KYRGYZSTAN’S OPPOSITION LEADER FELIKS KULOV FINALLY RELEASED
By Gulsara Osorova (8/16/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The March 2000 parliamentary elections shifted the image of Kyrgyzstan from an "island of democracy" that was supposed to guarantee the freedom of speech and basic norms of human rights, to a powerful image of a strengthening authoritarian regime. Feliks Kulov, the politically disgraced vice-president and former mayor of Bishkek, resigned his office in 1998 to join the political opposition. Kulov resigned his office and quit his political party over conflicts he had with President Askar Akaev and his politics.
CHINA’S "GO WEST" PIPELINE PROJECTS: A "GREAT LEAP WESTWARD"?
By Dr. Robert M. Cutler (8/16/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) asserts that Xinjiang has 17.4 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves. However, it is not clear that they are all recoverable.
THE NEW RUSSO-CHINESE "PARTNERSHIP" AND CENTRAL ASIA
By Dr. Stephen Blank (8/16/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Since 1992, there has been a steep rise in the incidence of Muslim insurgencies in both Russia and China. The escalating violence, originating but not confined to Xinjiang and Chechnya, added to fears of American/NATO support for other potential separatist movements have led China and Russia to display stronger expressions of partnership. Those expressions are intended to exclude the United States from the area, suppress local insurgency, cement ties with Central Asia's authoritarian rulers, suppress efforts by insurgents to link up with other insurgent movements across state lines, and expand the Shanghai-Five from a community of states sharing borders to a regional and collective security system explicitly designed against the United States and its positions on human rights, missile defense, and Asian security issues like Taiwan.
UKRAINE AS A MAJOR PLAYER IN THE CAUCASUS
By Dr. Zurab Tchiaberashvili (8/30/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Ukraine’s growing role in the Caucasus is reflected in The UN Security Council inclusion of Ukraine in a group nations helping the UN Secretary General to solve the Abkhazian conflict. Russian intended to use the CIS as a tool to impose its geopolitical and economic control over former Soviet republics. To protect themselves from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Moldova created GUUAM that now includes Uzbekistan which is now a "Trojan Horse" within the CIS.
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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.