For quite some time I have meant to review Rein Müllerson’s Central Asia–A Chessboard and Player in the New Great Game. It is simply outstanding, the most perceptive analysis I have read to date concerning the significance of Central Asia to geopolitical games in the 21st Century. It’s not cheap–$144.50 at Amazon.com in the USA, [...]

The Times (UK) reports that Uzbek millionaire Alisher Usmanov’s solicitors, Schillings, have forced Craig Murray’s webhost, Fasthosts Internet, to shut down the former British ambassador’s website in a libel dispute–a move that blacked-out the website of Conservative MP (and candidate for London Mayor) Boris Johnson: Mr Johnson was furious: “This is London not Uzbekistan. It [...]

For those interested in Uzbek emigres who have achieved influence in the United States, there’s an interesting discussion of Rudy Giuliani’s image consultant, a businessman named Elliott Cuker, who was born near Tashkent in 1942, in this week’s New Yorker profile by Peter J. Boyer. This excerpt describes Cuker’s importance to the presidential candidate: It [...]

That’s the implication in Ferghana.ru’s interesting interview with Hatam Hajimatov about the Birodar movement, aka Akramians. Hajimatov apparently believes that Uzbek refugees returned from the US to Andijan because of a a fatwa from their leader, brokered as part of a deal with the Uzbek government: Hatam Hajimatov: I had friends in the organization. I [...]

Writing in Tuesday’s New York Times (TimesSelect registration required), former US Foreign Service Officer Rory Stewart advocates letting Afghans rebuild their country in their own way. His op-ed was headlined: “The Value of Their Values.” An excerpt: I began my career as a Foreign Service officer in Indonesia. There, journalists, diplomats and aid workers emphasized [...]

Dmitry Babich recently reviewed legendary Central Asian author Chingiz Aitmatov’s new novel for Russia Profile: Chingiz Aitmatov is back. Not only is he back in the public spotlight, but he has also returned to his epic, journalistic narrative style. In his books, the existential quest for the meaning of life is intermingled with the burning [...]

The author of Sons of the Conquerors: The Rise of the Turkic World is bullish on the future of the region in the post-Turkmenbashi era–although he cautions against Western attempts at regime change. An excerpt from his op-ed in the St. Petersburg (Russia) Times: There are plenty of reasons that the West should work harder, [...]

Last week, Forum 18 and Jamestown Foundation correspondent Igor Rotar made a couple of public presentations to Washington, DC think-tanks–about “Religious Freedom and State Policy in Central Asia” at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and “The Future of Islamic Radicalism and Relgious Freedom in Central Asia” at the Jamestown Foundation (Streaming video [...]

In the interest of stimulating discussion, Almaz Tolymbek has agreed to share his Ann Arbor CESS paper analyzing leadership styles in Kazakhstan with Registan.net readers. Tolymbek relates questions of national character to a typology of leaders, based on survey research that indicates Kazakhs want more than a strong leader–they are looking for an inspiring one. [...]

I met Indiana University economics professor Martin C. Spechler at the CESS conference, where we had an interesting luncheon conversation about his training under legendary Harvard econonmist Alexander Gerschenkron. Spechler has a more optmistic view of Uzbekistan than Juan Cole or Craig Murray, as put foward in a paper he delivered in Ann Arbor. He [...]