AFGHANISTAN: THE MAKING OF A QUAGMIRE?
By Stephen Blank (12/5/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Of the making of international quagmires there seems to be no end. Afghanistan is only the latest example where governments have failed or disintegrated due to their own belligerence, leaving the international community no choice but to reconstitute public order lest humanitarian disaster and war endlessly ravage it. As in many other previous cases, Afghanistan’s prognosis, despite the undoubted progress of the Bonn conference on establishing a future government, is guarded.
THE COST OF THE CHECHEN WAR
By Miriam Lanskoy (11/7/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: In the 19th century, the cost of the North Caucasus conquest was Russia’s decline as a European power. The conquest became particularly cruel, intractable, and drawn out because Russian generals offered impossible terms: the resistance leaders were told to surrender unconditionally, and the territory would be incorporated into the Russian empire on the same basis as any Russian region. The leaders of the resistance sought negotiations on a number of occasions but were never so roundly defeated that they would accept such terms.
TURKEY’S NEW CHALLENGES IN THE CAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
By Kemal Kaya (11/7/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Turkey was among the first countries to recognize their independence of the newly independent states, and over time, relations intensified in various areas. Especially after awareness of the vast oil and gas reserves in the Caspian basin grew, Turkey, like many other countries, developed interest in these vast energy sources. Apart from strategic political objectives, it has a fast-growing demand for energy consumption domestically and sees additional revenue opportunities in the transportation of these resources to world markets through its soil.
AVOIDING ESCALATION IN CENTRAL ASIA’S SOUTHERN BORDERLAND
By Maria Sultan (11/7/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The 1990s has been an era of many surprises in South Asian power politics, characterized by Indo -Pakistani rivalry and the influence of great powers, mainly China and the U.S. The end of the cold war was thought to bring about a noticeable de-escalation in the level of tension in the numerous conflicts in the third world.
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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.