WESTERN POWERS BOLSTER TAJIKISTAN AS IT FACES RENEWED THREATS TO STABILITY AND SECURITY.
By Ahmed Rashid (5/23/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Tajikistan faces major threats which include a likely renewed summer offensive by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) which has bases in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, but also has military camps and recruiting centers in the Tavildera valley in central Tajikistan; the threat from the Taliban and continued fighting on the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border between the Taliban and the opposition United Front led by Ahmad Shah Masud; drug trafficking from Afghanistan and a worsening economic crisis due to the earlier neglect of the international donor community to fulfill its pledges after the 1997 ceasefire and establishment of a coalition government which ended the five year civil war, to help reconstruct Tajikistan. The US and other leading powers have finally recognized what President Imomali Rakhmanov has long said, that sustaining the coalition government in Dushanbe is vital for peace and security in Central Asia and that it could provide a model for an eventual peaceful settlement of the civil war in Afghanistan.
General Franks visited Dushanbe on May 16, where he conveyed a message from the Bush administration that the US considers Tajikistan ‘a strategically significant country’ for peace and security in Central Asia.
WATER SHORTAGE IN CENTRAL ASIA AND RE-ROUTING OF SIBERIAN RIVERS TO CENTRAL ASIA
By Abdukhalil Razzakov (6/6/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The end of 20th century and the beginning of 21st has seen serious drought in Central Asia and adjoining regions. The water problem has never been so acute in the post-independent history of the Central Asian states. The ecologic situation in the Aral Sea basin is disastrous; only one third of the Aral Sea’s surface remains.
A sweeping package of constitutional reforms have been announced by President Shevardnadze
By Ivlian Haindrava (6/6/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
In fact there is nothing new in the idea of Cabinet. Before the adoption of the Constitution in August 1995, the Cabinet system did exist in Georgia though poorly operating and characterized by an amorphous structure. The 1995 Georgian Constitution established a presidential republic with the President being both the Head of State and the chief executive.The revolt of a Georgian National Guard detachment in Mukhrovani was a result the social problems in
By Mikha Gegeshidze (5/23/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Sixty troopers of Kojori rapid response battalion of the Ministry of Defense responded by blocking the road to Tbilisi, showing the government’s fear that the detachment would march on the capital. According to eyewitness reports, however, the Mukhrovani base was never surrounded by the armed forces, contrary to later claims by the leader of the CUG fraction, Revaz Adamia. Apparently, the government never even considered the use of military force.Visit also
Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.
Analysis Svante E. Cornell, "Promise and Peril in the Caucasus," AFPC Insights, March 30, 2023.
Oped S. Frederick Starr, Putin's War In Ukraine and the Crimean War), 19fourtyfive, January 2, 2023
Oped S. Frederick Starr, Russia Needs Its Own Charles de Gaulle, Foreign Policy, July 21, 2022.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Rethinking Greater Central Asia: American and Western Stakes in the Region and How to Advance Them, June 2022
Oped Svante E. Cornell & Albert Barro, With referendum, Kazakh President pushes for reforms, Euractiv, June 3, 2022.
Oped Svante E. Cornell Russia's Southern Neighbors Take a Stand, The Hill, May 6, 2022.
Silk Road Paper Johan Engvall, Between Bandits and Bureaucrats: 30 Years of Parliamentary Development in Kyrgyzstan, January 2022.
Oped Svante E. Cornell, No, The War in Ukraine is not about NATO, The Hill, March 9, 2022.
Analysis Svante E. Cornell, Kazakhstan’s Crisis Calls for a Central Asia Policy Reboot, The National Interest, January 34, 2022.
Book S. Frederick Starr and Svante E. Cornell, Strong and Unique: Three Decades of U.S.-Kazakhstan Partnership, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, December 2021.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, S. Frederick Starr & Albert Barro, Political and Economic Reforms in Kazakhstan Under President Tokayev, November 2021.