CHINESE COUNTER-TERRORIST STRIKE IN XINJIANG
By Andrew McGregor (3/7/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The Uyghur separatist movement is badly divided, with dozens of groups with different agendas claiming to represent the interests of the Uyghurs, a Turkic people. Some groups renounce violence as a political tactic while others embrace it. Until recently the Uyghurs were the majority in the Central Asian region they call East Turkistan (known to the Chinese as Xinjiang, or ‘New Territory’), but a massive and continuing migration of Han Chinese into the region has left the Uyghurs with only 45% of the population of 18 million.IRAN’S EQUITIES IN THE TURKMEN SUCCESSION
By Stephen Blank (3/7/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Tehran’s capabilities for mischief-making include its ability to sponsor terrorist or insurgent forces throughout the Caspian littoral. Iran’s attitude toward the groups that it sponsors is wholly instrumental. Although they are maintained and kept on hand for when they may be needed, they are not activated until and unless Iran’s relationship with one of the neighboring states, either in the Middle East or in the former Soviet Union, deteriorates.EU BROACHES PEACEKEEPING POSSIBILITY IN GEORGIA
By Jaba Devdariani and Blanka Hancilova (3/7/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: EU peacekeepers could be deployed to Georgia\'s breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, EU foreign policy Chief Javier Solana said after meeting with the Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili in Brussels on February 28. He added that the EU is ready to participate in missions “as long as those missions have a clear objective …[that] can be achieved.” Behind this cryptic comment might lie an EU intention to seek to modify the peacekeeping format with Russia’s consent and participation.AS SNOW MELTS, AFGHANISTAN BRACES FOR TALIBAN RESURGENCE
By Diana Janse (3/7/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The number of violent incidents related to \'anti-government activities\' in the last six months of 2006 was almost double that in the first six months. The Afghan National Army (ANA) and the Afghan National Police (ANP) were among the prime targets, along with foreign troops and representatives of the new Afghan administration. Since early 2005, in fact, the security situation in Afghanistan has been deteriorating steadily, a trend which accelerated in 2006.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.