United States: New Silk Road Initiative

The US New Silk Road Initiative was originally conceived by Frederick Starr, a John Hopkins University scholar, in 2005.

The initiative was formally announced by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in July 2011 at the Second US-India Strategic Dialogue in India. It aims to build a new geopolitical block consisting of the pro-US market economies with secular political systems. With a special focus on Afghanistan, it seeks to expand cooperation among Central and South Asian countries in areas such as energy and transport as well as on political and security issues to boost local economic and social development and serve US strategic interests in the region.

In October of the same year, the US Department of State instructed US embassies in the countries concerned to rebrand its Central and South Asia policies under the New Silk Road framework, and to notify international partners accordingly. Such a move marked the formal inclusion of the New Silk Road Initiative in US official policies.

Some of the New Silk Road Initiative projects have now been completed, including the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan Railway and Tajikistan's Sangtuda Hydropower Station, which is already supplying power to Afghanistan. Judging by official releases and the progress of the initiative, the US has shown no intention of giving it up despite challenges in terms of backward support infrastructure, insufficient funds, lack of mutual trust, and terrorist and extremist threats in the region.

美國“新絲綢之路計劃”

美國“新絲綢之路計劃”起源于霍普金斯大學(xué)弗雷德里克?斯塔爾教授于2005年提出的“新絲綢之路” 構(gòu)想。2011年7月，時任美國國務(wù)卿希拉里在印度參加第二次美印戰(zhàn)略對話期間正式提出了“新絲綢之路計劃”：以阿富汗為中心，通過中亞和南亞在政治、安全、能源、交通等領(lǐng)域的合作，建立一個由親美的、實行市場經(jīng)濟(jì)和世俗政治體制的國家組成的新地緣政治板塊， 推動包括阿富汗在內(nèi)的中亞地區(qū)國家的經(jīng)濟(jì)社會發(fā)展，以服務(wù)于美國在該地區(qū)的戰(zhàn)略利益。同年10月，美國國務(wù)院向美國駐有關(guān)國家大使館發(fā)出電報，要求將美國的中亞、南亞政策統(tǒng)一命名為“新絲綢之路”戰(zhàn)略，并將其向國際伙伴通報。這標(biāo)志著“新絲綢之路計劃”正式成為美國的官方政策。目前，“新絲綢之路計劃”的部分項目已經(jīng)完工，如烏茲別克斯坦—阿富汗鐵路已經(jīng)竣工，塔吉克斯坦桑土達(dá)水電站已開始向阿富汗送電。從美國的官方表態(tài)及實際進(jìn)展來看，該計劃雖然面臨許多困難和風(fēng)險，如地區(qū)內(nèi)國家基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施落后、資金不足、相互缺乏信任，以及恐怖主義和極端主義肆虐等，但美國從未明確放棄該計劃。