Rakhmon Haggles with Putin
On August 1, Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmon paid a quick visit to Moscow to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Commentators agree the visit is essentially linked to the…
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Central Asia
206 posts
Will Afghanistan Take Central Asia Down with It?
(The National Interest) (Co-author: Scott Radnitz) While U.S. foreign-policy makers are currently preoccupied with the Middle East—chaos in Egypt, raging civil war in Syria and ongoing violence in Libya—military strategists…
With Massive Russian Military Aid, Is Kyrgyzstan Becoming A Client State?
(Eurasianet.org) Russia is going to start sending $1 billion in weapons to Kyrgyzstan this year, said Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. That appears to be an acceleration of earlier plans; just…
Eurasia 2014: Into Thin Air
(IERES-Central Asia Program Policy Brief) Key Points: Factors that produce democracy can produce violence. Drivers of reform are also drivers of radicalism. Predictable indeterminacy is the surprising suddenness of protest…
New Policy Memo: The Changing Logic of Russian Strategy in Central Asia: From Privileged Sphere to Divide and Rule?
(Co-authors: Alexander Cooley, Marlene Laruelle) Russian strategy toward Central Asia generates great interest in Western academic and policy circles, but few analytical nuances. Depending on the source, Russia is often…
The Changing Logic of Russian Strategy in Central Asia: From Privileged Sphere to Divide and Rule?
Russian strategy toward Central Asia generates great interest in Western academic and policy circles, but few analytical nuances. Depending on the source, Russia is often characterized as wanting to dominate…
Russia’s Concerns Relating to Afghanistan and the Broader Region
(Research Paper) As part of a CIDOB Policy Research Project, a new paper was released titled, "Russia's Concerns Relating to Afghanistan and the Broader Region in the Context of the…
Bishkek Hosts Informal CSTO Summit
On May 28, 2013, Kyrgyzstan hosted an informal summit of the heads of state of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). The summit discussed various issues related to regional security,…
Revolutions, corruption and intrigue in Central Asia’s “Restless Valley”
(Book Review) Over a five-year period in the 2000s, Central Asia’s Fergana Valley saw two revolutions, the bloodiest government-ordered crackdown on protestors since China’s Tiananmen Square, and a wave of…
April in Kyrgyzstan
This month Kyrgyzstan celebrates the third anniversary of the overthrow of country’s second president, Kurmanbek Bakiev, which led to major changes in the country’s structure of governance. Three years on,…