New Actors, Old Obstacles: Security Cooperation in Eurasia

The main obstacle to developing an appropriate security architecture for post-Soviet Eurasia are the number of perceptual and conceptual gaps that exist among the actors involved. Major states and regional…

Averting Central Asian Rwandas

With the May 2010 pogroms in southern Kyrgyzstan, the semi-forgotten specter of ethnic violence and state disintegration has returned to Central Asia with a vengeance. In the two decades since…

The International Community’s Elusive Search for Common Ground in Central Asia

At a closed-door, high-level gathering in Paris in 2008, the United Nations’ special representative to Afghanistan urged ministers from Eurasia, the Middle East, and South Asia to jointly tackle common…

The Logic of Kyrgyzstan’s Base Policy

Kyrgyzstan’s February 2009 decision to close the U.S. military base at the country’s Manas airfield caught many by surprise. The decision was not preceded by domestic debate about a possible…

The Kyrgyz Crisis and the Political Logic of Central Asia’s Weak Regional Security Organizations

For the second time in five years, political events in Kyrgyzstan shook the Central Asia region and caught the international community off-guard. In early April 2010, a few sporadic protests…

China’s Challenges in Central Asia: Fallout from the Georgian War, the Financial Crisis, and the Xinjiang Riots

In the past year, China’s Central Asia policy has weathered several external and internal shocks, which have proven to be interconnected in unexpected ways. Although some differences emerged between China…

Tajikistan’s New Trade: Cross-border Commerce and the China-Afghanistan Link

The official Tajik narrative on cross-border relations with Afghanistan focuses on security concerns, namely the spread of drug trafficking and Islamic militancy. Presenting these threats as entirely external in origin…

Three Perspectives on Political Islam in Central Asia

This memo explores political Islam in Central Asia from three perspectives: that of (1) U.S. government analysts; (2) Central Asian government leaders; and (3) everyday Central Asian Muslims. Drawing on…

The Stagnation of the SCO: Competing Agendas and Divergent Interests in Central Asia

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), comprising China, Russia, and four of the five Central Asian states (excluding Turkmenistan), continues to be a source of fascination and speculation. Western commentators remain…

Breaking the Nation’s Taboo: Meds Yeghern and Turkish Intellectuals

On December 12, 2008, a group of Turkish intellectuals launched an internet campaign to apologize for the World War I-era slaughter of Armenians in Turkey. Significantly, the “apology campaign” did…

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