by Naveed Ahmad (06/12/2013 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai is a shrewd politician, even more so as his term in office nears completion and uncertainty prevails. After a spate of words with Pakistan following a border skirmish, he left for India to seek military assistance against aggressive neighboring troops. For a change, Islamabad kept its cool and welcomed China’s Prime Minister Li Keqiang, who was also flying in after a “handshake across the Himalayas” in New Delhi. As for Karzai, it was not his first flight to India for military hardware or training. However, his action is largely seen as aimed to pressure Pakistan’s newly elected leaders prior to the exit of NATO forces in 2014.
by Rizwan Zeb (06/12/2013 issue of the CACI Analyst)
For the first time in the country’s history, a smooth democratic transition has taken place in Pakistan. Pakistan is facing a number of domestic, regional and international challenges which will have serious implications for the future of the country. However, whether this is the beginning of a Pakistani spring or not will mostly depend on how effectively the central government and the newly elected opposition government in Khyber Pakhtunkwa will conduct business in the days ahead.
by Nicklas Norling (05/29/2013 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A series of senior-level appointments over the past two years suggest a generational shift in Uzbekistan’s politics. Figures born in the 1970s now fill several deputy head positions in some of the most significant ministries and agencies – the intelligence organ (SNB), the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and others. Having entered their careers in the 1990s, this new post-Soviet generation of Uzbek politicians is on the doorstep of real political power. This generational change is inevitable but the President appears to be leapfrogging this younger generation into power.
by Ariela Shapiro (05/29/2013 issue of the CACI Analyst)
On May 17, 28 people were injured when an angry mob, led by Georgian clergymen, broke through police cordons and clashed with gay rights activists in Tbilisi, Georgia. The U.S. and EU condemned the events while Prime Minister Ivanishvili promised that those who instigated the violence would be prosecuted, including members of the clergy. Despite the government’s harsh rhetoric, only four laypeople have been arrested while four individuals, two of whom are clergymen, have been charged with “encroachment of the right to assembly and manifestation”.
The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst is a biweekly publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, a Joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center affiliated with the American Foreign Policy Council, Washington DC., and the Institute for Security and Development Policy, Stockholm. For 15 years, the Analyst has brought cutting edge analysis of the region geared toward a practitioner audience.
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