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Editor's Note
Sébastien Peyrouse
Presidential Elections in Kyrgyzstan: Strategies, Context, and Implications
Asel Doolotkeldieva
On July 23, 2009, Kurmanbek Bakiev was re-elected for a second term with an overwhelming 76.12 per cent of the vote, leaving the opposition leader Almazbek Atambaev (8.41%) and the other four candidates, Temir Sariev (6.74 %), Toktaim Umetalieva (1.14%), Nurlan Motuev (0.93%), and Jenishbek Nazaraliev (0.83%), trailing far behind. At first glance, it would seem that the election results confirmed Kurmanbek Bakiev’s greater popularity (...)
Stabilization of Afghanistan: U.S./NATO Regional Strategy and the Role of SCO
Simbal Khan
In March 2009, President Obama presented the draft of a new U.S. policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, which aimed to address the security slide in Afghanistan with a spate of new strategies. One aspect of this new thinking was to address the increasing instability by addressing the regional dynamics and engaging the main regional actors. (...)
Reassessing the SCO’s Internal Difficulties: A Chinese Point of View
Yang Shu
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is composed of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. They possess a great amount of resources, and there is a lot of room to enhance multilateral economic and social cooperation under the SCO framework. However, integration among the SCO members remains weak. They have very diverse levels of economic development (...)
Iran and India’s Cooperation toward Central Asia
Mahmoud Balooch
Iran, located by the Persian Gulf, Oman Sea, and Central Asia, is in the center of a perpetual “hot spot” in world affairs. It is situated at the eastern end of the oil-rich Persian Gulf and a possible export route for the natural resources of Central Asia. Iran’s geostrategic position allows it to play an important role in connecting India to Central Asia militarily and strategically. India sees Central Asia and Iran, situated at the crossroads of overland trading routes (...)
Revisiting Female Suicide in Muslim Tajikistan: Religious, Cultural, and Public Health Perspectives
Alisher Latypov
This article explores religious, cultural, and public health dimensions of female suicide in post-Soviet Muslim Tajikistan by contextualizing the findings from interviews with Tajik women and staff of the Dushanbe-based Burn Center, Toxicology Center, Emergency Department and Surgery Center within broader historical material, archival sources, religious texts, cultural studies, and scholarly research of suicide and self-immolation (...)
Perspectives on the SCO: Images and Discourses
Selbi Hanova
This article looks at the image construction of the SCO in the West and its own self-image as well as the history of discourse construction on the organization. The study utilizes constructivist lenses in order to investigate the reasons for certain image creation and trends/patterns in the activities of the SCO that contribute to the appearance of varying discourse. Such analysis is aimed at presenting relevant insights for policy formulations (...)
The Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and Russia’s Strategic Goals in Central Asia
Alexander Frost
The Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization have both proved to be key security-coordinating and training instruments in Central Asia. From Moscow’s point of view her security goals are superbly met through both. However, from her strategic standpoint the dual existence of these two organizations, the former Russian backed the latter a Chinese initiative, presents both benefits and major strategic drawbacks. This article examines how their dual existence affects Russia’s (...)
India’s Approach to Central Asia: Strategic Intents and Geo-political Calculus
Jagannath P. Panda
There is a widely held assumption that India’s growing military and security contacts in Central Asia in the last few years have made it a promising player in the region’s politics. But has India already emerged as a major player in Central Asia or is it in the process of becoming one? To what extent does the Great Game lens capture the real dynamics of India’s influence in Central Asia? (...)
The Dynamics of Bilateral Relations in the South Caucasus: Iran and its Northern Neighbors
Farhad Atai
The Islamic Republic of Iran enjoys close and friendly relations with the small Christian Republic of Armenia, rather than with the larger and seemingly more important Shi’ite Republic of Azerbaijan. While Iran’s close relations with Yerevan have a great deal to do with Armenia’s geographic and economic isolation, the Islamic Republic’s distant relations with Azerbaijan are a result of mutual suspicion and mistrust. Historically, Russia’s special relationship with Iran (...)
