IRAN SPY TRIAL HIGHLIGHTS ISRAELI-CENTRAL ASIAN SECURITY RELATIONS
By Christopher Boucek (6/7/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The fate of Jewish communities living abroad has been an historical prime concern for Israel. Israeli policy makers have recently found themselves in the position of encouraging Jews not to immigrate to Israel. The abundance of fraudulent papers circulating in the former Soviet Union, the previously unknown scourge of organized crime (now epidemic in Israel), and the added strain to the state’s already tightly-stretched social welfare system, have all contributed to Tel Aviv’s desire to see Diaspora communities remain abroad.
RUSSIAN THREAT TO STRIKE AFGHANISTAN TESTS CENTRAL ASIAN PARTNERS
By Dr. Theodore Karasik (6/21/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: In late May 2000, Russian officials announced the possibility that the bombing of training camps in Afghanistan would commence over the summer. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov asserted "Acts of terror and other actions which could damage the interests of Russia and its partners in Central Asia are being prepared on the territory of Afghanistan." Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembskii pointed to an agreement reached in Mazar-i-Sharif between representatives of the Taliban and of Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, Saudi-born terrorist Usama bin Laden, and Uzbek Islamist leader Djuma Namangani.
PAKISTAN'S EXPLICIT PRO-PASHTUN POLICY AND PRO-TALIBAN SUPPORT
By Ahmed Rashid (6/21/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Pakistan's generous backing for the Pashtun Mujaheddin during the anti-Soviet war, especially Gulbuddin Hikmetyar's Hizb-e Islami party in the 1980s and the Taliban movement in the 1990s, has been based on the close ethnic links between Afghan Pashtuns and Pakistani Pashtuns, who are Pakistan's second largest ethnic group. Pakistan's policy has been determined by fears of a rejuvenation of the Pashtun nationalist movement in both countries, which in the past has aimed to carve out a separate Pashtun state or attach Pakistan's Pashtun belt to Afghanistan. Pakistan has sought the creation of a pro-Pakistan government in Kabul in order to acquire ''strategic depth'' in Afghanistan for strength in its conflict with India.
CLOAKING THE CHECHEN WAR AS JIHAD: THE RISK OF MILITANT CONTAGION
By Dr. Svante E. Cornell (6/21/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The Russo-Chechen conflict can now be defined as a nine-year old struggle that has gone through two non-violent stages, between Chechnya’s declaration of independence in 1991 and December 1994, and between August 1996 and September 1999. The conflict has also gone through two violent phases, including the war of December 1994-August 1996 that ended in a Chechen victory, and the current war that has raged since September 1999. During these nine years, the main contentious issue has been the status of Chechnya and its relationship to the Russian Federation.
Visit also
Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Greater Central Asia as A Component of U.S. Global Strategy, October 2024.
Analysis Laura Linderman, "Rising Stakes in Tbilisi as Elections Approach," Civil Georgia, September 7, 2024.
Analysis Mamuka Tsereteli, "U.S. Black Sea Strategy: The Georgian Connection", CEPA, February 9, 2024.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, ed., Türkiye's Return to Central Asia and the Caucasus, July 2024.
Book Svante E. Cornell, ed., "The Changing Geopolitics of Central Asia and the Caucasus" AFPC Press/Armin LEar, 2023.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell and S. Frederick Starr, Stepping up to the “Agency Challenge”: Central Asian Diplomacy in a Time of Troubles, July 2023.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.