The New Great Game

Book excerpt: In the tradition of The Prize, a contemporary look at the history, passion, and politics of oil and gas resources, and the struggle to control them. Using the concept of the “Great Game” that Rudyard Kipling immortalized in his novel Kim, Kleveman argues that there is now a new Great Game in the region, a modern variant of the nineteenth-century clash of imperial ambitions of Great Britain and Tsarist Russia. Traveling thousands of miles, from Turkmenistan (where statues of the country’s leader are made of gold and line the thoroughfares) to the Afghan Hindu Kush, Kleveman met with the principal Great Game actors between Kabul and Moscow: oil barons, generals, diplomats, and warlords. Based on extensive research and travel in the Caucasus, the Caspian, and Central Asia, The New Great Game is a thrilling travel narrative through one of the world’s last unexplored frontiers, and a savvy and incisive analysis of the power struggle for the world’s remaining energy resources. “[Kleveman] can take credit for a book that is essential for those seeking as many views as possible on this complicated moment in history.” —The Seattle Times