Journal of Contemporary Politics
Year: 2026, Volume: 5, Issue: 2, Pages: 66-80
Review Article
Rajinder Singh1*
1Senior Research Fellow, Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab, India
*Corresponding Author
Email: [email protected]
Received Date:01 January 2026, Accepted Date:24 March 2026, Published Date:16 June 2026
This article argues that intensified great power competition, combined with post-Soviet historical legacies, has fundamentally transformed the military-strategic security architecture of Central Asia from 2010 to 2024. Through qualitative analysis of policy documents, official statements, and secondary sources, the study examines the role of major powers—Russia, China, the United States, India, and Turkey—in shaping the region via alliances, economic integration, and military modernisation. It demonstrates how key geopolitical events such as NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and the ongoing Ukraine conflict, together with non-traditional security threats including terrorism, drug trafficking, environmental degradation, and cybersecurity, have prompted Central Asian states to modernise their armed forces and diversify their strategic partnerships in pursuit of greater autonomy. The paper contributes to the literature by illuminating the complex interplay between external power rivalries, historical factors, and local agency in an era of heightened international competition.
Keywords: Central Asia, Contemporary, Military Modernization, Strategic Considerations, Geopolitics, Great Power Competition, United States, Russia, China, Turkey, India
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© 2026 Published by Bangalore University. This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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