As with other great powers, today or in history, the United States has been pressured to balance ends and means to retain its influence in the world, currently marked by power shifts away from the West. The government’s proposed budget of $3.73 trillion for 2012... MORE

Food security serves as an indicator of any country’s ability to ensure supply, affordability, and safety of food for its population. But it can also be a barometer, testing the effectiveness of public institutions and legitimacy of governments. In the case of the landlocked Central... MORE

Uzbek President Islam Karimov has already made two important official visits this year: the first was to Brussels on January 24, where the president met with European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, EU Energy Commissioner, Gunther Oettinger, and NATO Secretary-General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, among others.... MORE

President Islam Karimov’s visit to Brussels has raised fresh criticism of the EU and NATO’s double standards vis-à-vis the Uzbek leader. The visit was full of ambiguity: both the EU and NATO denied that the Uzbek president was officially invited, yet he met both the... MORE

The situation in Kyrgyzstan generated an emotive exchange between Kazakh and Uzbek officials during the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) summit in Astana, on December 1-2, highlighting continuing disagreements between neighbors.While Kazakhstan’s President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, affirmed that the OSCE has done everything... MORE

Uzbekistan is increasingly set on expanding regional trade and transport initiatives, which is also part of a wider regional trend. In September, Uzbek President, Islam Karimov, and his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliev, agreed to support regional transit projects as part of overall efforts to revive... MORE

The death of Tahir Yuldash, the late leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), in an August 2009 U.S. Predator airstrike in Pakistan raised questions surrounding his succession and the continued viability of the IMU as a terrorist organization. Yet a year after the... MORE

September 27 marked the second visit by Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliev to Uzbekistan since 2004. Meeting with Uzbek President, Islam Karimov, Aliev emphasized the high degree of bilateral political relations, while calling for a boost in their lagging economic relationship (www.ru.trend.az, September 29; www.rian.ru,  September... MORE

“CORF [Collective Operational Reaction forces] will be no worse than NATO,” claimed Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, only one year ago. Today, these words are used in Russia to popularize the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the CORF within the post-Soviet space. They are also... MORE