John C. K. Daly
Thursday, June 11, 2015 - 06:22
The Caucasus, a volatile region where Russian, Iranian, Turkish and Western interests collide over hydrocarbons, is hosting yet another multinational tactical military exercise.
Friday, June 5, 2015 - 06:12
Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are all worried about the increasing instability in northern Afghanistan and its potential for crossing frontiers.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - 06:58
Russia is preparing to hold over the next six months joint army exercises with both China and India, as well as military operations with fellow Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states.
Friday, February 20, 2015 - 07:34
Tashkent has been nervously contemplating the consequences of the effective end of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, which officially concluded on Dec. 31. The apparent consequences on Afghan internal security include the appearance of Middle Eastern militants from Syria and Iraq, yet another potential source of unrest for the Uzbek government.
Thursday, February 12, 2015 - 06:48
While Turkmenistan is unlikely to reject its neutrality because of the possible threat of unrest emanating from Afghanistan, Russia’s task is to persuade the Turkmen authorities that, rather than turning to NATO or the U.S. for assistance, asking for Russia’s help will encourage the preservation of its neutrality as Moscow helped Turkmenistan to gain the status.
Monday, December 15, 2014 - 07:23
The sad truth is that the Western war on drug production in Afghanistan over the past 13 years has been a disaster. Afghanistan’s post-Soviet neighbors – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are nervously pondering how the drawdown of foreign troops in Afghanistan to one-tenth the size of their 2010 deployments will affect this trade, so destabilizing for regional security.
Friday, December 12, 2014 - 09:19
The prison system of Kyrgyzstan suffers from a myriad of problems, including extremely poor material conditions, issues in separating and controlling the prison population, acute overcrowding and lack of prison staff training. Not surprisingly, low pay and dangerous working conditions make it hard to attract qualified staff to the service.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - 07:06
Russia under Putin has repeatedly stated that two former Soviet republics joining NATO would cross a “red line” – Ukraine and Georgia. Amid deteriorating Western-Russian relations over Ukraine, on Nov. 17 Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili visited NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Monday, November 10, 2014 - 09:45
Since its formation in 1998 by Tahir Yuldashev and former Soviet paratrooper Juma Namangani, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) has sought to overthrow the government of Uzbek President Islam Karimov and establish an Islamic Sharia state in Uzbekistan, with the eventual goal of incorporating all the Muslim post-Soviet space under its control in a Caliphate.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014 - 06:31
The collapse of the USSR in December 1991 produced a hunger among Central Asians to reacquaint themselves with their Islamic heritage, heavily suppressed during the Soviet era. Foreign Muslim missionaries, often with suitcases of cash subsequently flooded Central Asia. While they were initially welcomed, Central Asian governments soon learned that the outsiders were not reacquainting their citizens with ideology from their historic Hanafi Islamic jurisprudence heritage, but instead were promoting Wahhabi, Salafist and Deobandi theologies, far more austere and radical than Central Asia’s indigenous traditions.