1.0 INTRODUCTION
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This is a political analysis of the US foreign policy in Central Asia during the post-Afghan-Soviet war era, and how it affected the global correlation of power. For the purposes of our discussion, the countries/regions of interest are Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Southern Russia. There will be frequent references made to other areas but primarily the discussion will revolve around the aforementioned areas/nations.

I feel that the past and the present US foreign policies have failed
drastically. I intend to support this argument by presenting reasonable justifications gathered during the course of my investigation.

Firstly, I will discuss past and present events in a chronological manner which will be followed by the current strategic objectives, the US wants to achieve in different regions of the world. This will be followed with an interesting evaluation of the US foreign policy in terms of its outcomes. In the end, I would present post 9/11 scenario and current American footing on the political stage of the world. The above discussion will close with a brief conclusion.



2.0 CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS
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The Soviet forces had vacated Afghanistan by 1989. Suddenly Afghanistan found itself in infancy again. A decade long conflict had left both Afghanistan and its neighboring Pakistan saturated with narcotics and illegal arms. This subsequently proved to be a grave challenge to control. The porous Western Pak-Afghan border and its tribally administered management practices provided a fertile environment for arms, narcotics and human smuggling.

This fluid movement of contrabands across international political boundaries proved valuable to many agents and their interests. Reportedly, Al-Qaeda was formed under the auspices of the CIA and the ISI (Pakistan’s Military Intelligence). All stakeholders took advantage of the relaxed environment. In addition, the regional poppy (Papaver) crop provided enough capital to continue and sustain their activities. These activities ranged from legal to mostly illegal operations at the behest of various agencies. The drug operations involved cultivating poppy plants, extracting, processing, packing and shipping the finished products to the final destination via international transit points, especially Amsterdam (European distribution) and Toronto (N. American distribution).

By 1990, the situation in the Middle East was as volatile and crippled as the self-imposing governments of Afghanistan. The Iraq-Kuwait verbal conflict materialized as a full-fledged Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in the summer of 1990. The vicinity of this conflict prompted the United States to intervene militarily, to secure its own long-term regional interests. Since the Oil-rich Saudi Kingdom situated only miles away was left exposed to Saddam’s forces. This American military involvement also prompts us to think about Southern Russia, which is also an oil-rich region with a vast supply of unexplored Oil and Gas.

A combination of strategy, circumstances, diplomatic and political maneuvering gave United States a strong footing in the Arabian Peninsula both militarily and diplomatically. However, a decade later the world learned one of its worst lessons when inhumane and heinous acts of nineteen hijackers crashed four commercial airliners into four different locations in the Eastern U.S. The history was repeated and the world changed forever. We learned a very terse lesson that no matter how strong the correlation of power, we must not remain arrogant to elements causing anarchy using the religion card to satisfy their own political agendas. What was done in both Afghanistan and in Pakistan a decade earlier!



3.0 CURRENT STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
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The Unites States has a wide array of strategic objectives all over the world. Since we have limited the scope of this discussion to certain areas therefore, we will examine Asia and the Middle East and the American objectives in these regions. Following is a list of current US objectives along with a description and a brief explanation:


Maintain regional military presence
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U.S. is maintaining regional military presence in the Atlantic Ocean (Naval fleet), the Middle-Eastern states including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. In addition, it has also deployed its troops in Pakistan and Afghanistan and has a strategically leased air-base in Samsun, Turkey, on the Black Sea coast.


Forge coalitions with pro-US doctrines
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Desp ite the local population’s sentiments, U.S. is inclined to support democratically elected, or otherwise, regimes as long as they serves the American interests in the region providing all sorts of support as needed. This element of hypocrisy in the U.S. foreign policy has puzzled analysts and observers worldwide.


Secure uninterrupted access to regional oil supplies
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U.S. as a firm footing and secure access to the vast reserves of oil and natural gas in both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and soon in Iraq. To safeguard this supply, U.S. has stationed its troops in and around the area in the name of both the national and the international security.

Main target of interest has always been the Middle East traditionally, however, now intelligence reports are encouraging to tap the unexplored natural oil and gas reserves of former Soviet states (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan). The proximity of this region is very close to where the U.S. troops are currently stationed. It is important to realize the foresight of the U.S. foreign policy makers to locate the resources well ahead of any actual realization of the future plan.


Security of the State of Israel
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The second important American interest in the Middle East is the security of the State of Israel. United States is committed to safeguarding its existence and thus provides a generous aid package in billions of dollars to Israel.


Keep China, Pakistan and India at bay
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China and India are both capable of becoming superpowers in less than a quarter of a century. This is a worrisome aspect to the new World Order. Therefore, on one hand the U. S. has absolutely ignored China’s human rights record and accorded her with the Most Favored Nation (MFN) status. And on the other hand, it is keeping a heavy naval presence in the Atlantic Ocean to respond to any untoward situation from China in a timely fashion.

On the other hand, the Americans have always had a symbiotic relationship with both Pakistan and India. This complexity and dynamics of this relationship was magnified ten folds when both nations successfully tested and declared their nuclear power status on the world stage. This was perhaps the worst nightmare of the U.S. foreign policy makers. However, it is important to note that this deterrent (nuclear status) helped avert the 1999 Kargil conflict between the two nuclear rivals into a full fledged war. Hence, eventually serving the U.S. interests while maintaining stability in the region.


Keep tabs on North Korea
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North Korea is part of the ‘axes of evil’ that U.S. classifies as threatening. U.S. continues to maintain its fleet in the Pacific Ocean and in the demilitarized zone between the North and South Korea to keep tabs on the North Koreans and their military build-over.



4.0 OUTCOMES OF THE U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
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Any policy has a potential of success or failure. The probability of the outcome depends on various variables. However, a friendly policy benefiting all the stakeholders is most likely to succeed than a self-serving one. If we review the results of the U.S. foreign policy over the last decade and a half, it is evident how miserably it has failed. This chapter outlines the major failure of the past and present U.S. policies in Central Asia and how they have failed to achieve the major objectives. Following is a list of major U.S. policy failures and their repercussions:


Unwarranted global animosity
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Due to unjustified and biased support of certain nations and dictators, the U.S. has made many enemies and a few friends globally. A recent example is Washington’s silent attitude towards the greatest genocide of our time in Rwanda and Burundi. Since no U.S. interest was threatened, therefore the mobilization of the peace keeping forces was delayed until millions of people had been slaughtered. Later, the U.S. did intervened but it was too late.

Second example is America’s biased support of Israel. It is important to note that Israel stands in violation of many UN resolutions, yet U.S. is only pressing Iraq to comply with them.

Third example is the Russia’s suppression of the Chechen freedom movement. Russia continues to target Chechnya and Grozny, but the U.S. refuses to address this issue.

Fourth is a classic example of China and Taiwan. U.S continues to ignore China’s human rights records and conducts billions of dollars in trade with China while they officially renounce Taiwan as a state. However, the U.S. foreign policy latently recognizes Taiwan and their right to self-determination.


Loss of diplomatic support from the Arab states
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The biased American foreign policy and conflicting interests have led to the loss of diplomatic support from the Arab states. U.S. stands at a critical juncture at this point in time when the war is imminent with Iraq. However, the Arab states are reluctant in allowing the U.S. to use their soils to launch an attack on Iraq. One of the most repeated demands from the Arab capitals is the realization of the state of Palestine and a promise from the state of Israel to guarantee peace and security in the region. The Arab States plan to reciprocate the requested Israeli actions by establishing full diplomatic contact with Israel for the long-term stability of the region. However, the U.S., which once was deemed as the honest peace broker, has lost credibility in the eyes of the stake holders and hence lost the ability to garner any diplomatic support to fulfill its own interests.


Diplomatic coup-de-grace on Iraq issue
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Anothe r unwarranted blow was cast on the U.S. foreign policy when the world community condemned any unilateral U.S. military action against Iraq. However, the U.S. coerced, and resultantly mustered, the international community’s support due to its sheer might. However, a simple examination of the circumstances leads us to conclude that the U.S. suffered a major embarrassment on the Iraq issue. If this situation was handled properly via shuttle diplomacy and subtlety, then it could have been a major victory for Washington in recent times.


Al-Qaeda
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U.S. fought a proxy war with the Soviets through the Afghan Mujahideen. U.S. provided the logistic and military support needed to the Mujahideen through the ISI to resist and ultimately beat the Soviet occupation. After the end of that war, the Pakistani dictator, General Zia was killed in a plane crash, cause of which still remains a mystery. Analysts blame the KGB for orchestrating that attack while Zia’s son continues to believe CIA’s involvement in the incident. Regardless of the agency that assassinated Zia, sufficient fuel was provided into the hands of the pro-Zia muslim fundamentalists to wage a jihad against the U.S. and create animosity against the American interests world wide.

Al-Qaeda was a handy work of ISI in association with the CIA. It was formed during Zia’s reign under a different banner to fight the Soviets. Later on it became organized and widespread and adopted a name known as Al-Qaeda. As we all know, this was a terrible mistake and while U.S. only wanted to use it as a tool in covert operations, years later, they ultimately succumbed to it as reflected by the heinous attacks on its own soil on an unfortunate morning on September 11, 2002.


Sagging internal economy
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As a consequence of global terrorism, directed against the U.S. interest worldwide, U.S. is focusing its efforts on the fight against terrorism and has been ignoring the internal core issues affecting its economy adversely. This is a one of the major outcomes of its own foreign policies that motivated external entities to attack its soil and resultantly caused a huge economic loss. If studied closely, the inflation is on rise, unemployment is widespread and the economy is sagging without any prospects of revival. Artificial measures have been taken (decreasing the interest rates) but that is not a permanent solution to the problem. The U.S. economy continues to slump bit by bit everyday.


5.0 POST 9/11 SCENARIO
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The events of September 11 have highlighted the ’troubled spots’ that were less evident before. There has been a rise in Islamic militancy globally, as evident from the recent terrorist attacks in Bali and Malaysia. The terrorist elements have clearly waged an all-out war against the U.S. and its interests.

Furthermore, due to the mishandling of as sensitive an issue as religion, the Bush administration has come under heavy fire. The Constitutional rights of both the U.S. and the foreign citizens are being taken away, being replaced with invasive amendments and bureaucracy.

There is a permanent threat against the West and the U.S., both locally and globally. On top of that, current U.S. policies are making it harder for people to believe in the system of American justice and specially the Administration. Since they are carrying forward and building on unrealistic goals and objectives. Resultantly, the Bush administration has suffered major setbacks on many fronts simultaneously.



6.0 CONCLUSION
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This thorough investigation leads us to conclude that U.S. has a failed foreign policy and they are rapidly losing their partners’ and allies’ support in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa. This is due to the sheer fact that they have lacked the moral courage to admit their own wrong-doings and continue to have a hypocritical attitude towards different nations. This failure of their foreign policy is coupled with a downhill economy and an uncertain future.

I must stress that United States is a great nation in which people, history and culture are interwoven in an intricate and inseparable pattern, complementing each other. On the other hand, they have a strong and effective military footing by having their presence at strategic locations in the world.

In spite of the above positives, it is a shame that a great economic giant such as the United States suffers because they are unable to produce any statesmen, but leaders. As long as the objective remains short-term fulfillment, the vision will remain clouded. It is imperative that U.S. remains a neutral and honest broker and uses its power to the mutual advantage of all the stake holders.

This slight change in their foreign policy will enable the U.S. and the rest of the world to bounce back from a frail economic state, and return to be the world power it once was at its zenith in the early 1990’s.