By Beatrice Hogan (3/1/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Unlike the transitioning countries in Eastern Europe, the Central Asian states have no history of independence. The landlocked countries have been pawns of different empires for centuries. They were first ruled by various khanates, then were caught in the 19th century "Great Game" struggle of empires between Britain and Russia, then were controlled by Tsarist Russia before being subsumed by the Soviet Union.
By Dr. Shahram Akbarzadeh (3/1/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: On 11 February 2000, the Kyrgyz Security Council Secretary Bolot Januzakov warned of an impending incursion by 700 strong Islamic fighters from northern Tajikistan into Kyrgyz territory. These Islamic fighters were said to be under the command of Juma Namangani and running a campaign against President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan. Namangani's guerrillas were reportedly involved in the kidnapping of four Japanese citizens in southern Kyrgyzstan in October 1999.
By Gary G. Sick (3/1/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: On February 18, 2000, Iran held elections for the Majles (parliament), the sixth since the 1979 revolution overthrew Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and established an Islamic Republic. Since the late 1980s, when the Iran-Iraq war ended and Ayatollah Khomeini died, a reform movement has emerged in Iran, challenging the dominance of hard line conservatives and clerics and pressing for greater freedom of expression, government accountability, rule of law, and expanded personal liberty. This movement has gained enormous momentum since the landslide election of reformist President Mohammad Khatami in 1997.
By Ariel Cohen (2/26/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The Chinese government has designated oil, grain and water as strategic commodities with maximum influence on economic development. While China is the world\'s fifth largest oil producer, demand is outgrowing economic production. By 2020, China will not be able to supply itself with oil, iron, steel, aluminum, sulfur, and other minerals.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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