Russia has to reassure Tajikistan that it’ll remain safe and stable despite neighboring Afghanistan’s de facto Taliban-led government and convince its ally that everyone stands to lose if it provokes a proxy war against that group via the Afghan National Resistance Front whose leader is now hosted by Dushanbe. Ex-Deputy Governor of the Northern Afghan…
Reports of China building a military base in the Central Asian country of Tajikistan are causing unease in Washington. But it’s wrong to assume Beijing is embarking on the sort of empire-building we expect from the United States. Earlier this week, reports from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty suggested that Tajikistan had approved the construction of…
In recent days, various media outlets have pointed to a very noticeable aggravation of the situation on the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The border between the two States is more than 1,400 kilometers long. Mutual threats are heard from both sides, and military units are being brought to the border from both sides. According…
These are the most realistic threat scenarios right now to Russia’s security interests. Tiny Tajikistan has outsized leverage that it might eventually employ in Afghanistan to push back against the Taliban. It’s well known that it shares a large border with its neighbor, the latter of which counts Tajiks as its second-largest minority, and its…
The situation in Afghanistan is like the ending of Charlie’s Wilson war. In the endgame there is no saving face and no victory is won. In fact a great vacuum remains, despite 20 years of US and NATO partner attempts to nation-building. It is not as if they did not know how it would end,…
The SCO would do well to coordinate its members’ efforts to contain Afghan-emanating regional terrorist threats such as ISIS-K, encourage a political compromise between Kabul and the Taliban, and devise a plan for developing the war-torn country’s connectivity potential so as to ensure its long-term stability. The future of Afghanistan is more uncertain than ever…
