Now that Manas was officially ordered to be closed this past Friday, the US has 6 months to close up shop. On Tuesday, General Petraus visited Tashkent to discuss alternative supply routes. As you likely know, in 2005 the US base in Uzbekistan was closed after Uzbek authorities machine gunned 500 people in Andijon and […]
I did not anticipate that I would be focusing so much on Tajikistan and its problems, but Radio Liberty is reporting that a deal has been signed between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on water and power. Apparently, parts of Tajikistan have been without power since December. The deal will trade Uzbek debt for Uzbek gas and […]
Hello everyone. So I’ll be moving to my new blog, Afghanistan, which you guessed it, will concentrate on, Afghanistan. Elina will be taking over Central Asia and I look forward to her posts and to see where she takes the blog. I will from time to time do a post here as well. So please […]
The New York Times has an interesting interview with S. Frederick Starr, Professor and Chairman of John Hopkin’s Central Asia-Caucasus Institute that provides more context for the recent announcement of the closure of the US base in Kyrgyzstan. He argues that the US was far too dependent on the base and the best route is […]
Olivier Roy. That’s right Olivier Roy was at UCSD’s Political Science Department today and I was able to sneak in and listen to his lecture and Q & A. Mr. Roy, a Frenchman, is one of the most distinguished Western scholars of Islam. He has studied and worked for the United Nations and French foreign […]
In contrast to its neighboring countries with vast oil and gas resources, Tajikistan has the most important resource in the world; large reserves of fresh water. Some of this water is now being used for a single dam, the Nurek, which provides the country’s electricity. Unfortunately, the dam alone cannot provide enough power for Tajikistan’s […]
Just as I was discussing on my other blog the Pakistani state’s inability to control or effectively coexist with the Islamic culture and religion within its borders, Islamabad announced a new deal allowing the Swat region to be ruled by Sharia law. This is yet another deal the Pakistani government has made with one of […]
According to the International Crisis Group, Tajikistan may be headed for economic collapse. http://www.rferl.org/content/Tajikistan_On_The_Road_To_Failure_Think_Tank_Concludes/1492820.html The country has been subsisting on remittance payments from migrant workers in Russia, but work is drying up quickly. Many are headed home. Some of the workers who have decided to stay are not making enough to send back, either from […]
I don’t want to beat a dead horse here, but there continues to be breaking news regarding the closure of the US Manas base in Kyrgyzstan. Alexander Cooley at the Herald Tribune has an inside view of the US displacement from the air base and argues that the US did the prudent thing by walking […]
It is amazing how much the US media is now concentrating on the war in Afghanistan as the war in Iraq is dropping further and further onto the back pages. This also appears to be true in looking at US government entities as Afghan envoy Richard Holbrooke is seemingly everywhere and we do not even […]
Last week, I spoke in front of the San Diego World Affairs Council North Chapter (an affiliate of FPA) about the rising objectives and capabilities of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Here is my presentation in slides (go to the bottom of the page). I though some you might be interested in some of the articles […]
Newly appointed Afghanistan/Pakistan US ‘representative’, which gives him a bit more power than an ‘envoy’, stated during a Munich security conference that the war in Afghanistan will be a ‘long and difficult struggle,’ one which is 'tougher than Iraq.’ Not exactly breaking news, but it's important to know where Mr. Holbrooke stands and how he […]
Adobe Creative Suite 3 + Cakewalk Sonar 7.02 + Adobe Premiere Elements 4.0 Well, it looks like the Kyrgyz government has indeed decided to officially order the removal of American forces from the Manas air base. US officials assert that negotiations were still on going, but Kyrgyz officials stated that the deal was as good […]
In a surprise move, Kyrgyzstan President Bakiyev, during a visit to Moscow, stated that he would close the American Manas Air Base in his country. Bakiyev argued that the US mission in the region was complete and voiced concern over several issues including; financial compensation, an incident where a Kyrgyz citizen was killed on the […]
It is being reported that the US Joint Chiefs of Staff will issue a report recommending that the Obama administration lower its expectations for a democratic Afghanistan and instead concentrate on regional stability and defeating Al Qaeda and the Taliban. I have not seen the report myself, but Politico's David Cloud asserts that the report […]