Turkmenistan Is Indispensable to Uzbekistan & Tajikistan’s Future

Turkmenistan Is Indispensable to Uzbekistan & Tajikistan’s Future

Factors beyond Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan’s control, namely the continued uncertainty in Afghanistan and Kazakhstan’s disturbing compliance with some of the West’s anti-Russian sanctions, have combined to push these three together into an unexpected alliance of convenience. Despite being the least populated and with an artificial economy dependent entirely on energy exports, Turkmenistan has suddenly…

Shared Threat Perceptions of the Taliban Catalyzed Strategic Pakistani-Tajik Cooperation

Shared Threat Perceptions of the Taliban Catalyzed Strategic Pakistani-Tajik Cooperation

The continued leadership of the Taliban’s extremist faction poses unacceptable security risks for Pakistan and Tajikistan that impede their vision of comprehensively expanding their mutually beneficial cooperation via their shared Afghanistan neighbor. The public aspect of their newly declared strategic ties can never truly enter into effect so long as that clique remains in power…

Why is Soros Leaving Tajikistan?

Why is Soros Leaving Tajikistan?

As per the statement posted on the website of the Open Society Foundation (“Open Society” or Soros Foundation – which was declared an undesirable organization in Russia back in 2015), the so-called “charity” of American billionaire George Soros, whose fortune is estimated by Forbes at $6.7 billion, has decided to close its branch – the…

Why is the US Surveying the Kyrgyz-Tajik Border

Why is the US Surveying the Kyrgyz-Tajik Border

To the United States, Central Asia (CA) not only remains a major rival region with key geopolitical players, who are primarily Russia and China. CA is also a springboard to deploy active operations on the so-called “second front” to divert Beijing and Moscow’s forces from their actions against Taiwan and Ukraine. For years, the United…

The Geopolitical Minefields of a Turkic world

The Geopolitical Minefields of a Turkic world

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has blown new life into Turkey’s vision of a Turkic world that stretches from Anatolia to Xinjiang in north-western China. “Central Asia now resembles the 1990s when there was a huge competition between global and regional powers for influence over the resource-rich region. The shadow of Russia on the region, coupled…

America’s Scheme of Swapping Afghan Aircraft for Central Asian Influence Is Admittedly Clever

America’s Scheme of Swapping Afghan Aircraft for Central Asian Influence Is Admittedly Clever

Keeping in mind its envisaged role as a regional leader (which is complemented by its geostrategic position abutting Afghanistan and all Central Asian Republics), Uzbekistan is thus much more likely than Tajikistan to believe that secretly enhanced security ties with the US could bolster its Great Power balancing act. Credit goes where it’s due, and…