Pirouz Mojtahed-Zadeh, THE GREAT GAME SmaIl Players of the Great Game: The settlement of Iran` s eastem borderlands and the creation of Afghanistan London and New York: Routledege Curzon, 2004, xv + 263 pages Hardback: US $100.00

Authors : M Mehdi İLHAN

Pages : 245-250

Doi:10.1501/Tarar_0000000252

View : 21 | Download : 13

Publication Date : 2006-10-01

Article Type : Conference Paper

Abstract :Dealing with the events of the nineteenth century the author hopes to show the impact of the so called the Great Game played between Britain and Russia on the changing poliiical map of Asia and achieve a better insight in to the current affairs in Afghanistan and West Asia. The British maneuvered the uncompromising tribes of Afghanistan and formed an Afghan nation not as a favour to its inhabitants but rather to create a buffer state between Russia and the British India. This was the Great Game played between Russia and Britain. Since the documents vital for the study of this Great Game were compiled by their agents the author asserts to have read between the lines to obtain the truth. After his introductory pages the author starts off his work tracing back the Great Game to the time Persian Empire versus Macedonian; Alexander`s desire -seeing himself successor to Cyrus the Great- to over power the Persian Empire and build `world order`. This in time, with Egypt up setting the balance between the two empires, ended in a geopolitical vacuum that gaye rise to Islam, the greatest challenge both to Eastem and Westem hemisphere. The Islamic power through the hands of the Turks, mainly the Seljuks passed to the Gttomans, who did not only put an end to the  Byzantine Empire, but also came to challenge the European powers. With  the discovery of the new world and particularly the sea route to the Far East  via Cape of Good Hope, the tide turned other way round. The Europeans  eventually came to challenge the Ottomans as well as the whole Islamic  world including Persia. Britain, France, Russia and other European powers  intensified their colonialism in Asia and Africa. The British conquest of  India and the Russian advance in Central Asia, particularly her desire to  reach the warm seas, brought the two great powers on the verge of  confrontation.
Keywords : GREAT GAME, SmaIl Players, Iran