Last Thursday, April 19th, Kyrgyzstan's opposition promised a “decisive day” against Bakiev's government. At least that much is true: the nine-day long protests in Bishkek ended in violence. Therefore the protests, which were a call to reduce the power of the executive branch in the Constitution, may well result in increased presidential power. According to Russia's […]
The Honorable Kevin Rudd, Leader of the Opposition in the Australian House of Representatives, spoke today at The Brookings Institution. The topic: US diplomatic engagement with China. His remarks focussed almost completely upon issues of East Asia and the Pacific, but some of his comments apply quite well to US-Chinese diplomacy concerning Central Asia. China's Priorities Most Central Asia […]
Yesterday, an article about agricultural practice in the Ferghana Valley brought me up short, because the numbers in it just sounded wrong. However, I am no agricultural expert: I spent a good part of the day talking to some wonderful people who know and study cotton at Texas A & M University. In particular, I […]
Conflict between journalists and the Minister of Culture and Information Mr. Ermukhamet Ertsybaev has been a constant theme since May of 2006, when journalists protested the Minister's “authoritarian methods”. Last month, protest erupted again when Mr. Ertsybaev had television journalists from the station ERA ejected from a March 2 event. By Monday, March 5, journalists were calling for Mr. […]
The Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC), met today in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. They met in order to analyze their work, celebrate successes, and most of all, to formulate policy for 2008. The meeting was opened by Russia's Prime Minister, Mikhail Fradkov, who gave the opening remarks. Mr. Fradkov suggested that there were many integration […]
Umida Niyazova will be on trial in Uzbekistan April the 19th. According to Ferghana.ru News Agency: Umida Niyazova is charged with illegal border crossing, smuggling, manufacturing or distribution of subversive literature with the help of financial or other aid, received from religious organizations and also from foreign states, organizations and citizens. Ms. Niyazova is a […]
Currently, Turkmenistan's President Berdymukhammedov is visiting Saudi Arabia to arrange for oil and gas cooperation. Before that, he entertained OSCE representatives who proposed aid in environmental, educational, political and economic venues. More diplomatic envoys over gas exports but little else about Turkmenistan whatsoever: President Berdymukhammedov has said that long-term gas export agreements with China, Russia, and Iran […]
A recent article in Perspectives on Politics discusses the study of ethnic, religious, national, and other kinds of collective identity. Specifically, Abdelal, et al note that political scientists use words like "ethnicity", "religious group", and "national identity" without regard to analytic rigor. They present six different methods to ascertain group affiliation and bring scholarship back to earth. Nevertheless, I found myself […]
As of Friday, April the 13th, Human Rights Watch cannot remain in Uzbekistan, because its director has “exceeded her authority” and “worked outside the charter”. The new permitting regime was tightened after the Andijan Massacre. Many NGOs, press organizations, businesses, and military personnel have been asked to leave. Throwing the foreign rascals out, by date: June 6, […]
Kazakhstan-India trade turnover has gone from USD 120 to 210 million–a 74% increase, from last year to the year before. Kazakhstan is working hard to develop further bilateral trade ties with India. Though such trade naturally includes petroleum market trade, Kazakhstan is developing an attractive trade diplomacy for other industries, including special economic zones (SEZs) […]
Right now, with Kyrgyzstan's leadership shuffle and constitutional conflicts, we have few resources so excellent as the blogs written in Kyrgyzstan itself. Mirsulzhan Namaliev is what you might call “plugged in” to events and politics in Kyrgyzstan. According to Tolkun, he is currently out there in Bishkek's square covering the demonstrations. Tolkun's most recent post in […]
After a week of writing on environmental disaster, I thought it might be fun to consider a global environmental event that doesn't impinge upon anyone's social conscience: the long-ago ages of the dinosaurs. On March 24, 2007, LiveScience reported the finding of two new species of dinosaurs in Mongolia. One species ranks "as one of […]
As noted in part 1 of this series, the Aral Sea is the endpoint of an exotic watershed, with water-rich areas upstream and an arid downstream. Throughout the world, exotic watersheds are usually more heavily populated downstream. In general, international law gives downstream human security priority over upstream ownership‚ in other words, people have a […]
The U.S. Department of State issued a new report April 5, called “Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record.” Unlike the Congressionally-mandated annual report on human rights, this one goes to Congress with a focus upon democracy promotion. RFE/RL has an interview with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Erica Barks-Ruggles (wonder […]
Until writing these posts, I visualized desertification as an encroaching edge. Climate research shows, though, that desertification works on a pocket approach: a little desert here, and a little desert there, like brush fires, gradually grow into one very large swathe of hostile landmass. This pocket-to-pocket desertification is occurring in the Gobi Deserts of Mongolia […]