Divide Afghanistan at Your Peril
By Ahmed Rashid | 03 August 2010 Over the past 32 years, Afghans have fought a series of wars to keep their country together. For all the machinations of great powers...
Extracting Change in Afghanistan’s Development Quagmire
By Aunohita Mojumdar | 29 July 2010 The girls' high school under construction in Jabal Seraj could have turned out like any other development project in the area: crumbling and dangerous. Afghanistan...
Only talks with the Taliban can end an unwinnable war
By Ahmed Rashid | 26 July 2010 This week's conference in Kabul to determine the future of international support for Afghanistan is critical. The meeting, attended by Foreign Secretary William Hague, US...
“Time Tested Friendship”: Azerbaijan–Georgian Relations
By Zaur Shiriyev | 26 July 2010 "After the August war" - most political analysts use this quote when discussing events after the Georgian-Russian war in 2008, which changed the political map...
Pentagon Paid Airport Fees to Turkmenistan, But Can’t Say How Much
By Deirdre Tynan | 12 July 2010 For more than six years, the Pentagon paid fees to the Turkmen government for the use of the Central Asian nation’s airports. However, officials in...
Is Gazprom Waiting to Pounce on a Piece of a Georgian Pipeline?
By Nino Pasturia | 13 July 2010 An effort to remove Georgia’s North-South gas pipeline from a list of strategic state-owned properties is stirring controversy. Officials in Tbilisi maintain that full privatization...
Aid Distribution May Deepen Ethnic Divide in Southern Kyrgyzstan
By Alisher Khamidov | 14 June 2010 Not only is southern Kyrgyzstan experiencing a refugee crisis, the region is facing a humanitarian disaster brought on by deepening shortages of food and medical...
Bill to Boost Nazarbayev’s Powers in Kazakhstan Remains Theoretically Alive
By Joanna Lillis | 09 June 2010 It has been widely reported that Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has rejected parliament-approved amendments to enhance his executive powers. But Nazarbayev’s refusal to sign the...
Regional Cooperation of South Caucasus States: Illusions, Reality, Perspectives
By Zaur Shiriyev | 01 June 2010 The South Caucasus is a region where a number of unresolved conflicts still exist in the absence of regional security arrangements. Indeed, three unresolved (Nagorno-Karabakh,...
In the Deep Freeze: A Cold War legacy and the visa-free Programme between Russia and Japan
By Paul Richardson | 01 June 2010 The Southern Kurils are three islands and a cluster of rocky outcrops that lie off the north-east coast of Hokkaido. The Japanese collectively refer to...
South Caucasus Needs More Pro-Active EU Engagement
By Zaur SHIRIYEV | 31 May 2010 The European Parliament, or EP, approved a report on May 20 on the need for a European Union strategy for the South Caucasus, which stresses...
Turkish-Russian Strategic Depth in South Caucasus
By Zaur Shiriyev | 21 May 2010 Turkey’s recent shuttle diplomacy between Moscow, Baku and Tbilisi has indirectly confirmed the strategic depth of its foreign policy as the country seeks to...
Armenian Diaspora: Influence on Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
By Zaur Shiriyev | 17 May 2010 In recent weeks, Armenian parliamentarians and political analysts have called on Armenian diaspora organizations to press for international recognition of the Armenian regime in Karabakh...
The South Caucasus: A common future?
By Zaur Shiriyev | 29 April 2010 Religious leaders from Armenia and Azerbaijan made a call in Baku for a peaceful resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The head of the...
Has Armenia Changed?
By Zaur Shiriyev | 22 April 2010 The word "change" has recently become rather popular in political campaigns, starting of course with that of U.S. President Barack Obama, who perhaps led...