The term "Great Game" refers to the geopolitical struggle, lasting for nearly the entire 19th century, between the British Empire and the Russian Empire in the regions of Central Asia. In this area, Britain, being the foremost industrial power, had tried to establish itself as the leading global power. The phrase was coined by a British captain, Arthur Conolly, but was popularized by the writer Rudyard Kipling in his novel Kim (1901) and further immortalized by Peter Hopkirk in his masterpiece The Great Game. After the Russian Empire's spectacular expansion in the second half of the 19th century—where it acquired cities like Tashkent, Bukhara, and Samarkand—the British feared for what was the most precious asset of their empire: India. As observed by the Russian general Mikhail Skobelev, "The stronger Russia is in Central Asia, the weaker England is in India, and the more conciliatory it will be in Europe." Particularly towards the end of the 19th century, the focus of military and diplomatic action shifted from Afghanistan to Tibet. The series of buffer states above British Raj, including Tibet, provided effective political (and natural) protection against Russian expansionism. It was therefore essential to maintain the friendship—or at least the neutrality—of these entities. Sir Arthur Godley, Permanent Under-Secretary for India, feared that Russia had more advantageous military access to the Indian subcontinent than the British themselves. Along the frontiers of British India, a long line of imperial administrators adhered to the school of thought known as the Forward policy: this doctrine advocated the expansion of British imperial authority in response to direct threats to the Empire's borders. One representative of this foreign policy doctrine was Lord George Curzon, Viceroy of India, who in 1904 decided to authorize an invasion of Tibet, the final significant action of the Great Game. But that is another story.