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Niklas Swanstrom and Nicklas Norling
We are pleased to announce the release of this year’s third issue of the China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly. The journal is now in its fifth year of publication and the title of it appears more and more relevant for each successive year. China’s presence in Central Asia is growing stronger while the Central Asian states gradually have strengthened their room for foreign policy maneuver. Most importantly, China is opening up unprecedented opportunities for the Central Asian states engagement with other states and organizations (...)
Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Aftermath of the Russian Invasion of Georgia
Niklas Swanstrom
The Russian invasion of Georgia did not provoke too much concern from either China or the Central Asian governments. On the contrary, smug smiles were initially seen in many capitals of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members. Georgia is, to the displeasure of many, a very defiant and rapidly growing democracy that had the nerve to leave the embracing bosom of Russia (...)
Water and Energy Crisis in Central Asia
Bo Libert, Erkin Orolbaev, and Yuri Steklov
After a very cold winter in Central Asia in 2007-2008 followed by a dry spring and summer, the water and energy situation in the region is critical and political relations strained. The situation is so serious that it was addressed to at an extraordinary meeting of Central Asian Heads of State held in Bishkek early in October 2008. The extensive use of hydropower in Kyrgyzstan during the winter resulted in a very low level of water in the major Toktogul Reservoir on the Naryn, a principal tributary of the Syr Darya (...)
Combating Money Laundering in Eurasia: Lessons from Kyrgyzstan and Georgia
Christofer Berglund, Michael Jonsson, Christian Nils Larsen, and Elias Götz
Anti-money laundering (AML) policies are instrumental both in combating organized crime and political corruption and in promoting financial transparency and economic growth. This article provides an overview of AML efforts in Eurasia, with a particular focus on Central Asia and the South Caucasus. De facto achievements in the fight against money laundering often lag behind legal frameworks and AML regulations are sometimes misused as political tools. Within their respective regions, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia stand out as the most successful countries (...)
Pakistan’s Nuclear Defense Ambitions and U.S. Relations, the Global War on Terror in FATA: Promoting Regional Stability?
David A. Anderson and Heather Maki
Over the years, the internationally-backed U.S. policy toward Pakistan has proven short-sighted, inconsistently exercised, and regionally destabilizing. Pakistan remains a fragile state, now with nuclear weapons, a poorly running economy, and internal strife. Due to the advent of the Global War on Terror (GWOT), the Taliban, and Al Qaeda operating in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA), future foreign policy toward Pakistan will now have to be consistent and enduring to be successful, particularly to combat the GWOT in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region (...)
Changing Relationship of NGOs with Government: Post-war Reconstruction in Afghanistan
Šárka Waisová
Previous experiences with post-war reconstruction may lead us to the conclusion that NGOs could play a positive role in conflict management. However, after monitoring and analyzing post-war reconstruction in several countries (Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iraq), this article concludes that the initial positive attitude of governmental representatives towards cooperation with NGOs in post-war reconstruction is starting to wane. What is the reason for the current skepticism towards NGOs and the tensions governments and NGOs? This article looks at the relationship between the Afghan central government, local communities and NGOs and the existing tensions between them (...)
The Formation of Modern Uyghur Historiography and Competing Perspectives toward Uyghur History
Nabijan Tursun
Just as Uyghur regions have been a battleground for competing powers, twentieth-century Uyghur historiography has been the site of an ideological battle between the competing nationalist projects of the Uyghurs and the Chinese state. This article outlines the factors that influenced Uyghur historiography in the last century and discusses Uyghur and Chinese perspectives toward the history of Xinjiang (East Turkistan) and the Uyghur people (...)
Two Decades of HIV/AIDS in Tajikistan: Reversing the Tide or the Coming of Age Paradigm?
Alisher Latypov
Central Asian region has witnessed a dramatic ‘rise of the HIV tide’ over the last decade. This article provides a historical overview, describes the process of domestication, and examines legal, social and political dimensions of the HIV epidemic in Tajikistan in order to highlight existing contradictions and barriers in HIV policy-making and program implementation in that country. The response to HIV/AIDS in Tajikistan has been seriously influenced by pre-existing Soviet policies, crackdown on illegal substance use, and stigmatization of at risk groups and people living with HIV/AIDS (...)
Should an Unholy Cabal of German Greens and Industrialists Finance a Resurgent Russia? Natural Gas, Central Asia and Europe after the Georgian War
Michael Mihalka
Access to Central Asian hydrocarbons continues to dominate the EU security agenda after the Russian-Georgian war. The search for alternatives to Russian pipelines would seem to have strengthened the political if not the commercial logic for Nabucco and the Trans-Caspian pipeline.But has the situation actually worsened for the West? Or has Russia merely overplayed its hand and discovered that unlike the Soviet Union, there are real economic consequences for precipitous political actions (...)
East Asian Energy Cooperation: China’s Expanding Role
Gaye Christoffersen
This article examines Chinese and East Asian efforts at energy cooperation in expectation of moving towards an East Asian energy regime. The realization of East Asian energy cooperation depends on the nature of China’s role in a regional energy regime. China seeks a regional leadership role while at the same time it grapples with domestic structural weakness in pollution, energy supply and energy demand. During 2007 this dilemma of seeking regional leadership despite domestic weakness seemed especially acute. Beijing would respond to regional dilemmas, international criticisms and domestic governance issues by promoting further domestic energy reform, and organizing China’s first multilateral energy initiative.
