GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS OF ARAL SEA DESICCATION
By Dr. John C. K. Daly (11/8/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The Aral Sea’s Vozrozhdeniie Island was the main open-air testing ground for Soviet biological warfare weapons. Weaponized agents included tularemia, epidemic typhus, Q fever, smallpox, plague, anthrax, Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis, Glanders, brucellosis, and Marburg infection. Numerous other agents were studied for possible use as biological weapons, including the Ebola virus, AIDS, Junin virus (Argentinian hemorrhagic fever), Machupo virus (Bolivian hemorrhagic fever), yellow fever, Lassa fever, Japanese encephalitis and Russian spring-summer encephalitis.
THE ISLAND OF AUTOCRACY?
By Gulsara Osorova (11/8/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Askar Akaev, who has been a president of the Kyrgyz Republic for the last 10 years, was reelected for a next five-year presidential term on 29 October gaining 74.5% of the vote. Akaev had a considerable advantage over his opponents in the election.
KYRGYZ TURMOIL OVER A BORDER AGREEMENT
By Anara Tabyshalieva (5/22/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Defending the border agreement with China, President Askar Akayev stated that the border agreement is the best solution for a small country, a skillful piece of Kyrgyz diplomacy giving away just 30 percent of the originally contested area. Talking about a good relationship with China, government officials remind that China intended to acquire more lands, presenting its own maps and planning to give Kyrgyzstan only four percent of the disputed areas, while Kyrgyz officials argued that the old Soviet state borders should be the new borders of independent Kyrgyzstan. Since 1964 the Soviet-Chinese border problem, which then became a Kyrgyz-Chinese one, could not be resolved.EAST-WEST OR WEST-EAST? CHINA RESURGENT IN THE CASPIAN
By Michael Denison (3/26/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The decision by British-owned BG International Ltd. to sell its entire 16.67% stake in the North Caspian Sea Project (NCSP) in Kazakhstan did not unduly surprise industry analysts.Visit also
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Joint Center Publications
Analysis Niklas Swanström and Leah Oppenheimer, "Invisible Ink: Looking for the Lost Trade between China, Russia, and Central Asia", ISDP Policy Brief, 13 March 2013. 
New Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr with Adib Farhadi, Finish the Job: Jump-Start the Afghan Economy, December 2012.
Conference Report Cheryl Benard, Eli Sugarman, and Holly Rehm, Cultural Heritage vs. Mining on the New Silk Road? Finding Technical Solutions for Mes Aynak and Beyond (in cooperation with the Alliance for the Restoration of Cultural Heritage) December 2012.
Article Svante E. Cornell, "The 'Afghanization of the North Caucasus: Causes and Implications of a Changing Conflict", in Stephen Blank, ed., Russia's Homegrown Insurgency: Jihad in the North Caucasus, Carlisle, PA: U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, 2012.