by Robert M. Cutler (05/01/2013 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Days after the conclusion of the late-March summit in Moscow between Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbaev met with Xi during a visit to China to attend the multilateral Boao Forum of Asia (BFA), which styles itself the Asian Davos. The two leaders established a new bilateral business council, signed numerous agreements for economic cooperation including infrastructure construction, and deepened still further Chinese participation in the development and bringing-to-market (and especially bringing-to-China) of Kazakhstan's impressive raw materials resources, most of all energy.

by Emil Souleimanov (05/01/2013 issue of the CACI Analyst)

During the Boston marathon on April 15, two bombs exploded leaving three dead and 264 injured. According to the FBI investigation, two brothers of Chechen/Dagestani origin, Tamerlan (26) and Jokhar Tsarnaev (19), permanently residing in the U.S., organized and carried out the bombings. Given the terrorists’ ethnic profile and supposedly religious motivation, questions arise as to whether the Tsarnaev brothers acted on their own or in cooperation with or on instructions of a Jihadist group either within or outside America, for instance, in their native North Caucasus.

by Richard Weitz (05/01/2013 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Kazakhstan’s government is atypical among Central Asian countries for its prominent efforts to reduce tensions in Eurasia as well as to increase understanding, trust, and cooperation between different regions, cultures, and religions. The Kazakhstani government’s motives in seeking such a prominent role are straightforward. It aims to reduce security threats and advance economic interests. It also wants to elevate the country’s profile in world affairs by hosting prominent international gatherings and by making visible contributions to international peace and prosperity. Kazakhstan’s main problem is that Astana’s limited diplomatic and other resources limit its ability to pursue its ambitious foreign-policy agenda.

by Rizwan Zeb (05/01/2013 issue of the CACI Analyst)

While Pakistan continues to be a frontline state in the global war on terror, it is simultaneously fighting domestic terrorism in a war that will seemingly continue well beyond 2014. In recent months, terror attacks targeting the Shia Hazara minority in Baluchistan indicate a transformation of the terror problem in Pakistan. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi present two different sides of Pakistan’s terrorism problem, however, the two organizations have increasingly converged operationally to the extent that Pakistan cannot eliminate one without simultaneously confronting the other.