Afghanistan Headed for a New Spiral of Violence as U.S. Cancels Talks with the Taliban
By Sudha Ramachandran
October 14, 2019, the CACI Analyst
On September 7, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he was calling off peace negotiations with the Taliban. The announcement took the world by surprise since U.S. negotiators had said that ongoing negotiations with the Taliban had produced a draft accord only a week earlier. It seemed then that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan was imminent, yet their exit has now been put on hold. In addition to triggering another phase of heightened violence in the war-ravaged country, Trump’s decision could pave the way for an enhanced role for Russia and China in the Afghan peace process.
The Capture of Atambayev And What It Means For Kyrgyz Politics
By Johan Engvall
September 10, 2019, the CACI Analyst
On August 7-8, the confrontation for the past year and a half between former Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev and his former protégé current president Sooronbai Jeenbekov reached a violent crescendo. After having his immunity from prosecution stripped in a parliamentary vote in June, Atambayev barricaded himself in his residential compound. When law enforcement troops tried to detain him by force, the former president and his supporters put up a violent resistance. After a two-day standoff, leaving one officer dead and more than 170 others, including 79 law enforcement officers, injured, Atambayev eventually surrendered to the police. He is now facing criminal charges on multiple counts. What does this dramatic event tell us about the current and future state of Kyrgyz politics?
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Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, ed., Türkiye's Return to Central Asia and the Caucasus, July 2024.
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Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell and S. Frederick Starr, Stepping up to the “Agency Challenge”: Central Asian Diplomacy in a Time of Troubles, July 2023.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.