<\/p>\n
S.M. Hali<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n Few figures embody the long arc of British strategic engagement in Asia and the Middle East as vividly as Alastair Warren Crook<\/b><\/strong>, a veteran diplomat and intelligence officer whose career spanned three decades within the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)<\/b><\/strong>. His life\u2019s work, from the rugged passes of Afghanistan to the shadowed corridors of diplomacy, reflects the persistence of what historians have called the Great Game<\/i><\/em>\u2014the centuries\u001eold contest for influence between Britain and Russia across Eurasia.<\/p>\n Crook\u2019s career unfolded during the waning years of empire, yet the logic of imperial rivalry remained intact. In the 1980s, as the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Crook helped coordinate British support for the Mujahideen<\/b><\/strong>, the guerrilla fighters resisting Moscow\u2019s occupation. The mission was not merely tactical; it was ideological\u2014a continuation of Britain\u2019s nineteenth\u001ecentury policy of containing Russian expansion toward the Indian subcontinent. The Afghan mountains became the new chessboard of empire, and Crook, like many of his generation, played his part in a struggle that would shape global geopolitics for decades.<\/p>\n Educated in the traditions of British diplomacy, Crook entered MI6 at a time when the Cold War had transformed intelligence into the principal instrument of statecraft. His postings in Asia and the Middle East placed him at the intersection of espionage and diplomacy, where covert operations were inseparable from political negotiation. Though diminished in global reach after 1945, British intelligence retained its instinct\u2014to influence events indirectly, through alliances, insurgencies, and information.<\/p>\n Crook\u2019s work in Afghanistan exemplified this approach. Britain, alongside the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, supported the Mujahideen not only to bleed the Soviet military but to reaffirm Western dominance in the ideological contest between communism and capitalism. The eventual Soviet withdrawal in 1989 marked a victory for the West, yet the fragmentation of Afghanistan sowed the seeds of future instability. Crook\u2019s reflections reveal a deep awareness of the paradoxes of power\u2014how short\u001eterm victories can yield long\u001eterm disorder.<\/p>\n In recent years, Crook has emerged as a trenchant critic of Western policy toward Russia and Eastern Europe. His remarks, widely circulated online, warn of a dangerous escalation between Moscow and the West. \u201cI foresee an escalation by Russia against America\u2019s closest ally, against Europe,\u201d he cautioned, arguing that European militarization and U.S. encouragement are pushing the continent toward confrontation.<\/p>\n His analogy is vivid: comparing the bombing of Russian commercial infrastructure, such as the Wildberries retail network, to the hypothetical destruction of Amazon warehouses by Russia. \u201cWhat the hell? Is that even sane?\u201d he asks, exposing the moral and strategic absurdity of targeting civilian economic assets. For Crook, the underlying motive remains unchanged since the nineteenth century: the desire to fragment Russia and seize its vast natural resources. He identifies three historical attempts to subdue Russia\u2014the Napoleonic invasion, the Nazi campaign, and Cold War containment\u2014and suggests the current conflict represents a fourth iteration of the same imperial impulse.<\/p>\n Crook situates the present confrontation within the continuum of the Great Game<\/i><\/em>. Coined in the 1830s, the term described Britain\u2019s rivalry with Tsarist Russia for control of Central Asia. Today, the terrain has shifted\u2014from the passes of the Hindu Kush to the digital and economic frontiers of Eurasia\u2014but the strategic logic endures. The West\u2019s pursuit of influence through sanctions, proxy wars, and information campaigns mirrors the imperial tactics of the past.<\/p>\n The tragedy, in Crook\u2019s view, lies in the failure to learn from history. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was interpreted in Western capitals as the final victory of liberal democracy. Yet triumphalism blinded policymakers to the resentment and insecurity that would later fuel Russia\u2019s resurgence. NATO\u2019s eastward expansion, the militarization of Ukraine, and the weaponization of economic interdependence have revived the very dynamics the Great Game sought to manage\u2014competition for dominance across the Eurasian heartland.<\/p>\n Crook\u2019s reflections carry the authority of experience. Having served in both intelligence and diplomacy, he understands that sustainable peace cannot be achieved through coercion alone. His critique of Western strategy is rooted in realism: every empire, however sophisticated, must eventually confront the limits of its reach.<\/p>\n He advocates a return to genuine diplomacy\u2014dialogue grounded in mutual respect rather than ideological triumphalism. For Crook, the lesson of Afghanistan is instructive: external powers can ignite conflicts, but they rarely control their outcomes. The same principle applies to Ukraine and the broader confrontation with Russia. Escalation, he warns, will not yield stability; it will perpetuate the cycle of intervention and retaliation that has defined Eurasian politics for two centuries.<\/p>\n Alastair Crook\u2019s career invites reflection on the moral dimensions of intelligence work. His service in MI6 was shaped by loyalty to Britain\u2019s strategic interests, yet his later writings reveal a conscience tempered by historical awareness. He represents a generation of operatives who witnessed the transformation of empire into globalized interventionism\u2014a shift that replaced territorial conquest with ideological and economic dominance.<\/p>\n In the twilight of his career, Crook\u2019s voice resonates as that of a seasoned observer urging restraint. His warnings about the West\u2019s confrontation with Russia are not nostalgic defences of old alliances but sober assessments of geopolitical reality. The Great Game, he implies, never truly ended; it merely changed its instruments.<\/p>\n As Europe and America navigate the perilous landscape of twenty\u001efirst\u001ecentury geopolitics, Crook\u2019s insights remind us that history is not a museum of past mistakes\u2014it is a mirror reflecting present ambitions. The torch of intelligence he once carried now illuminates a deeper truth: that power without wisdom is the surest path to perpetual conflict.<\/p>\n Writer is Senior Analyst, TV anchor and Columnist. He is also author of many books. He can be reached at\u00a0sultanm.hali@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" S.M. Hali Few figures embody the long arc of British strategic engagement in Asia and the Middle East as vividly as Alastair Warren Crook, a veteran diplomat and intelligence officer whose career spanned three decades within the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). His life\u2019s work, from the rugged passes of Afghanistan to the shadowed corridors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1455,391],"class_list":["post-65137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-editorial-articles","tag-alastair-crook-and-the-great-game","tag-s-m-hali"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65137"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65140,"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65137\/revisions\/65140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyspokesman.net\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}