THE WITHDRAWAL OF RUSSIAN BORDER GUARDS IN TAJIKISTAN: IMPLICATIONS FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING AND ISLAMIC MILITANTS?
By Justine Walker (6/30/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Tajikistan has long been a key transshipment state for Afghan drugs on-route to Russia and Europe. Its extensive continuous border with Afghanistan, destabilization from the civil war, and established ethnic and clan ties have combined to created an environment highly conducive to large-scale drug trafficking. Deadlock in bilateral talks earlier this year between Russia and Tajikistan resulted in the Russian government’s decision to remove the RFBS.SOUTH OSSETIA: ACTIVISM OF THE GEORGIAN GOVERNMENT TESTS INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS
By Jaba Devdariani (6/16/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The conflict in South Ossetia, leading to the death of ca. 1,000 and the displacement of some 60,000 persons ended in a ceasefire in July 1992. A somewhat unorthodox ceasefire arrangement introduced a joint peacekeeping force (JPKF) composed of Georgian, South Ossetian and Russian elements.RUSSIA’S HAPPINESS IN MULTIPLE PIPELINES
By Pavel Baev (6/16/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: The start for this race was back in September 1994 when Azerbaijan signed a contract on the development three oil fields with a BP-led consortium of Western companies. With hindsight, the investors would probably agree that the term ‘the deal of the century’ was a bit of wishful thinking, but their immediate concern ten years back was transportation. The hugely expensive and geopolitically risky plan for a 1000-mile pipeline connecting Baku via Tbilisi to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan (BTC) captured the imagination of politicians in Azerbaijan, Turkey and, crucially, the U.RUSSIAN FORCES IN TAJIKISTAN: A PERMANENT PRESENCE?
By Stephen Blank (6/16/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: By March 2004 it seemed clear that Russian troops and advisors were going to leave Tajikistan. Yet it also seemed that Tajik-Russian relations were good and improving. Key Tajik officials certainly made public statements to that fact and did so even into May, even granting the necessity of a base for Russian forces there.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.