16. Imperial Crisis in Afghanistan and the World Island, Part II

America's capitulation in Afghanistan has provoked an humanitarian disaster, an imperial crisis, and a change in the balance of power between great states in Eurasia. The crisis is still unfolding but has revealed the growing connections and interests of the Eurasian states in a new world order, separate from Atlantic domination. This episode of The Burning Archive Podcast examines how Afghanistan's neighbours and the great states of Eurasia are responding to the situation, and how it shows the Silk Roads are rising again.

Credits and material referred to during the show:

• International Crisis Group, With the Taliban Back in Kabul, Regional Powers Watch and Wait, Commentary 26 August 2021, 
• https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-asia/afghanistan/taliban-back-kabul-regional-powers-watch-and-wait
• Ibrahim Bahiss, analyst at International Crisis Group, https://twitter.com/Afghan_Policy/status/1431812887832514564
• Putin, Xi Make Thinly Veiled Criticisms of US Over Afghanistan and COVID-19 Origin Tracing, Statecraft Bulletin, https://www.statecraft.co.in/article/putin-xi-make-thinly-veiled-criticisms-of-us-over-afghanistan-and-covid-19
• Wang Yi Blinken 29 AQUgust 2021 https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/zxxx_662805/t1902967.shtml
• Afghan 'tragedy' shows EU needs geopolitical muscle: Borrell, https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210822-afghan-tragedy-shows-eu-needs-geopolitical-muscle-borrell
• Lavrov comments, 27 August 2021, https://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/4847771
• Russia, China should communicate with new Afghan authorities independently from US: Russian scholar, Global Times, 31 August 2021, https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1233008.shtml
• Peter Frankopan, Silk Roads: a new history of the world (2017)
• The wonderful Kimiko Ishizaka and the Open Goldberg project, for the public domain recording of the Aria from J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations https://opengoldbergvariations.org/  
• Ezra Pound reading from Canto 81.

Read more of my writing at www.theburningarchive.com including my posts related to Afghanistan - The fall of the American Empire’s Potemkin Province, and The World Island vs the Atlantic.

Buy my new book - Gathering Flowers of the Mind: Collected Poems 1996-2020 in print and e-book editions at major online retailers.