THE "FUNDAMENTALIST" THREAT TO UZBEKISTAN: CRISIS OR CHIMERA?
By Dr. Reuel Hanks (8/30/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Since independence in 1991, the regime of Islam Karimov has maintained a steadfast campaign against political opponents, particularly those seeking legitimacy or consensus via Islam. Even before complete Soviet collapse, the organizational meeting of the Islamic Revival Party in early 1990 was broken up by government forces, and throughout the last decade, the threat of an alleged "Wahhabist" movement in the Fergana Valley has provided the rationale for a consistent campaign of intimidation and arrest. Rather than secure religious freedom, a new statute on religion passed in 1998 gave the government sweeping powers to crush any "unsanctioned" religious activity.
Smoking is at last taking a beating in one of the habit’s strongest bastions in Central Asia
By Jennifer Balfour (8/30/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
With the help of western companies and the locally created subsidiary, UzBAT, Uzbekistan became Central Asia’s regional leader in tobacco sales. Slick, efficient advertising paved the way for its new brands. Florescent stickers appeared on kiosk and shop fronts.
THE SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANIZATION AND ITS FUTURE
By Stephen Blank (5/22/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The SCO came into being originally as a confidence-building mechanism to define the five members\' (Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, China) collective borders and ensure conditions for increased trade among them. However it soon evolved into something else. In a sense, China and Russia hijacked - or at least diverted - the SCO into becoming an allegedly model forum for their joint resistance to American policies concerning missile defense and support for Taiwan and for reform in Tibet and the American alliance system in Asia.KARIMOV’S FREE HAND AS A DOMINANT MILITARY POWER
By Professor Stephen Blank (9/13/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: For over a year and a half, Uzbekistan has asked many countries for military assistance, among them Germany, China and the United States, in its armed struggle against militants from the Islamic Movement for Uzbekistan. The militants appear to be composed of both Islamic insurgents and bandits posing as Islamic rebels for their own purposes. These insurgencies began in mid-1999 after an attempt was made on President Islam Karimov's life and shortly following Karimov’s withdrawal of Uzbekistan from of the collective security pact of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
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Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.
Analysis Svante E. Cornell, "Promise and Peril in the Caucasus," AFPC Insights, March 30, 2023.
Oped S. Frederick Starr, Putin's War In Ukraine and the Crimean War), 19fourtyfive, January 2, 2023
Oped S. Frederick Starr, Russia Needs Its Own Charles de Gaulle, Foreign Policy, July 21, 2022.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Rethinking Greater Central Asia: American and Western Stakes in the Region and How to Advance Them, June 2022
Oped Svante E. Cornell & Albert Barro, With referendum, Kazakh President pushes for reforms, Euractiv, June 3, 2022.
Oped Svante E. Cornell Russia's Southern Neighbors Take a Stand, The Hill, May 6, 2022.
Silk Road Paper Johan Engvall, Between Bandits and Bureaucrats: 30 Years of Parliamentary Development in Kyrgyzstan, January 2022.
Oped Svante E. Cornell, No, The War in Ukraine is not about NATO, The Hill, March 9, 2022.
Analysis Svante E. Cornell, Kazakhstan’s Crisis Calls for a Central Asia Policy Reboot, The National Interest, January 34, 2022.
Book S. Frederick Starr and Svante E. Cornell, Strong and Unique: Three Decades of U.S.-Kazakhstan Partnership, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, December 2021.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, S. Frederick Starr & Albert Barro, Political and Economic Reforms in Kazakhstan Under President Tokayev, November 2021.