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Contextualizing Media Claims in Boston

Now that Dzhohar Tsarnaev has been captured, the long process of unraveling the mystery of the Boston Marathon bombing begins. Investigators, the press, and ordinary citizens will ask: Who were these young men? Why did they do what they did? What set them on this path? These are extremely difficult questions that give unclear, complex [...]

About the Central Asian Link to those Boston Bombers

  This might be a bit redundant, seeing as the readership at Registan – unlike, say, those who work in front of the camera at CNN – are among those able to differentiate between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, but I thought it might be worth a quick run-down of how a substantial Chechen population came to [...]

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

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

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

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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Ben Emmerson’s ISI Shuffle

by Joshua Foust
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The UN Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights, Ben Emmerson, conducted a three-day visit to Islamabad, Pakistan last week. And despite his stated purpose to investigate drone strikes, he didn’t actually talk to any of the agencies responsible for those strikes, or even visit strike sites: During the course of the visit the Special [...]

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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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Celebrations vs. Self-reflections

by Ebi Spahiu

Having spent the last 8 years of my life in the US, I had forgotten the grandeur of the 8th of March (the International Women’s Day), a day of celebration, expression of appreciation and respect towards our mothers, sisters and daughters. Even though a working day in Albania, classrooms and offices were flooded with gifts [...]

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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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News review for this week

by observer

Ferghananews: Russian Federal Ministry of Migration has announced news about launch of special patrol group. The patrol willregulate order in Moscow streets and organize activities for explaining Russian laws to migrant workers who came from Former Soviet Union countries.  At present the number of patrol members reach  hundred men, and Ministry of Migration is planning to [...]

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More Fun with ISAF’s Numbers: I Blog for the AAN

by Sunny in Kabul

One of the coolest things I’ve gotten to do in writing about Afghanistan is guest blogging over at the Afghan Analysts Network. It’s run by some of the smartest people around when it comes to Afghanistan, and it’s a no-kidding privilege to be able to write for them on occasion.Before we learned yesterday that ISAF [...]

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Kazakhstan’s long quest for nuclear power relevance

by Joshua Foust
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The former Soviet states in Central Asia are often derided as backwaters. But Kazakhstan, the largest, is also taking a leading role in global nuclear security. The same country where Moscow once exploded hundreds of nuclear weapons has spent the last half-decade aggressively expanding its uranium mining industry… and just this week, negotiations over Iran’s [...]

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ISAF Walks Back Insurgent Attack Numbers, Does Not Understand the Interwebs

by Sunny in Kabul

You may have heard the news that ISAF is walking back what it originally reported in January, that there was a 7% decrease in “Enemy Initiated Attacks” over the course of 2012. You may have also heard the news that said report has been taken down. I’m guessing there’s going to be a webmaster opening [...]

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