ECOLOGICAL SECURITY: AN URGENT NECESSITY FOR CENTRAL ASIA
By Jyldyz Sydygalieva (12/5/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: During the Soviet era, the Kyrgyz Republic was a major source of uranium for both military and industrial purposes. There are approximately 130 sites in Kyrgyzstan containing about 620 million cubic meters of waste products that were buried during the Soviet time, mostly from the mining industry. About half of these sites contain waste from nuclear production - an industry that most Kyrgyz citizens were not aware had existed within their territory because it was kept a secret by the Soviet authorities.
GOVERNMENT CRISIS IN KAZAKHSTAN: WARM-UP FOR THE SUCCESSION TO NAZARBAEV?
By Robert M. Cutler (12/5/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: After Kazakhstan unwillingly obtained its independence upon the disintegration of the Soviet regime, Nazarbaev tacitly proclaimed war against the bloated state bureaucracy he inherited, which also constituted a potential opposition power base. After the first post-Soviet parliament was elected in 1994, on the basis of the country's first post-Soviet constitution, lobbies and alliances began to emerge between parliamentary groupings on the one hand, and the lower and middle ranks of the ministerial structures on the other. Nazarbaev engineered the parliament's dissolution in 1994 when, on the basis of an accusation of electoral fraud by an anti-Nazarbaev candidate in a single electoral district, the Constitutional Court ruled the entire parliament to be illegal.
ARMENIA AND CASPIAN OIL PIPELINES
By Tigran Martirosyan (8/29/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Armenia’s geographic location as a potential transit center between the energy-rich Caspian states and western markets lends it strategic importance to world energy markets, and poses unique challenges to the goal of energy security in the region. As some countries in the Caspian region expand their oil and gas production and international export of these products, Armenia appears to be well situated to take advantage of these developments. Indeed, participating in the expanding network of oil and gas export is important, as the nation seeks to strengthen its own economy and political presence in the region.
RISING TENSION AND THE THREAT OF WAR IN THE CAUCASUS
By Hooman Peimani (8/29/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The fall of the Soviet Union brought independence to the three Caucasian republics, but was also accompanied by violent conflict. Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia have all experienced severe political and military challenges shaking the very root of their states. Internal and external destabilizing forces in various forms have challenged the authority and the legitimacy of their political systems.
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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.