UMAROV’S CAUCASIAN EMIRATE: WHERE TO NOW FOR AKHMED ZAKAYEV?
By Kevin Daniel Leahy (1/23/2008 issue of the CACI Analyst)
October 2007 witnessed the latest in a series of charged discourses involving opposite wings of the Chechen rebel movement. On October 22, the then-separatist foreign minister, Akhmed Zakayev, issued an angst-ridden statement predicting that his president, Doku Umarov, would soon announce the creation of a “Caucasian Emirate†on the territory of the North Caucasus.
REGIONAL RIVALRIES CENTER ON KYRYGZSTAN
By Stephen Blank (1/23/2008 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Kyrgyzstan, a relatively poor country with few natural resources, has experienced two years of ceaseless political struggles between the executive and legislature since the ill-fated ‘tulip revolution of 2005. Large-scale official corruption and criminality remain problems.
GEORGIA’S POST-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD ENDS, POSING CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
By Temuri Yakobashvili and Johanna Popjanevski (1/9/2008 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The January 5 presidential elections vindicated Georgia’s democratic credentials. It brought Mikheil Saakashvili a second term in power, but one which will be distinctively different from his first. With Georgia’s post-revolutionary period coming to an end, parliamentary elections this spring are certain to yield a much more diverse and contested political scene.
EDUCATION REFORMS IN TURKMENISTAN: WHERE WILL IT GO?
By Rafis Abazov (1/9/2008 issue of the CACI Analyst)
In January 2008, government officials in Turkmenistan reiterated their commitment to education reforms and announced a 46 percent increase in budgetary spending on schools and universities. These steps come on top of a 40 percent increase of educational spending in 2007. These public announcements also intensified heated debates about the state of education in Turkmenistan and the direction of the reforms: should the reforms be oriented toward open private initiatives and fee-based education (the American market-oriented model) or should the education system remain subsidized and state-supported as in north European countries?
BACKGROUND: Turkmenistan entered independence with a strong commitment to radically reform its education system.
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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.