Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Beijing is emerging as the big winner in Central Asia, displacing Washington and Moscow while ensuring that engagement with countries in the region takes place on its terms.
The Turkish government places real importance on Central Asia because Ankara wants to develop the common heritage of Turkey and Central Asia, in terms of language, ethnicity, and even religion.
Central Asia is in a period of transition. Many tenets of Soviet infrastructure and culture have expired and rather than renew these precedents, the countries are emphasizing individual development.
The Istanbul Process’ Heart of Asia Ministerial Conferences can play a role in efforts to promote regional stability and security in Central and South Asia.
Twenty years after the Soviet collapse, leaders of the five Central Asian republics have built functioning states but they have yet to fully implement democratic reforms, decentralize and share power, and develop strong intraregional relations.
Dialogue, education, and an accepted role for religion in society are critical to countering the possible threat that religious radicalization could pose to state security in Central Asia.
The five post-Soviet Central Asian republics—Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan—share common political, cultural, and historical roots, but they are far from homogeneous, and continuing domestic and regional tensions could lead to violent conflict.
As the war in Afghanistan begins to enter a new phase, it is important to reexamine some of the premises of U.S. policy in the Central Asian region and to consider whether the conditions in the region have changed in the last decade.
The Carnegie Endowment, working with Central Asia’s Eco-Energy Alliance, launched the pilot regional project in Tajikistan to demonstrate how linking renewable energy to Internet access can be a tool for alleviating social problems.
While the U.S.-led NATO operations in Afghanistan have resulted in somewhat enhanced security capacity for Central Asian countries, their long-term security challenges seem to be increasing, given the current situation in Afghanistan and the growing instability of Pakistan.