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Erica Marat
The military is an important, yet often shrouded attribute of state sovereignty. Although it is widely acknowledged that military institutions perform a key role in the functioning of the state, very few authors incorporate military-related variables into their analysis of national and international security dynamics.This issue of the China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly features articles by leading military and security experts. The contributors examine the challenges and outcomes of national military reforms, military and security cooperation, and the prospective repercussions of domestic and foreign security policies (...)
Kazakhstan’s Partnership with NATO: Strengths, Limits and Prognosis
Roger McDermott
This paper explores recent developments in relations between Kazakhstan and NATO. Changes in the nature and level of the partnership are examined, and it will be shown that Kazakhstani diplomats have utilized opportunities from problems between Uzbekistan and the West in order to obtain preferential arrangements with the Alliance. Kazakhstan has emerged as the key partner for NATO within Central Asia, based partly on its stable political and economic climate, the continued weaknesses of the other indigenous militaries, and the developing Western energy interests in the Caspian (...)
The Modernization Drive of the PLA and the New Defense White Paper
Jagannath P Panda
On December 29, 2006 the Information Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) released a White Paper entitled “China’s National Defense 2006.”1 The preface of the White Paper reads: “China's national defense and military modernization, conducted on the basis of steady economic development, is the requirement of keeping up with new trends in the global revolution and development in military affairs, and of maintaining China's national security and development.” This article examine how the Chinese authorities argue and defend their defense modernization plan. Particular emphasis is given to the recently adopted 2006 defense White Paper (...)
China’s Relations with Azerbaijan
Fariz Ismailzade
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, world powers rushed to increase their economic and political influence in the Soviet successor states. The South Caucasus, with its rich natural resources and geo-strategic location in the heart of Eurasia, has become a hotbed for post-Cold War competition between Russia, the U.S., Iran, and Turkey. While in the early 1990s China was not a significant regional player in the South Caucasus when compared to Russia and the U.S., the rapidly growing Chinese economy has inevitably turned the Asian neighbor into a significant emerging player worth noting in this region (...)
Post-Soviet Military-Political Integration: The Collective Security Treaty Organization and Its Relations with the EU and NATO
Alexander I. Nikitin
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) was formed in 2002-2003, and is based on an agreement signed in 1992. It encompasses seven post-Soviet countries including: Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The CSTO is currently the primary framework for the politico-military integration of the Newly Independent States (NIS). The CSTO has, in recent years, consolidated its role as an organization, and by passing the “Plan for the Construction of the CSTO’s Military Coalition Forces through 2010,” crossed a primary threshold – entering a new phase in its development (...)
Russia’s Opposition to Georgia’s Quest for NATO Membership
Kakha Jibladze
Over the past year, Tbilisi has made serious strides towards its long stated goal of joining NATO. However, Moscow has made it clear that Russia will not tolerate a NATO member state in its own “near abroad.” As Georgia has been moving closer towards NATO membership, its relationship with Russia has rapidly deteriorated. Although relations between the two estranged neighbors are slowly improving, analysts believe that as long as Tbilisi pursues NATO membership it will continue to face increasingly hostile attitudes from Moscow. The Kremlin’s deep displeasure with Tbilisi over this issue also signifies Georgia’s growing detachment from its Soviet past and Russian influence (...)
Talat Masood
Besides being located in the most disturbed region of the world, Pakistan is also faced with several internal threats. On its western border is Afghanistan which in the last thirty years has been devastated by a series of geo-political and strategic events. First it was the Soviet occupation that led to the launching of the “Jihad” fully supported by the U.S., Saudi Arabia, China and a large number of western countries. Then soon after the events of 9/11, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001. Afghanistan to date continues to be under foreign occupation and caught in an internecine fight among its various factions. The greatest threat to Pakistan from Afghanistan is its instability caused by the upsurge of Taliban forces in the South and South Western provinces bordering Pakistan, where they virtually control and administer the area (...)
International Factors Stopping Security Sector Reform: The Uzbek Case
Peter K. Forster
Creating civil society, according to Robert Dahl, requires participatory government that allows for the expression of responsible opposing views. Implied within this simplistic definition is a security sector that is depoliticized and under democratic control. Failure to achieve this prerequisite means progress towards civil society is in jeopardy. In most of the post-Soviet space, reform of security sector remains an enigma that is highly susceptible to shifts in geopolitics. Recent events in Uzbekistan are indicative of the mercurial nature of security sector reform in nondemocratic societies (...)
Changes in Uzbekistan’s Military Policy after the Andijan Events
Rustam Burnashev and Irina Chernykh
Starting in 2003, the Central Asian states’ understanding of regional and national security underwent significant changes. Besides identifying religious radical organizations as the most pressing security threats, the Central Asian presidents became more cautious about secular opposition forces as well. Kyrgyzstan’s March 24, 2005 Tulip Revolution had shown that popular protests organized by local civil society groups could potentially result in governmental collapse. More than any other Central Asian leader, the Uzbek president, Islam Karimov was keen on condemning Kyrgyzstan’s political changes, especially after the massive upheaval in Andijan on May 12-13, 2005. Although Tashkent’s official interpretation of the Andijan events blamed members of the banned Akramiya, a terrorist organization as defined in Uzbekistan, the Uzbek security structures underwent substantial changes that were aimed at preventing any possible repetitions of mass protests – be they organized by religious or secular groups (...)
Irina Isakova
After years of neglect, the urgent necessity to reform the Russian defense sector turned into the Kremlin’s central policy. The re-establishing of defense and security capabilities became an integral part of Moscow's foreign policy assertiveness and its independence from international actors. At the same time, since the defense reform influences 30-40 percent of voters, the reform has also become an important part of domestic policy in the wake of forthcoming parliamentary elections in 2007 and presidential elections in 2008 (...)
Soviet Military Legacy and Regional Security Cooperation in the Central Asian Region
Erica Marat
The main purpose of this article is to examine the significance of the Soviet military legacy in the Central Asian states' security relations formation after 1991. It argues that the military element of the Soviet legacy played a significant role in the way the Central Asian states proceeded with cooperative or hostile relations with each other. The asymmetric distribution of Soviet military infrastructures across states shaped their understanding of their potential capabilities compared to different neighbors. In the late 1990s and 2000s, regional security cooperation became complicated due to the nature of the Soviet military planning in the region that led to the emergence of militarily stronger and weaker states (...)
Nationalists, Muslim Warlords, and the “Great Northwestern Development” in Pre-Communist China
Hsiao-ting Lin
This article retraces China’s pre-Communist era (1928-49) and seeks to reveal the previously unnoticed story of Chinese Nationalists’ opportunistic and strategic advancement into the Muslim-ruled territories of China’s far northwestern frontiers. It demonstrates how the originally weak, localized, and war-ridden Nationalist regime gradually infiltrated China’s inland frontiers, where it usually claimed full sovereignty but where its administrative overtures remained ineffective. It also shows how the Nationalists took advantage of every possible opportunity to penetrate its previously fictitious authority into peripheral China in the name of state building and regime consolidation (...)
