At the end of 2011, Louise Arbour, head of the International Crisis Group (ICG), listed Central Asia among the top ten crisis areas in the world and a region that has the potential to see war in 2012. This...
Policy Memos by Shairbek Juraev
Speaking in July 2011 on the occasion of the one-year anniversary of Kyrgyzstan’s new constitution, then-President Roza Otunbaeva declared that the key task for the Kyrgyz citizenry was “to make a return to...
Kyrgyzstan’s February 2009 decision to close the U.S. military base at the country’s Manas airfield caught many by surprise. The decision was not preceded by domestic debate about a possible closure,...
The year 2010 marks the fifth anniversary of Kyrgyzstan’s Tulip Revolution. The events of March 2005 fostered hopes that Kyrgyzstan was on a fast track to democracy. Five years later, most observers...
In April 2010, the second president of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, was ousted from power after bloody clashes between authorities and protesters. He finally settled in Belarus, following the...