Intricate Specifics of Regional Water Security in Central Asia

The threats of a new era in international relations have come to replace the old threats and contradictions of the bipolar system. These threats have stated themselves louder than ever earlier in the present condition of greater interdependence of states, affecting their security systems. The main features of these changes are associated with the exit of the USSR from the world arena as a superpower and disintegration of its colossal sphere of influence as well as emergence of new states, pursuing their national interests. In this backdrop, the unending war in Afghanistan is a grave matter as much to the security of Central Asian countries as to India too. The US-led anti-terrorist coalition campaign which was launched in October 2001 and which was later turned into NATO-ISAF program is scheduled to end after 2014, leaving the region in uncertainty. This has generated plausible apprehensions about security and stability in Central and South Asian regions. Following the weakening of Russian influence, new Central Asian states are faced with the necessity of prioritizing between internal consolidation, on the one hand, and regional economic and political integration, on the other. These choices, although do not contradict each other, they do not coincide yet either. No matter how things stand, the situation prompts the need for these states to face the issue of national security, which did not exist for them earlier. The focus of this paper is primarily on various security issues facing Central Asia as a region in general.