Interview / I talk to the political scientist Alexander Cooley about his book Great Games, Local Rules.
The title Great Games, Local Rules alludes to the “great game” portrayed by Rudyard Kipling during the nineteenth century, when Russia and Great Britain struggled for control over Central Asia. But the new “great game” described by Cooley is of a different nature—the regional interests of Russia, China, and the United States don’t necessarily contradict one another; instead, the countries often cooperate in their dealings with Central Asian states, which, unlike the Central Asia of Kipling’s time, are sovereign and have established their own “local rules” that they use to manipulate the “great powers.”
Read the interview in the inaugural issue of Harriman Magazine.