scholarly journals Central Asian and Middle Eastern policy towards Tajikistan

2021 ◽  
pp. 119-130
Author(s):  
A. Bulvinskyi
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Mountain Rivers ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Hydropower Plants ◽  
Central Asian

The article analyzes the main policy directions towards Tajikistan, neighboring countries of Central Asia and culturally related to the Tajiks of the Middle East towards Tajikistan. The civil war in Tajikistan between supporters of the country’s secular and religious paths of development (1992-1997) caused mixed attitudes and policies on the part of various state, political and religious circles in Afghanistan. However, after it became clear that the struggle between secular and Islamist forces in Tajikistan could destroy the country as such, the culturally and linguistically close to the Tajiks political elite of Afghanistan (B. Rabbani and A. Masood) and Iran (A. Rafsanjani) made significant efforts to end the civil war in Tajikistan as mediators and expressed interest in the sustainable development of Tajikistan. In the 2000s, Iran abandoned attempts to influence Tajik policy in order to promote the establishment of a religious state in Tajikistan, turning to cooperation with the secular Tajik authorities in the economic sphere. Important issues complicating relations between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are the construction by Tajiks of large hydropower plants on mountain rivers, which Uzbekistan considers a threat to national security, and unresolved border disputes, which are a source of constant aggravation in Kyrgyz-Tajik. In general, Tajikistan has complex problems of various kinds with most of its neighbors (with Afghanistan - drug trafficking and Islamic influences, with Uzbekistan - water energy, with Kyrgyzstan - border), which prevent bilateral relations to reach a new level of quality.

scholarly journals Cuba, United States and fight against drug trafficking: ups and downs of a necessary cooperation

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 54-64
Author(s):  
Santiago E. Bejerano
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Modern World ◽  
American Continent ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Alternative Scenarios ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Common Security

Given the geostrategic importance of Cuba for the entire American continent and the increasing complexity of the nature of security as such, and accordingly, of the mechanisms of ensuring it in the modern world, the problem of drug trafficking is rather high on the agenda of the U.S.-Cuban relations. The article examines the issue of combating drug trafficking in the context of bilateral relations between Cuba and the United States in order to assess the prospects for joint efforts on this track. The author presents a retrospective of mostly unilateral initiatives by U.S. presidents that did not lead to real tangible results, in particular due to the prevailing erroneous approach of militarization in the fight against drug trafficking. The new century requires new forms and a qualitatively higher level of interaction. With a noticeable warming in the dialogue with Cuba under Barack Obama the situation has changed in many respects, and quite a few initiatives of bilateral nature began to bear fruit. Nevertheless, with Donald Trump’s rise to power, there is an obvious setback in the rapprochement, in proof of which the author gives examples of specific destructive steps, although this position of the administration met if not open criticism, then proposals for alternative scenarios of the development of contacts between the states. The potential that exists in both countries for cooperation in this area can be realized provided that the interests of common security prevail over political disagreements and state channels of cooperation are strengthened, with the dynamics of this process being reflected in the situation in the region as a whole.

scholarly journals Integration of Foreign Actors in the Central Asian Region: Influence on the National Security of Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-225
Author(s):  
Nuradin U. Khanaliyev
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Internal State ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Asian Region ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Ideological Influence ◽  
External Forces ◽  
External Actors

After the collapse of the USSR, permanent domestic political turbulence gave rise to political autocracy and political struggle with its characteristic technologies for influencing internal state processes. At the same time, the Central Asian states began to actively engage in global processes. At the same time, various countries of the East and West began to show interest in expanding their economic and geopolitical presence in the Central Asian region. At the same time, the ideological influence on the countries of Central Asia intensified. Various external forces, pursuing specific goals, seek to exert their influence on the internal processes of sovereign states, often contrary to the interests of the peoples of the Central Asian region. In this article, the author analyzes the influence of external actors on the internal processes of Central Asian states from the point of view of ensuring the national security of Russia.

scholarly journals Drivers of Greek and Turkish Defense Spending

2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Waszkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Granger Causality ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Causal Relation ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Defense Spending ◽  
Causality Tests ◽  
Military Expenditures ◽  
Granger Causality Tests ◽  
Political Economic

Abstract This paper evaluates the factors responsible for maintaining substantial military expenditures in Greece and Turkey. The presented research encompasses theoretical and empirical aspects. First, defense spending by both countries was analyzed based on statistical data from international sources. Next, the theoretical determinants of budgetary spending are reviewed, which consider political, economic and military factors behind high expenditures on the army in Greece and in Turkey. Finally, Granger causality tests is applied to determine whether a causal relation between variables exists in the case of these two countries. We conclude that defense expenditures in Greece and Turkey exceed the NATO average, but are relatively low relative to those of selected Middle Eastern countries. Our results indicate that high military spending level in Turkey is mainly driven by national security concerns, whereas an economic driver prevails in Greece.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

2017 ◽  
pp. 95-121
Author(s):  
Levent Coşkun Erkekoğlu ◽  
İpek Madi
Keyword(s):  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Integrated System ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
General Welfare ◽  
The Stability

For Jordanian economy, the insufficiency of its natural resources, the dependence of the volatility of its workers' remittances on the global oil price fluctuations, the effect of the regional chaos on its economic sectors, rising requirements on education and health due to the increasing population generated by refugee influx are some of its important issues. Agricultural products are among the country's main exports. Nevertheless, the water scarcity in the Middle East which may be defined “the key issue” to be solved for the welfare of Jordan (and the Middle Eastern-Islamic World) has been a block for its economy. Improving the bilateral relations and “skilled partnerships” with Turkey, would be a solution for the Jordanian economic issues, for the general welfare of the region as well. One specific sector may be healthcare services through which an integrated system may be formed for the future well-being of the Middle Eastern and Islamic World. An important issue for Jordan and the Middle Eastern-Islamic countries is that the success of economic policies, the stability, the peace, safety and welfare of the general are dependent on how “justice and compassion” are defined and on the mentality or belief from which they are derived.

Muslim Trade and City Growth Before the Nineteenth Century: Comparative Urbanization in Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Blaydes ◽  
Christopher Paik
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
New World ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Run Up ◽  
Alternative Routes

AbstractScholars have long sought to understand when and why the Middle East fell behind Europe in its economic development. This article explores the importance of historical Muslim trade in explaining urban growth and decline in the run-up to the Industrial Revolution. The authors examine Eurasian urbanization patterns as a function of distance to Middle Eastern trade routes before and after 1500 CE – the turning point in European breakthroughs in seafaring, trade and exploration. The results suggest that proximity to historical Muslim trade routes was positively associated with urbanization in 1200 but not in 1800. These findings speak to why Middle Eastern and Central Asian cities – which had long benefited from their central location between Europe and Asia – declined as Europeans found alternative routes to the East and opened trade opportunities in the New World.

scholarly journals The State’s Changing Role Regarding the Kurdish Question of Turkey: From Consistent Tutelage to Volatile Securitization

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burak Bilgehan Özpek
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
Political Survival ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
Political Group ◽  
Systemic Crisis ◽  
Kurdish Question

Disappearance of the established security paradigm of Kemalist state has not helped to create strong institutions and legal-bureaucratic structures that are supposed to prevent a certain political elite to dominate the political system and criminalize its adversaries by security reasons. Instead, survival concerns and political will of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has become replacement of the established paradigm. This has created a systemic crisis. On the one hand, the AKP has played the role of a regular political party, which is supposed to have equal rights and privileges with other players in the game. On the other hand, the AKP has been the tutelary actor that determines what national security is and who threatens national security. As a result of this picture, the AKP has exploited its monopoly over securitization to eliminate the criticisms of the opposition groups. Therefore, any political party or political group has not been viewed as a national security threat only if it has not threatened the political survival of the AKP. Such a crisis has also affected the AKP’s approach toward the Kurdish question. Unlike the established paradigm’s allergy toward the political demands of Kurds due to its commitment to nation-state principle, the AKP’s fluctuated policy toward the Kurds resembles to a political party’s survival strategy rather than a policy stemming from a consistent national security paradigm.

scholarly journals Long-term profiling of mineral dust and pollution aerosol with multiwavelength polarization/Raman lidar at the Central Asian site of Dushanbe, Tajikistan: Case studies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Hofer ◽  
Dietrich Althausen ◽  
Sabur F. Abdullaev ◽  
Abduvosit N. Makhmudov ◽  
Bakhron I. Nazarov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Asian Dust ◽  
Raman Lidar ◽  
Dust Event ◽  
Angstrom Exponent ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Ångström Exponent ◽  
Lidar Ratio ◽  
532 Nm ◽  
Ångstrom Exponent

Abstract. For the first time, continuous vertically resolved aerosol measurements were performed by lidar in Tajikistan, Central Asia. Observations with the multiwavelength polarization/Raman lidar PollyXT were conducted during CADEX (Central Asian Dust EXperiment) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, from March 2015 to August 2016. Co-located with the lidar a sun photometer was operated. The goal of CADEX is to provide an unprecedented data set on vertically resolved aerosol optical properties in Central Asia, an area highly affected by climate change but largely missing vertically resolved aerosol measurements. During the 18-months measurement campaign, mineral dust was detected frequently from ground to cirrus level height. In this study, an overview of the measurement period is given and four typical but different example measurement cases are discussed in detail. Three of them are dust cases and one is a contrasting pollution aerosol case. Vertical profiles of the measured optical properties and the calculated dust and non-dust mass concentrations are presented. Dust source regions were identified by means of backward trajectory analyses. A lofted layer of Middle Eastern dust with an aerosol optical thickness (AOT) of 0.4 and an extinction-related Ångström exponent of 0.41 was measured. In comparison, two near-ground dust cases have Central Asian sources. One is an extreme dust event with an AOT of 1.5 and Ångström exponent of 0.12 and the other one is a most extreme dust event with an AOT of above 4 (measured by sun photometer) and an Ångström exponent of −0.08. The observed lidar ratios (particle linear depolarization ratios) in the presented dust cases range from 40.3 sr to 46.9 sr (0.18–0.29) at 355 nm and from 35.7 sr to 42.9 sr (0.31–0.35) at 532 nm wavelength. The particle linear depolarization ratios indicate almost unpolluted dust in the case of a lofted dust layer and pure dust in the near-ground dust cases. The lidar ratio values are lower than typical lidar ratio values for Saharan dust (50–60 sr) and comparable to Middle Eastern/West-Asian dust lidar ratios (35–45 sr). In contrast, the presented case of pollution aerosol of local origin has an Ångström exponent of 2.07 and a lidar ratio (particle linear depolarization ratio) of 55.8 sr (0.03) at 355 nm and 32.8 sr (0.08) at 532 nm wavelength.

scholarly journals Uzbek Perspectives on Eurasia

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ambassador Abdusamat A. Khaydarov ◽  
Ambassador Surat M. Mirkasymov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Asian Region ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Insight Into

This article is a brief overview of the main trends in the foreign policy of Uzbekistan under the new leadership of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The sections on bilateral relations and interaction of Uzbekistan with international organisations give an important insight into the dynamics of a strategically important Central Asian region and Eurasia as a whole. The article also reflects Uzbekistan’s perception of Eurasia as a region that is experiencing several geopolitical shifts.

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