On July 2, 10 members of the Council of Defense Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) convened in Bishkek to discuss issues of further cooperation, integration processes in the military sector and increasing "mutual understanding." In particular, they discussed the strengthening of cooperation... MORE

The U.S. Air Force deployment to Manas, which has sparked intermittent controversy in the Kyrgyz Republic, has arguably been misunderstood by policy makers in Bishkek. Colonel Thomas Smith, the commander of the 376th Expeditionary Wing of the U.S. Air Force and the coalition forces at... MORE

Since the death of Turkmenistan’s “President for Life,” Turkmenbashi (“father of the Turkmen”) Saparmurat Niyazov of an apparent heart attack on December 21, 2005, his successor, Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov, has dismantled many of the more quixotic and repressive aspects of Niyazov’s extensive “cult of personality. Changes... MORE

As Kazakhstan’s long-awaited term of chairmanship of the OSCE draws near, Astana is stepping up its multifaceted ties with the West, disregarding the painful reaction of the Kremlin to any westward movement in Central Asia. The signing of the strategic partnership treaty between Nursultan Nazarbayev... MORE

A year after the German EU presidency introduced the Strategy for Central Asia from 2007 to 2013, the European Commission (EC) published a draft of its progress report. The report notes intensified collaboration with the Central Asian states and sets out future dimensions for cooperation.... MORE

On June 18, residents of Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) staged protests in Khorog, the oblast's administrative center. Some 300 people demanded that the government withdraw troops that were dispatched to the oblast a few days ago to capture field commanders from the 1992 to... MORE

In the midst of the evolving new “Great Game” between the U.S. and Russia for control of Central Asia and its energy and mineralogical riches, an interesting but largely overlooked collateral development is the deepening parallel bilateral relations between regional states. One of the most... MORE

Kazakhstan’s military and security relationship with Russia, strong and rooted in common interests and approaches expressed through bilateral and multilateral defense cooperation, shows signs of deepening in new ways that reveal some of the most pressing priorities of Kazakhstan’s defense policies. In Eastern Kazakhstan from... MORE

They say that you can’t kill a good idea--or apparently a bad one, either. Moscow mayor and Putin silovik Yuriy Luzhkov has revived one of the USSR’s last and most megalomaniacal projects, a scheme to divert a Siberian river southward to relieve Central Asia’s perennial... MORE

The Kyrgyz government and parliament have been postponing ratification of a contract with the Canadian mining company Cameco Corporation that is due on June 1. Talk has been circulating for the past few years that the Kyrgyz government’s 2003 agreement between Kyrgyz Kumtor Gold Company... MORE