2012 interview with Alexander Cooley, focused on Central Asian politics.
2012 interview with Alexander Cooley, focused on Central Asian politics.
Alex Cooley -- whose book on power-political competition in Central Asia is due out soon -- had an interesting op-ed in Friday's New York Times. He argues that the apparent success of the 12th...
They don't call him "Starrman Bashi" for nothing. The "Professor of Repression" also had a nice ring to it.
I have alluded to the work of Jason Lyall on the use of indiscriminate violence in counterinsurgency in the past. Briefly, Lyall's paper (recently published in JCR) examines how the Russian army...
Breaking reports, if true, vindicate a manuscript Alex Cooley and I wrote last year.* Whatever pleasure I get from saying "I told you so," however, is outweighed by my concern about the complications to US operations posed by the potential loss of Manas.The AP:MOSCOW – News agencies are quoting Kyrgyzstan's president as saying that his country is ending U.S. use of a key airbase that supports military operations in Afghanistan.A decision to end the U.S. use of the Manas base could have potentially far-reaching consequences for U.S. and NATO operations in Afghanistan.Interfax and RIA-Novosti...
[Cross posted at "Discord and Elaboration"]I think Patrick is on to something when he writes that the current dilemma facing the US in Uzbekistan isn't strictly one of security-vs-morality. Of course, one could (and many have) frame the issue in this way. However I think there is another way to look at the issue. I see the problem as strategy-vs-strategy, or more specifically, intrinsic interests-vs-reputational interests. The Defense Department sees the K2 airbase (K2 is shorthand for Karshi-Khanabad) as an intrinsic interest, one that is vital operationally to fighting the GWOT (Greater...
The Washington Post reports today on the recent NATO-Russia joint communique, which among other points stated that "issues of security and stability in Central Asia, including the recent tragic events in Uzbekistan, was also discussed." According to the Post, this rather bland language papered over an intra-agency dispute within the US government about how best to handle the situation stemming from the 13 May crackdown against a failed uprising in the city of Andijon. The crackdown, which Human Rights Watch has labeled a "massacre," involved the deployment of armed troops to respond to an...