Greater Central Asia

Greater Central Asia (GCA) is a variously defined region encompassing the area in and around Central Asia, by one definition including Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Xinjiang (in China), and Afghanistan,[1] and by a more expansive definition, excluding Turkey but including Mongolia and parts of India and Russia.

[8] In ancient times, GCA was involved in the Silk Road, and was greatly influenced by Buddhism as it transmitted through the region to East Asia.

[17] The 18th to mid 20th-century British rule of India disconnected South Asians from their centuries-long ties to GCA at the same time that the Soviet Union and Chinese Qing dynasty were conquering parts of the region.

[18] Afghanistan became a buffer state between the British Empire and the Soviet Union in what was referred to as the "Great Game".

[18] The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan of the 1980s prompted a greater level of Western interest in the GCA concept, as a way of understanding contemporary events in the context of historical Eurasian geopolitics.