Field Reports
THE ROSE REVOLUTION: AN ABKHAZIAN PERSPECTIVE
By George Welton (1/10/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
In Abkhazia, Saakashvili and his government are seen as another in a long line of Georgian aggressors, prone to inflammatory language and prepared to use force if necessary in order to achieve their goals. Recent events in the Kodori Gorge are cited to support this interpretation but the Western orientation of the country, growth of military expenditure and relations with Russia also encourage this view. If one asks people in Abkhazia their feelings towards Saakashvili and the Rose Revolution, one is presented with a literally unbelievable level of indifference.KAZAKHSTAN PLACES ACCENT ON ECONOMIC COOPERATION WITH TURKEY
By Marat Yermukanov (1/10/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A mass fight involving hundreds of Turkish and Kazakh workers of a construction company hired by Tengizchevroil which broke out in Atyrau (West Kazakhstan) on October 20 led, according to eyewitness reports, to deaths and dozens of heavy injuries, and triggered public anger in Kazakhstan. Last year, some workers were beaten to death in a similar brawl between local and foreign workers employed by the Turkish company GATE Inshaat in that region. But the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan and the Turkish Embassy reacted calmly and made simultaneous statements assuring that the incident would not affect in any way friendly relations between the fraternal countries.TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE, PRICE EQUALISATION AND THE SPREAD OF COERCIVE STATE ELEMENTS IN NORTHWEST AFGHANISTAN
By Bobby Anderson (1/10/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
This construction is about much more than transportation; it will bring a traditionally lawless area under the sway of Kabul and put coercive state elements within rapid striking distance of previously-unchallenged peripheral elites. Afghanistan will be one step closer to being a unified state.In Afghanistan’s lawless northwest, the ring road has always been a dilapidated dirt track which signifies a four day ride from Herat to Mazar-i-Sharif.
DUELING BANJOS: PARALLEL ELECTIONS AND PARALLEL PRESIDENTS IN SOUTH OSSETIA
By Kakha Jibladze (12/13/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
On November 12, the people of the unrecognized South Ossetia participated in two equally unrecognized elections and referendums. As a result, the conflicted territory now boasts two de facto presidents and their respective governments: Eduard Kokoity, the winner of the de facto election in the Tskhinvali region and other parts of the territory, and Sanakoev, who received votes from the Georgian-controlled part of the territory.According to analysts close to the peace negotiations, Sanakoev represents a solution to a long-standing problem: while Kokoity boasts the support of the Ossetian population, there was no forum for the Georgian population which remains in the territory of the former Soviet Autonomous Region of South Ossetia.
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Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.
Analysis Svante E. Cornell, "Promise and Peril in the Caucasus," AFPC Insights, March 30, 2023.
Oped S. Frederick Starr, Putin's War In Ukraine and the Crimean War), 19fourtyfive, January 2, 2023
Oped S. Frederick Starr, Russia Needs Its Own Charles de Gaulle, Foreign Policy, July 21, 2022.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Rethinking Greater Central Asia: American and Western Stakes in the Region and How to Advance Them, June 2022
Oped Svante E. Cornell & Albert Barro, With referendum, Kazakh President pushes for reforms, Euractiv, June 3, 2022.
Oped Svante E. Cornell Russia's Southern Neighbors Take a Stand, The Hill, May 6, 2022.
Silk Road Paper Johan Engvall, Between Bandits and Bureaucrats: 30 Years of Parliamentary Development in Kyrgyzstan, January 2022.
Oped Svante E. Cornell, No, The War in Ukraine is not about NATO, The Hill, March 9, 2022.
Analysis Svante E. Cornell, Kazakhstan’s Crisis Calls for a Central Asia Policy Reboot, The National Interest, January 34, 2022.
Book S. Frederick Starr and Svante E. Cornell, Strong and Unique: Three Decades of U.S.-Kazakhstan Partnership, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, December 2021.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, S. Frederick Starr & Albert Barro, Political and Economic Reforms in Kazakhstan Under President Tokayev, November 2021.