Difficult Engagements: Political Lessons from the K2 Experience

In July 2005, the government of Uzbekistan expelled the United States from the Karshi-Khanabad (K2) air base from which U.S. forces had conducted reconnaissance and support missions for Operation Enduring Freedom in neighboring Afghanistan since autumn 2001. Prior to the eviction the Uzbek government had grown wary of mounting international and U.S. criticism over its hard-line policies, especially its May crackdown on protestors in the eastern city of Andijon and its aftermath. The dramatic events in Uzbekistan provide two important lessons for U.S. policymakers: first, the policy of politically engaging nondemocratic base-hosts to enact democratic reforms is practically ineffective; second, establishing an overseas basing presence will always embroil the United States in the domestic political conflicts of its base hosts, regardless of the base’s actual operations, size, or policymakers’ actual intentions. Both lessons are further supported by the historical experiences of the United States in dealing with other non-democratic base hosts. […]

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