In The News

US in Asia: Seeking Partners at a Troubled Time – Part I

Ashok Malik November 10, 2010
As US President Barack Obama travels in Asia, this YaleGlobal series analyzes US foreign-policy initiatives emerging from a packed schedule with stops in four nations. The tour began in India. In the first article of the series, Ashok Malik explains how Obama shares the goals of his predecessor, George W. Bush, for a strategic partnership with India as a strong rising power, even though the two...

Obama in India: Taking the Partnership Global

Teresita C. Schaffer November 5, 2010
Increased trade and an urgent need for global governance have shifted the nature of the US-India relationship from bilateral to strategic in nature, explains Teresita C. Schaffer, director for the South Asia Program with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In just a decade, a minimal security relationship between the two nations transformed into regular military exercises and...

Kyrgyzstan Falls Apart: Can Democracy Work in Central Asia?

Benjamin Bidder, Matthias Schepp June 22, 2010
Ethnic violence has swept through Kyrgyzstan, and an article in Der Spiegel suggests that the country could follow the path of other former Soviet satellites, abandoning plans for a democratic system of government. “Central Asia faces a dilemma,” write Benjamin Bidder and Matthias Schepp. “Democracy doesn't seem to work there, but the region's autocratic regimes run the risk of...

Moscow Furious, Says US Not Pushing Drug War in Afghanistan

Fred Weir May 25, 2010
Perhaps better than anyone, veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan understand the challenges confronting NATO in its attempt to stabilize the region. But Russians express concern that more drugs from Afghanistan cross over their borders and those of former Soviet satellites. Russian authorities suggest that the drug trade is linked to terrorism and NATO could do more to control and destroy...

Black Hole on the Black Sea

Sharon Weinberger May 11, 2010
Stray nuclear weapons remain a grave concern for global security, and national leaders cannot afford to overlook any remote corner of the planet. South Ossetia, in northern Georgia, is a “jurisdictional black hole” with minimal border checkpoints, writes Sharon Weinberger for Foreign Policy. Separatist conflicts flare in the region, along with smuggling, corruption and plenty of fraudulent deals...

Despotism Doesn’t Equal Stability

Owen Matthews April 15, 2010
The recent ousting of Kyrgyz President Bakiyev exposed the instability of today’s ex-Soviet oil-rich Central Asian nations. Western countries, as well as the nearby giants of Russia and China, have a history of sustaining the repressive rule of communist-era chiefs in order to shore up their own interests in the region. This approach may end up working against them as the corrupt regimes they...

Kyrgyzstan Turmoil Puts US Base and Afghan War in Balance

Dilip Hiro April 12, 2010
Landlocked, lacking resources that typically attract notice of distant powers, the Kyrgyz Republic holds a strategic position. Not far from war-torn Afghanistan, where Al Qaeda hatched plans for the 9/11 attacks, Kyrgyzstan remains a nation of interest. Russia gave the go-ahead to former Soviet republics to assist in the US-led effort against Islamic extremism, explains author Dilip Hiro, but...