IS JAPAN’S INTEREST IN CENTRAL ASIA STAGNATING?
By Amy King and Jacob Townsend (9/5/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Recent figures on Japan’s official development assistance demonstrate that its engagement with Central Asia could be waning. Despite great expectations over the past few years, aid has fallen dramatically as Japan appears somewhat disillusioned, realizing among other the difficulties in obtaining access to the region’s oil and gas. Japan will not vanish from Central Asia, but its involvement may stagnate rather than expand, focusing on uranium and minor development assistance.
KAZAKHSTAN’S EMERGING SECURITY TIES WITH CHINA
By Roger N. McDermott (9/5/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Security Relations between Kazakhstan and China, though traditionally low-key and not widely publicized, have been growing steadily. Given the enhanced security cooperation within the SCO to combat terrorism, as witnessed in the highly publicized SCO ‘Peace Mission 2007’ antiterrorist exercises in China and Russia August 9-17, 2007, combined with China’s evolving energy interests in Kazakhstan, both countries appear set to enhance their military cooperation. This will bring China into the security dynamics at play around the Caspian Sea, and complicate yet more the complex web of security assistance provided to Kazakhstan by the U.
RUSSIA’S ATTACK ON GEORGIA: THE U.N. REPORT
By David J. Smith (7/11/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Four months ago today, Georgia’s Upper Kodori (Upper Abkhazia) region was attacked by ground-to-ground rockets and an anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), apparently fired from a helicopter. The area is the only part of Abkhazia controlled by the Tbilisi government. UNOMIG has been investigating the incident and is about to publish its report, likely to be inconclusive.
SCO SEEKS TO EXPAND, CONSOLIDATE AFTER BISHKEK SUMMIT
By Erica Marat (7/11/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
On July 9 the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) Ministers of Foreign Affairs convened in Bishkek to discuss the agenda for the upcoming summit. The summit will collect the presidents of nine Eurasian countries in Bishkek and mark an unprecedented geopolitical development in the Central Asian region. Today, the SCO is quickly gaining international weight, aiming to eventually become an Asian alternative to NATO.
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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.