The Silk Road, for centuries the central line of communication of early advanced civilizations, is back. Today, it opens up the region where the world's last undeveloped fossil and mineral resources are stored - the Central Asian region - and connects the largest economic areas - Europe and Asia. This is also where the central players of our time meet. In the west the European Union, in the east the People's Republic of China. In the north, the Russian Federation, the former superpower of the Cold War, in the south the future most populous country on earth - India. The United States of America, not directly geographically located, is present both militarily and politically. As a result, this region has the highest geopolitical relevance - conflicts of interest of the so-called "global players" are inevitable. On the basis of an empirical-analytical evaluation of relevant data, embedded in the field of tension between neorealism and interdependence theory, this region is therefore evaluated as the geopolitical/geostrategic fault line along which the power constellation of the 21st century develops.
