By Richard Weitz (1/20/2010 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The late-January London Conference on Afghanistan, co-hosted by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, President Hamid Karzai and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, has many tasks, but one of the most important is to secure more durable military and economic commitments from the 43-nation coalition supporting the Afghan government. Most NATO governments frame their commitments in one- or two-year intervals, but President Karzai has argued that the Afghan government needs at least five years of sustained Western assistance to develop an Afghan military and police force capable of countering the Taliban insurgents without NATO combat support. BACKGROUND: According to the remarkably frank briefing by a senior NATO intelligence officer in late December, the coalition troops in Afghanistan must reverse the deteriorating security situation in 2010 or the war against the Afghan Taliban insurgents could be irretrievably lost.

By Asel Murzakulova (1/20/2010 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The functioning of the Inter-parliamentary Assembly of the CIS (IA CIS) in post-Soviet countries will in 2010 be celebrating its 18th anniversary. Although this organization is often left out of the analysis on the transformation of regimes or state institutions in the CIS, it serves as a key channel through which the values of adaptive parliamentarism and techniques of political control are being spread. BACKGROUND: Established in 1992, the Inter-parliamentary Assembly of the CIS is one of the main institutions of the CIS.

By Dmitry Shlapentokh (1/20/2010 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The underpinning ideas of the North Caucasian resistance have undergone several stages of transformation, from a purely nationalistic Chechen movement to an internationalized Islamic jihad. The movement now seems to be going through yet another evolutionary phase, this time for more pragmatic purposes. Due to the enforced Russian surveillance of religious Muslims, the jihadists are now seeking to downplay and adapt their appearance and behavior for the purpose of becoming better equipped to conduct terrorist operations.