REVOLUTIONARY BUT NOT A SECOND IRANIAN REVOLUTION
By Gary G. Sick (3/1/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: On February 18, 2000, Iran held elections for the Majles (parliament), the sixth since the 1979 revolution overthrew Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and established an Islamic Republic. Since the late 1980s, when the Iran-Iraq war ended and Ayatollah Khomeini died, a reform movement has emerged in Iran, challenging the dominance of hard line conservatives and clerics and pressing for greater freedom of expression, government accountability, rule of law, and expanded personal liberty. This movement has gained enormous momentum since the landslide election of reformist President Mohammad Khatami in 1997.
CHINA\'S QUEST FOR EURASIA\'S NATURAL RESOURCES
By Ariel Cohen (2/26/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The Chinese government has designated oil, grain and water as strategic commodities with maximum influence on economic development. While China is the world\'s fifth largest oil producer, demand is outgrowing economic production. By 2020, China will not be able to supply itself with oil, iron, steel, aluminum, sulfur, and other minerals.TAJIKISTAN’S ELECTIONS: EVEN A BAD PEACE IS BETTER THAN A JUST WAR
By Dr. Yokubjon Abdukholikov (3/15/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The year 1997 was one of reconciliation for Tajikistan’s opposing political forces and began a period of social stability in the war-torn country. For the first time since the civil war, representatives of opposition parties decided to administer the government together. A referendum led to constitutional amendments that overturned the law banning United Tajik Opposition political parties and reformed the election system that constituted the legal basis of the recent presidential and parliamentary elections.
AZERBAIJAN AND TURKMENISTAN UNTIE THE CASPIAN GAS KNOT
By Dr. Robert M. Cutler (3/15/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Gas sales represent about two-fifths of the Turkmenistan’s total exports. These exports increased by two-thirds in the first half of 1999, from 13.3 in the first half of 1998 to 22.
Visit also
