumen, which allowed him to defeat the Christian armies. Saladin’s rule lasted 24 years. He is a character in Walter Scott’s novel—The Talisman.
- 50.
Deobandi was a Sunni doctrine of the legal-religious school Hanafi, whose ideologues were Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi (1833–1877) and Rashid Nanautawi, the founders of the first madrasah of this Muslim branch in Deoband, close to New Delhi. Their disciples spread these Deobandi madrasahs across India and Afghanistan, and in 1967, there were already around 9000 of them throughout southern Asia. In Pakistan alone, there were some 4000 madrasahs in the early 90s, especially near the border with Afghanistan, where two million Afghan refugees lived in camps, whose children attended these seminars along with the Pakistani children of well-established families. Around 2001, the madrasahs had about a million students.
- 51.
Van Linschoten and Kuehn (2012, pp. 74, 75).
- 52.
Coll (2005, pp. 26–29).
- 53.
Peck (2010, pp. 95–97).
- 54.
Ibid., pp. 96–97.
- 55.
Ibid., pp. 96–97.
- 56.
Ibid., pp. 202–223.
- 57.
Douglas J. MacEachin—“CIA Assessments of the Soviet Union—The Record Versus the Charges” —Historical Document. This article originally appeared as an unclassified Intelligence Monograph published by CIA’s Center for the Study of Intelligence (CSI 96-001, May 1996).
- 58.
Ibid.
- 59.
Ibid.
- 60.
Guimarães, Samuel Pinheiro—“Esperanças e Ameaças: notas preliminares”. 23.10.1995. Original. Rio de Janeiro.
- 61.
President Reagan’s Speech to the National Association of Evangelicals—Orlando, Florida, March 8, 1983.
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Moniz Bandeira, L.A. (2017). The Geopolitical Great Game in Eurasia, the Middle East and North Africa. In: The Second Cold War. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54888-3_1
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