Registan’s Tajikistan News & Analysis Archive

Tajikistan has attracted less attention at Registan since our launch in 2003, but that coverage has increased in recent years as Tajikistan plays a more prominent role in security and development in South and Central Asia. Several of our authors have research experience in Tajikistan and others have worked on a variety of research and analysis projects on Tajikistan. Our most current coverage of Central Asia news can be found on our front page. Inquiries about our Tajikistan news and analysis, hiring Registan authors to consult on Tajikistan, or any other topic, can be submitted via the contact form on our about page.

Has War in Afghanistan Ruined Central Asia?

by Nathan Hamm
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While Central Asia’s international political profile has risen considerably since 2001, it has primarily been seen in the West through the prism of Afghanistan. The policies of Western governments towards Central Asia as a whole and as individual states have widely fluctuated, but in almost every case, been heavily shaped by policies toward Afghanistan. US [...]

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Focus on the “Social” in Social Media

by Nathan Hamm
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Earlier this week, Small Wars Journal published an article by Matthew Stein, a research analyst currently working at the Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, discussing the role of videos recorded and posted by citizen bystanders in the information battle to control the narrative over the police’s violent crackdown on protesters in Zhanaozen [...]

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Particular Concern

by Nathan Hamm
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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom released its annual report this week, recommending the State Department list several states in Central Asia as “countries of particular concern,” places where the government commits or tolerates egregious violations of religious liberty. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are, of course, well-established members of this club. However, Tajikistan is recommended [...]

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Facing up to illiberal democracy

Kazakhstani ballot box (Wikipedia). by Christopher Schwartz

In the last two months, we’ve born witness to more incidents of illiberal democracy or democracy’s “doubles” here in Central Asia/Eurasia, from Kazakhstan’s parliamentary elections which many say was an experiment in pseudo-pluralism; to Turkmenistan’s surreal presidential election that has left those of us on the outside (and, indeed, many of those on the inside) [...]

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Why Central Asia Isn’t Revolting

by Joshua Foust
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Scott Radnitz has a provocative take in Foreign Policy: On the surface, Central Asia would appear to be ripe for a popular uprising modeled on the Arab Spring. The “stans” are home to repressive governments, high unemployment, inequality, and widespread corruption. Over a year has passed since the wave of protests began to spread across [...]

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Turkestan Album

by Nathan Hamm
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For at least the last seven or eight years, the Prokudin-Gorskii collection of color photos of the Russian empire taken in the early 20th century, gets noticed and reported by journalists, history buffs, and photography enthusiasts. Less well known is that the Turkestan Album, a series of volumes on the people, architecture, history, and economy [...]

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Kazakhstan’s Stability, Central Asia’s Stability

by Nathan Hamm
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Last week, the US Helsinki Commission held a hearing on Kazakhstan’s stability, looking at the violence in Zhanaozen and the recent parliamentary elections and questioning whether or not Kazakhstan is as stable as its government claims. The testimony, which can be found here is interesting and worth taking a look at. Included with the expert [...]

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Charting the Fall of the Soviet Union

by Joshua Foust

My think tank, the American Security Project, has teamed up with The Atlantic to run a 12-article series I edited about U.S. foreign policy 20 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, which happens on Christmas. There have been some really interesting essays in there that aren’t directly relevant to what we write about [...]

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Tajik Photo Set

by Sekundar

The BBC has a very nice photo series up right now called Tajik Village Life. It’s a quick nine, with the obligatory old person looking wistful and remembering the good ol’ days, but the the photos are nice and the scenery stunning.

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Tajikistan at 20

by Christian Bleuer

On September 9th, Tajikistan marks the 20th anniversary of its declaration of independence. What can be said about Tajikistan 20 years after independence? The word ‘survival’ comes to mind first and foremost. Unfortunately, Tajikistan is defined from the outside mostly by its civil war – not by any connection to the Samanid Empire or the [...]

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