New Great Game focuses on Iran and Pakistan

IN the old and new Great Game, Afghanistan has held a central position. Peter Hopkirk, in his path-breaking book The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia, chronicled the 19th-century geopolitical chessboard involving Britain and Russia.

To prevent an armed conflict between British India and the Russian empire, both powers decided to declare Afghanistan as a buffer state — until the end of the Cold War reshaped Central, South, and West Asian dynamics. Following the complete US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021...