Bruce Pannier

The Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs has released a report on military and security forces in Tajikistan. The work examines the 30-year history of the Tajik defense forces, their mission and composition, how they are deployed, and the role of foreign countries in training and equipping.

Turkmenistan is reconfiguring its natural gas export options. Despite holding the world’s fourth largest gas reserves, Turkmenistan is exporting less of its

The countries of Central Asia are increasingly taking measures to confront water shortages—but they are working against the clock.

Tajikistan’s policies toward neighboring Taliban-ruled Afghanistan are reaching a pivotal moment. Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and his government have always viewed the Taliban as a threat, and that position has not changed since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. However, there is a bigger threat to Tajikistan growing in Afghanistan, and it might take cooperation with the Taliban to neutralize it. Additionally, the other Central Asian countries and China, Iran, and Russia are engaging with the Taliban government. Tajikistan risks missing out on opportunities that these countries are opening in Afghanistan. Following the lead of these countries presents Tajikistan with a different set of problems. Tajik authorities have been warning the country’s people and the international community about the Taliban threat for nearly 30 years. Tajikistan’s rigid stance against the Taliban government has brought Rahmon’s government support from Tajikistan’s people and other countries. Making peace with the Taliban will be difficult to explain to Tajik citizens. It will also remove one of the greatest incentives for foreign governments to continue decades of generous financial and security support for Rahmon’s government.

The oppressed Pamiri peoples of eastern Tajikistan have seen their ways of life torn apart in the last three years, and now it appears that the

On November 20, Tashiyev said he received an anonymous letter with a flash drive that contained a death threat. Tashiyev also remarked that already “5-6

It took some 33 years, but on December 4, Kyrgyz and Tajik officials reached a final agreement on delimitation of the last sections of their 972-kilometer border.

Turkmenistan does not have very many friends or gas customers, and Uzbekistan is both, so the basis for one day boosting Turkmen gas exports to Uzbekistan is

A series of murders in spring had residents in the area around Tajikistan's northern city of Konibodom on edge for weeks.

Two projects that successive governments in Kyrgyzstan over the course of more than three decades have promoted as key to the country's long-term success appear to finally be making progress.