Archive of Alec Metz

Alec Metz is an independent policy analyst focusing on security and development in South and Central Asia.

Alec has written 11 articles at Registan.


Pakistani Terrorists in Mongolia?

by Alec Metz

Last week it was announced in the Mongolian press that three Pakistani terror suspects had been arrested at Chinggis Khaan International in Ulaan Baatar by the police and intelligence agency of Mongolia as they were trying to enter the country (news.mn/english). This is unusual for Mongolia; it is the only country I’m aware of in mainland [...]

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Book Reviews: William Dalrymple’s Return of a King and Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s Little America

by Alec Metz

This is a review of two books, one early (Return of a King doesn’t come out in the U.S. until April) and one woefully late (Little America was released in June of 2012). I’ve put them together given their prognostications, stated or otherwise, for the NATO/ISAF campaign in Afghanistan, because both authors are not traditional historians, [...]

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The U.S. plays a dangerous sanctuary game

by Alec Metz

The Washington Post reported yesterday that not only does the U.S. know Maulana Fazlullah (“Radio Mullah”), the Pakistani Taliban allied TNSM leader accused of killing Pakistani government forces and figures (including former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto), overrunning Swat in 2007, and ordering the execution of Malala Yousufzai, is hiding in Eastern Afghanistan, but that ISAF doesn’t plan on [...]

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Kyrgyz in Afghanistan

by Alec Metz

The Afghanistan Analysts Network had a post recently summarizing the recent history of the Kyrgyz population of the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan. Originally the Kyrgyz population in the area and in the larger Badakhshan region simply used the area as seasonal pasturage for their animals, but as Russia (and later the USSR) began to impose restrictions [...]

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Afghan tourists in Tajikistan

by Alec Metz

Years ago, a Western Farsi-speaker would tell me stories of Tajik groups from Northern Afghanistan he took to Tajikistan as part of an exchange program, and the hilarious culture clashes that would occur between the two groups, usually involving vodka and the role of women in society. Despite sharing a language, ethnicity, and (arguably) similar [...]

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Eid Mubarak!

by Alec Metz

Happy Eid with a nice photo of a Bukharan contemplating… something (maybe Ismail?) by long-time Mongolia-based blogger Don Croner of the eponymous Don Croner’s World Wide Wanders. His photos of Uzbekistan (not to mention Mongolia) are excellent.

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Pakistan votes Romney, sort of

by Alec Metz

A recently commissioned BBC poll took the American election abroad, and although no states in Central Asia were surveyed, India, Pakistan, and China were featured. According to the BBC, they found that in 20 out of 21 countries, Obama was preferred over Romney, and that only Pakistan preferred Romney. Although the polling took place before [...]

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Malala Yousufzai and Madonna

by Alec Metz

Western celebrities and complex situations in Central and South Asia rarely do well together. Yesterday, the Huffington Post ran a story called “Crooners and their Dictators” that called a number of musical acts, from Seal to Mariah Carey, to task for their capriciousness (or stunning inability to google the guy who signed their million dollar [...]

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Goodbye, Lenin (Bayartai, Lenin Bagsh)

by Alec Metz

National Public Radio ran a story today on the Lenin Statue of Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia. Originally erected in 1954, the statue stood in front of the Ulaan Baatar Hotel, a bygone (albeit with modern luxury hotel prices) relic of the socialist past. Next door is the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (they have since dropped the [...]

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Notes from the Conference: Social Media

by Alec Metz

I had the pleasure last week of moderating two sessions during the Registan Conference in Arlington, one on social media uses in Central Asia. The internet and social media have varying degrees of presence across Central Asia, but in every country their usage is growing. In almost every country in the region usage is monitored, and [...]

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