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Afghanistan, a politically and economically underdeveloped landlocked country, is strategically located at the hub of Central Asia, South Asia and West Asia. The primitive people of virtually no resources could not be colonized primarily due to balance of power in Anglo-Russian rivalry in this region in the nineteenth century. Strategic evolution of Afghanistan since the nineteenth century has marked the character of international power politics in this region. The balance of power and strategic stability in the region resulted in the status of Afghanistan as a buffer state both during the imperial and cold war era till 1 978. Whenever the buffer state status of Afghanistan was violated and the external powers, the Soviet Union (1978-89) and Pakistan (1994-2001) tried to impose their hegemony upon the country, it destabilized the regional balance of power and strategic stability. Maintenance of territorial integrity, political stability, national unity and sovereignty and neutrality/non-aligned status of Afghanistan has again proved to be crucial to strategic stability and peace and security in the region. However, its chances are remote as geopolitics of oil route and anti-terror war may again impose US hegemony under the garb of strategic consensus.
The following stages in strategic evolution of Afghanistan may be noted:
a. Afghanistan as a buffer state in the Great Game of Anglo-Russian rivalry in the 1 9th century,
b. Afghanistan as a buffer state between Soviet and US spheres of influence during 1945-78,
c. Deep strategic stakes of the two super powers during 1 979-9 1 ,
d. Geopolitics of Oil and War against Terror: Towards Strategic Consensus under US Hegemony
This paper examines strategic interests of the USA, Pakistan, Russia, Central Asian Republics, China and India in Afghanistan and their responses to the Afghan conundrum.
AFGHANISTAN: LOW STRATEGIC PRIORITY FOR THE USA
The United States until the second half of the 1970s did not consider Afghanistan of any significance to its security interests. Low strategic priority of Afghanistan for USA becomes evident from a secret study conducted in 1953 by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which inter alia concluded:
"Afghanistan is of little or no strategic importance to the United States. Its geographic location coupled with the realization by Afghan leaders of Soviet capabilities, presages Soviet control of the country...