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Ramana garu,ramana wrote:There is a guy named Stobodan at IDSA. I think he has a Phd and the credentials. He should be encouraged to create the foundation for CAR studies. And head a GOI taskforce on Central Asia.
RajeshA, Turkey might be the only one making noises but am not sure of its break with political Islam. I think Uzbegistan might be a good forward area.
From what I know about the Turks here in Germany, which need not be representative, almost all are nationalist to the core, and many are devout Muslims as well.
The gist of my proposal is actually to bring about a divorce between Han China and Islam. Only their divorce can ensure the survival of the third pole in Asia, the Indics.
The political entente within Turkey, the cohabitation between secular military and the government by the moderately Islamist AKP led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, would not allow a too open pursuit of an Islamist policy, but since it is possible for Turkey to base their interest in the matter on a Turkic-brotherhood, an Islamist policy may not even be needed, and the secular security establishment could also give a green light for such a policy.
If Turkey's involvement is political Islam oriented, even then it would be acceptable, as then it might even be possible to call a lot more supporters like Iran, Arab countries to the cause. The possibility of a proper schism between PRC and Islam only increases, and does not decrease.
Basically India can live with political Islam if only the pressure on India from it were not overbearing, through terrorism, extremism, cut-off from Central Asia, etc. The fact that PRC gives support to political Islam to breathe down our necks, is what makes political Islam overbearing and exhausting, not political Islam alone. A schism between PRC and political Islam can contribute to political Islam becoming bearable for India, by taking away its potency in the form of collapse of nuclear-armed terrorism-exporting India-hating Pakistan. So political Islam should not be untouchable by India per se, at least not as long as PRC looks more threatening to Indics.
Uzbekistan, even as it is the most populous of the CARs (~20 mil), is still a pipsqueak compared to what would be needed to give a NWS UNSC permanent member China a proper headache. Turkey through its 75 million populace, a semi-developed industrial economy status, NATO membership, close to EU, and historical significance (at least to the white man) is much better in a position for enabling head aches.
JMTs