Recommended Reading

A very pro-Chechen look at the last few centuries of Russian-Chechen conflict and coexistence

New Eurasia.net has an interesting series on Turkmenistan. The blogger, “Annasoltan” has a good eye for the use of striking visuals too:

The signal of freedom, part 3: the 3Golden Age , OtherTube, PseudoBook, and the fate of the world in Turkmenistan,  Turkmen Gods, part 2: “This is for God and this is for our idols” , Turkmen Gods, part 1: divide and convert , “My people have been hypnotized” , Into the iris of insanity: dissent, psychiatry, and the true face of Turkmen totalitarianism,  Watching Karzai, Seeing Diem

Like Diem, Karzai brought some baggage with him. He was not a figure with whom the majority of Pashtuns identified, and his collaboration with the Northern Alliance made him suspicious as well. In the “grand” Afghan tradition, he has proven to be classically corrupt, instituting a kleptocracy in which members of his family have been notable beneficiaries. Corruption has, like land reform in Southeast Asia, been a major theme in Afghan opposition to Karzai, and the United States has publicly and privately implored him to clean up his regime’s act. Like Diem, he has issued pious rhetoric about attacking the problem but basically not done anything about it. As evidence, Americans seeking to liberate Helmand Province regularly report they fear corrupt Afghan officials as much or more than the Taliban.

Foreign Policy –  How Not to Run an Empire (Tom Malinowski)

U.S. policymakers increasingly view Central Asia as a transit point to somewhere else. It is a region through which oil and natural gas flow to Europe, reducing U.S. allies’ dependence on Russian energy supplies. It is a region through which fuel, food, and spare parts flow to surging U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, reducing their dependence on a precarious Pakistani supply route. Officials and policy experts even have a new name for this region that captures its status as a logistical intermediary, rather than a set of distinct countries that matter in their own right: They call it the “Northern Distribution Network.”

Foreign Affairs – A Substitute for Victory (Dr. Bernard Finel)

Page 2 of 3 | Previous page | Next page