Thumbnail image for Has War in Afghanistan Ruined Central Asia?

Has War in Afghanistan Ruined Central Asia?

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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Nazarbayev Demonizes the Internet

President Nazarbyaev gave a long speech at the Astana Economic Forum yesterday, describing what Trend.az calls his “concept of civilized development in the 21st century.” (For those with a particular interest in this subject, the full text of the speech is available.) In the course of laying out his vision, which includes social and economic [...]

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The Looming Catastrophe in Afghanistan

This past weekend, I attended the NATO Summit in Chicago. There I heard from many heads of state, foreign ministers, defense ministers, secretary-generals, officials, and analysts about what NATO is doing and how it’s evolving into an enlightened global actor for peace. The challenge with what I heard is that a lot of is little [...]

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Lost in Google’s Translation

by Sarah Kendzior
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Last week Google Translate announced that it now has over 200 million monthly users. As Alexis Madrigal noted in the Atlantic, this means that Google is now translating as much in a day as a human being would in a year – an amount of text equivalent to a million books. Google Translate is far [...]

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Kyrgyzstan’s Eternal Flame Ignites Media’s Mockery

by Matthew Kupfer
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Economic problems and energy shortages in Kyrgyzstan usually don’t pique the interest of the American press. As the saying goes, “if it bleeds, it leads”—and poor Kyrgyzstanis shivering in austere Soviet-era apartments after the heat is shut off don’t hold the audience’s interest for long. But yesterday something “extraordinary” happened in Bishkek: Kyrgyzstan’s eternal flame, [...]

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Showdown! Who Wins?

by Nathan Hamm
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Georgia’s president paid a visit to the race track recently. He offered to resign if Russia returns South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Sure, that’s interesting, but the more important question is whether Saakashvili or Berdimuhamedov would win on the track. So, who has your vote? or For those who need video: vs.

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Cotton Campaign Calls for ILO Access to Uzbekistan

by Nathan Hamm

The Cotton Campaign has sent a letter to Hillary Clinton to urge the Uzbek government to end the use of forced labor in the cotton industry. The letter (PDF) provides a good summary of the issues at hand in this year’s determination of Uzbekistan’s status in the State Department’s annual trafficking in persons (TIP) report. [...]

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Reading the Asia Foundation’s Afghan Voter Behavior Survey

by Oliver Lough
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Earlier this month, The Asia Foundation (TAF) released a large survey on voter behavior in Afghanistan’s last parliamentary election. With two years until the next major Afghan election (excluding for a moment the important but widely-ignored Provincial Council elections, due in mid-2013 but unlikely to be on-schedule), it might seem like an odd time to [...]

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A Bit of Gushing

by Joshua Foust

I had the pleasure of attending the Eurasia Foundation’s 2012 Gala Dinner last night. They were using it to kick off their Sarah Carey program, which tries to connect young professionals in the US with young professionals in Eurasia, and to give their first annual Sarah Carey Award for the advancement of civil society. Their [...]

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Due Diligence, Googoosha, and Komen for the Cure

by Nathan Hamm
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On Tuesday, I reported on the Susan G. Komen Uzbekistan Race for the Cure and the apparent relationships between Susan G. Komen for the Cure in the US and various charities run by Gulnora Karimova, including Fund Forum. A representative from Komen contacted me yesterday to correct what she described as inaccuracies in that original [...]

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Gulnora’s Race For the Cure

by Nathan Hamm
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UPDATE: As mentioned at the bottom of this post, there is an update following my conversation with a representative from Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Due to its length, I’ve made it its own post. As is always the case, the Uzbek media can be counted on to bring enlightening and groundbreaking coverage on [...]

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Chicken Politics

by Joshua Foust

I have a piece up at the Atlantic, discussing why chickens sometimes factor heavily into national politics. Chickens are a surprising bellwether for international economic and political issues. Sounding for all the world like some modern-day Khrushchevian Red Plenty economic master plan, the Uzbek government has demanded that not only agriculture do more, but that [...]

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UNICEF’s Children’s Rights Window Dressing

by Nathan Hamm
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UzDaily carries a story today on cooperation between UNICEF and Uzbekistan’s parliament on children’s rights. The parliament’s Committee on Democratic Institutions, NGOs, and Self-governing Bodies met with UNICEF, MPs, government ministries, and a handful of NGOs to discuss “strengthening the protective environment around children, in particular, those who are at greatest risk and need protection.” [...]

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