After the fall of USSR Central Asia has became one of the most relevant areas of international scene thanks to huge energetic resources, strategic position among Russia, China, and India, and contiguity to sensible countries such as Iran and Afghani-stan. Nonetheless, the difficult building of an effective statehood by local republics, more or less affected by a legacy of backwardness and misrule, happens in a situation of strong international competition for the control of energetic resources. Stereotypes as “New Silk Road”, “Geopolitical Pivot of History”, or “New Great Game” do not really help to understand a region characterised by both a strong fragmentation and a proliferation of external agencies. As a matter of fact, Central Asia is a crucial context of international relations, whose development needs a fore-seeing policy on the part of the local governments and a balanced approach of all the global actors involved.
