ASTANA AND TASHKENT SPEARHEAD MOVE TO A NEW SECURITY ARCHITECTURE FOR CENTRAL ASIA
By Sergei Gretsky (12/12/2012 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The flurry of regional diplomatic activity in recent months has demonstrated that Central Asia’s two main states, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, are finally taking concrete steps in response to the failure of regional security institutions in Central Asia, and in the direction of working jointly to assume greater responsibility for their own security and reduce security dependence on Russia. The closer alignment between Tashkent and Astana is a novel and crucial development in Central Asian security affairs.
BACKGROUND: Two factors have had a major impact on the way in Central Asian elites approach the issue of regional security.
TURKMENISTAN TO LAUNCH LARGE SCALE PRIVATIZATION
By Jan Šír (12/12/2012 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Turkmenistan has officially announced a large scale privatization of state owned industries to be launched beginning of next year. In November 2012, the Turkmen leadership approved a strategic document entitled State Program for Privatization of Enterprises and Objects of State Property in Turkmenistan for 2013-2016, outlining the government’s privatization goals. The program is a major step forward in an attempt to create a genuine private sector in the country.
SYRIAN CIRCASSIANS UNLIKELY TO REPATRIATE TO THE NORTH CAUCASUS
By Emil Souleimanov (12/12/2012 issue of the CACI Analyst)
As the civil war in Syria rages on, members of non-Arab minorities of this Middle Eastern country, notably Armenians, Kurds, Druze, and Circassians feel themselves increasingly caught in the crossfire and forced to take sides. Seeking to escape the bloody armed conflict between the supporters of the Assad regime and various factions of the anti-Assad opposition, Armenians have moved in relatively large numbers to their historical homeland, whereas Circassians have experienced problems in their efforts to repatriate to their native areas of the North Caucasus.
BACKGROUND: The Circassian – or Adyghe as Circassian peoples call themselves – Diaspora in what is now the Syrian Arab Republic was largely established in the second half of the 19th century.
KAZAKHSTAN AFFECTED BY REGIONAL PROLIFERATION OF TERRORIST NETWORKS
By Jacob Zenn (12/12/2012 issue of the CACI Analyst)
On December 5, the Government of Kazakhstan admitted publicly for the first time that Jund al-Khilafah (JaK) posed a threat to national security. The statement was issued by the National Security Committee’s Deputy Chairman, Kabdulkarim Abdikazymov, who said that JaK was composed largely of Kazakh nationals and was based in the Afghan-Pakistan border region. JaK cells are also believed to operate in the North Caucasus.
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.