RED, ORANGE, GREEN OR GRAY? SHADES OF POLITICAL SUCCESSION IN CENTRAL ASIA
By Gregory Gleason (1/12/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Despite significant headway in macroeconomic reform, none of the countries of Central Asia has solved the problem of establishing an orderly and legitimate procedure for the transfer of power. As the communist-era leadership begins to age and the political dynamics associated with market economies begin to reshape the political landscape of Central Asia, political succession has become the defining issue in Central Asian contemporary political affairs. More than a decade after the passing of communism, the countries of Central Asia continue to be ruled by the leaders of the pre-independence communist period.TROUBLE IN AN UNLIKELY PLACE: STRAINS IN THE RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN RELATIONSHIP
By Arman Grigorian (1/12/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Some political groups in Armenia have openly called for breaking with Russia and creating closer ties to the West. Such calls, for instance, were made during the recent congress of the former ruling party, the Armenian National Movement. Even a new oppositional alliance composed of the Liberal Progressive Party of Hovannes Hovannisian, the Republic Party headed by Aram Sarkissian, as well as former minister of foreign affairs Raffi Hovannisian was recently formed with an explicit agenda to move Armenia closer to the West and away from Russia.BAKU BALANCES THE UKRAINIAN REVOLUTION
By Anar Valiyev (12/15/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The Georgian “rose revolution” made official Baku uneasy. At the culmination of the Georgian events, Ilham Aliyev’s government sided with president Eduard Shevarnadze, officially supporting him. Shevarnadze’s resignation and his opponent’s triumph was an embarrassment to official Baku, temporarily obscuring Azerbaijani-Georgian relations.TURKMEN LEADER EMPHASIZES CENTRAL ASIAN UNITY IN GAS PRICE BID
By Gregory Gleason (12/15/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The Bukhara summit of Turkmen President Saparmurad Niyazov and Uzbek President Islam Karimov last month marked the first meeting of the two presidents since an assassination attempt on the life of the Turkmen President in 2002 soured relations between the two Central Asian countries. Relations between the leaders have been tense ever since the November 25, 2002 assassination attempt on the Turkmen President’s life. Just a week after the assassination attempt the Turkmen police raided the Uzbek Ambassador’s residence in Ashgabat.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.