KARZAI\'S GOVERNMENT RESHUFFLE: BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
By Rahimullah Yusufzai (8/27/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Almost all the governors in Afghanistan’s 32 provinces were self-appointed. A number of them had been governors in the pre-Taliban period and they simply reoccupied their offices when the Taliban regime collapsed in November-December 2001. Others were appointed governors and military commanders by the dominant armed factions in their particular provinces.MILITARY REFORM IN UZBEKISTAN: DEFINING THE PRIORITIES
By Roger N. McDermott & Farkhad Tolipov (8/27/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The evolving and dynamic security environment in Central Asia has compelled regional states to re-examine their military capacity in the light of these changes, while struggling with the problems stemming from the Soviet legacy. Military reform has essentially revolved around attempts to restructure, re-equip and train modern, mobile, well trained and combat capable armed forces that have the capability of rapid reaction to security challenges from terrorism to guerrilla warfare. Uzbekistan has thus far proven the most successful in putting in place the basic building blocs for military reform and has consequently emerged with the most capable armed forces in the region.THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN AND CHINESE CONNECTION TO DRUG TRADE IN CENTRAL ASIA
By Niklas Swanström (8/27/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The situation in Central Asia has turned increasingly grim in recent years as the trafficking of opiates from Afghanistan has increasingly used the Central Asian route. United Nations statistics indicate that the Southern route for traffickers over Iran is stagnating or even declining in importance as the Iranian government has over the last decade made it gradually more difficult, and therefore expensive, for traffickers to transport their goods through the southern route. This forced traffickers to find easier and accessible routes to Europe, and with weak states and endemic corruption both in the regional governments in Central Asia and among Russian border troops stationed in Tajikistan, Central Asia has been an obvious choice.RUSSIAN ENERGY EXPANSION IN CAUCASUS: RISKS AND MITIGATION STRATEGY
By Mamuka Tsereteli (8/27/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: On July 31, 2003 the U.S. power company AES Corp.Visit also
Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Greater Central Asia as A Component of U.S. Global Strategy, October 2024.
Analysis Laura Linderman, "Rising Stakes in Tbilisi as Elections Approach," Civil Georgia, September 7, 2024.
Analysis Mamuka Tsereteli, "U.S. Black Sea Strategy: The Georgian Connection", CEPA, February 9, 2024.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, ed., Türkiye's Return to Central Asia and the Caucasus, July 2024.
Book Svante E. Cornell, ed., "The Changing Geopolitics of Central Asia and the Caucasus" AFPC Press/Armin LEar, 2023.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell and S. Frederick Starr, Stepping up to the “Agency Challenge”: Central Asian Diplomacy in a Time of Troubles, July 2023.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.