Field Reports
KAZAKH-UZBEK BORDER AGREEMENT SIGNED
By Marat Yermukanov, Kazakhstan (11/21/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
"An Uzbek is my own brother", a common Kazakh saying goes. In reality, present- day Kazakh-Uzbek relations could be called anything but fraternal. The tension between the two ethnically close neighbors have manifested themselves in numerous border skirmishes during the last two years.
JOURNALISTS IN KAZAKHSTAN PRESS FOR MORE FREEDOM OF SPEECH
By Karim Sayid (11/21/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Quite recently a group of intellectuals, writers and journalists of Kazakhstan addressed an open letter to the president of the country Nursultan Nazarbayev, in which they express their growing concern about the repeated attempts of law-enforcement bodies to limit the freedom of speech under invented pretexts. "Any media organization trying to advocate its own view is put under pressure. The absurdity has already reached the point when a court imposes a ban on a paper not earlier than a day before it comes out of print without explaining reasons.
LAKE ISSYK-KUL IS UNDER THREAT
By Maria Utyaganova, student, International Relations Department, American University in Kyrgyzstan, Bi (11/21/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Kyrgyzstan’s famed Issyk-kul lake is in danger. Its water level is sinking by an average of 5 centimeters a year. The melting of glaciers is identified as the main cause of this development.
SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN KYRGYZSTAN TO BE REORGANIZED
By Aisha Aslanbekova (12/19/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
On November 7, the Ministry of Education of the Kyrgyz Republic announced that an internal structural reorganization would be carried out in the higher educational institutions of the country. Kyrgyzstan has too many universities, an quality is far from conforming to quantity. The poor standards of university education, corruption in universities, and the prospects of unemployment that most of the Kyrgyz students face after graduation are problems that the ministry now seeks to address.
Visit also
Forums and Events
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.