ISLAMABAD - The Great Game, the fabled race for power and influence in Central Asia, has been disrupted by the United States-led "war on terror" that is rallying the whole world against Afghanistan.
For centuries, the wild country astride the towering Hindu Kush mountains has stood as a buffer between Russia to the north and British and later American power to the south. Rival empires wooed its proud tribes in vain.
Now for the first time in its history, Kabul faces enemies wherever it looks. The US, Russia, Britain, China, Iran, Pakistan and India - they all want the hardline Taleban regime out and hope a stable government can be put in.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's historic decision to back the campaign and supply arms to Moscow's one-time enemies who are now fighting the Taleban has closed the book on the old Great Game.
Central Asia is still a chessboard, with many national interests at play, but the pieces are no longer coloured, only black and white, and the alliances no longer exclusive.
"It changes the geopolitical situation," said Clifford Beal, editor of Jane's Defence Review in London. "It is something none of us could have anticipated some weeks ago."
Bharat Karnad, a professor at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, spoke of "a convergence of interests among the old players of the Great Game and the US".
"The game now is to ensure whoever rules Afghanistan does not become a danger to the rest of the region and the world."
Conquering the khanates of Central Asia became a security priority for Russia as early as the 16th century, when Ivan the Terrible seized Kazan from the Tartars and massacred its people.
By the mid-1800s, Moscow strove to build an empire to extend its might but London, fearing the Russians wanted to advance as far as the warm water ports of British India, scrambled to check Tsarist expansion. Envoys and spies fanned out to woo local potentates and railways were built to the edges of the Raj.
Competition for Afghanistan was intense, but neither side ever won it over.
After the Second World War, Washington replaced London as the counterpart to Moscow but although the US now sets the region's agenda and its oil companies could reap the profits, Washington may not be able to establish the military presence old Great Game rivals sought.
In contrast to the old Great Game, when empires steamrollered the peoples in their paths, several independent states in the region are emerging as big winners.
The ex-Soviet republics have used the crisis to assert their independence from Moscow, agreeing to open air corridors and possibly airports to the US, something that was unthinkable only two weeks ago.
Once the region's unquestioned master, Moscow has found it had little choice but to agree with the Central Asian states and let US forces into the region for the first time.
- REUTERS
Map: Opposing forces in the war against terror