Registan’s Uzbekistan News & Analysis Archive

Uzbekistan borders every other Central Asian state and is the most populous country in the region. The government of Islom Karimov, who has led Uzbekistan since before independence in 1991, has a notoriously poor human rights record and a reputation for refusing to accept any international criticism. However, geography makes it important to energy and transportation infrastructure in Central Asia and a crucial partner to the United States and other members of ISAF for the campaign in Afghanistan.

Several Registan authors have lived, worked, and studied in Uzbekistan and have between them decades of experience in academia, government, and private industry dealing with topics related to Uzbekistan. We use that experience and expertise to report on, contextualize, and analyze current events in Uzbekistan. Registan puts that experience to work to offer research, analysis, and training services tailored to your individual needs. For more information on how we can help you and your organization better understand Uzbekistan and Central Asia, visit our services page.

Event: Digital Memory and a ‘Massacre’: Post-Soviet Uzbek Identity in the Age of Social Media

by Noah Tucker

Please come see Sarah Kendzior and I present some new work on themes we’ve both written about right here on Registan. “Digital Memory and a ‘Massacre’: Post-Soviet Uzbek Identity in the Age of Social Media.” June 5, 4:00-6:00 PM Elliott School of International Affairs George Washington University 1957 E Street, NW, Suite 412 Washington, DC [...]

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Gulnara Karimova: Is She Ready to be the Next President of Uzbekistan?

by Traveler

Gulnara Karimova, infamous daughter of Islam Karimov, the president of Uzbekistan, is considered by many as a potential successor to her father’s seat. When rumors about the health of Karimov spread fast throughout the Internet from the opposition groups’ websites up to “New York Times”, discussions about who will come to power next in Uzbekistan [...]

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Freedom and Fear in Central Asia: How the Security Assistance Debate is Asking the Wrong Questions

by Noah Tucker
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The terrorist threat against Central Asia is real and not in dispute. Groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and its offshoot the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) have demonstrated the capability to conduct small-scale operations inside Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and as the US

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Central Asia Security Workshop, March 25-26 at George Washington University

by Noah Tucker
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If you’re in the DC area, please join me and a bunch of other Registan contributors at this fantastic workshop put together by Marlene Laruelle and the Central Asia Program at GW. From the website: “NATO members are exiting from

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So, Uzbekistan, How Deep Does the Rabbit Hole Go?

by Myles G. Smith

Cynicism will only take you so far. Except in Central Asia, where it can take you basically anywhere. EurasiaNet has published the highly publishable speculation of local media outlets that the government and Central Bank of Uzbekistan is using a series of ‘improvements’ and ‘simplifications’ (their words) to the foreign exchange market, customs regulations, and the bank [...]

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Advocating for a Better Central Asia

by Nathan Hamm
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When I saw that OSI had published a policy brief arguing that “the degree to which the United States holds countries in Eurasia publicly accountable for respecting human rights and democracy depends on each country’s relative strategic importance to the United States, not the human rights conditions in each country,” I anticipated writing a long [...]

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Why is Twitter censoring the Islamic Jihad Union?

by Sarah Kendzior

Today on Twitter I was followed by a new account called SodiqlarInfo. This was the Twitter account for the Islamic Jihad Union, a terrorist group originally based out of Uzbekistan who operate the website Sodiqlar. (In Uzbek, sodiq means one who is faithful or devout; -lar is plural.) I thought this was interesting, so I [...]

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Post-2014 Terrorist Threat in Central Asia: Keeping it Real

by Guest
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Contributed by Nathan Barrick Is there a terrorist threat to Central Asia after the ISAF drawdown in Afghanistan in 2014? In recent publications, the warnings range from an imminent FATA-like region of militant-dominated, ungoverned space in the Ferghana Valley to the “these are not the terrorists you’re looking for” Jedi mind trick “2014 Central Asia [...]

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The Risk of an Interventionist Uzbekistan

by Nathan Hamm

One concern I have heard in various forms regarding post-Karimov succession in Uzbekistan is that an unresolved plan for transition to a new leader could cause the country to erupt in chaos. I count that as a fairly low risk. As I argued during my talk in Seattle last weekend and in recent interviews with [...]

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Central Asia in 2013: What Not to Look For

by Myles G. Smith

Change seems to come slowly to Central Asia. January is the time of year that people like us brashly predict the developments that will reshape country X and fundamentally alter the course of world events. If we worked at Stratfor, we’d even be paid to have the brass to do so. I think we’ve gotten [...]

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