Experts Debate US Strategy in Central Asia
By Elaine Pasquini
Washington: The US withdrawal from Afghanistan last August, the recent crisis in Kazakhstan and Russia’s current aggressive actions toward Ukraine, have created enormous concerns for Central Asian countries. To address these issues, the United States Institute of Peace hosted an online program on January 27 titled “Does the US Strategy for Central Asia Address the Region’s Current Problems?”
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Amb (Ret.) Richard Hoagland |
Donald Jensen |
Frederick Starr. |
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Jennifer Murtazashvili |
Lesslie Viguerie |
Navbahor Imamova |
Pointing out that the United States was among the first to welcome the independence 30 years ago of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and while things have changed over the past few decades, “our overarching goals remain the same,” said Lesslie Viguerie, deputy assistant secretary for Central Asian and Pakistan Affairs at the US State Department. “Our commitment to the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the countries in the region has not changed. We continue to believe that political pluralism and democratic governance are the foundational bedrocks of a free and prosperous society.”
While some foreign policy wonks insist the US is losing interest in the region “the United States is invested in Central Asia and focused on policies that help promote a stable and secure region which deepens cooperation with the United States and the world,” Viguerie insisted. “We will tailor our engagement to reflect the realities on the ground, but we are guided by the enduring principle that the sovereignty and independence of our Central Asian partners is a foreign policy goal and an interest of the United States.”
Ambassador (Ret) Richard Hoagland, chair of the security and politics program at the Caspian Policy Center and former ambassador to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, noted, “in diplomacy the crisis of the day takes precedence and our highlighted ideals too often get left behind and overtaken by public events.”
The question now, post-Afghanistan, is what will the United States do. “The undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the various levels of governance and human rights problems in most of the countries has strongly motivated one faction of the foreign policy community in Washington to urge the United States to dial back its relations with these countries because we don’t need them anymore,” he said. “That would be an historic mistake. Each of the countries in its own way depends on the United States. And, as a new generation comes to power in these countries, people who have studied in the West and now regularly do business with Western companies inevitably will further internationalize these countries. I would like to suggest that it is time for the Biden administration to come up with and publicize a new and enhanced policy for this enormously strategic part of the world…and a first step the State Department can make is to get full-fledged US ambassadors into Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.”
While some of the speakers stressed that prosperity for Central Asian countries should be the most important goal of any US policy toward the region, S. Frederick Starr, founding chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road program, was adamant that security should be the US’s number one goal.
If sovereignty or capacity for self-governance is weakened, “then forget about the rest of your large programs,” he stated. “They will disappear into the midst of the priorities of the countries themselves if we are not addressing the issue of sovereignty and security.”
Voice of America journalist Navbahor Imamova pointed out that while the United States has talked about “trying to open the system, develop markets, enable growth, improve the quality of education, health care and life in general, Central Asians want fewer words, more action and a more active America in the region.”
“The test Central Asians are going to apply here to American strategy,” she added, “is whether it generates options for Central Asians to have better lives and, if it does, it is a success as far as Central Asians are concerned, otherwise they will just write America off.”
Donald Jensen, director for Russia and strategic stability at USIP, offered thoughts on Moscow’s perspective on the importance of the region.
“Although many people think Russia is trying to recreate the USSR, I don’t think it is,” he argued. “I think Russia is trying to reinvent itself as a great power in Eurasia and around the world. And I think that means the US not in its backyard because Russia wants the predominate influence over its neighbors.”
Right now, Jensen said, Ukraine and NATO are Russian President Vladimir Putin’s highest priorities.
“I think for a longtime Moscow was content to have a rather differentiated approach to the region so long as its interests were recognized, and its interest is primarily security,” he remarked. “It also has business interests in Kazakhstan where there is an ethnic Russian minority.”
The current strategy of the US toward Central Asia does not address the region’s current realities, insisted Jennifer Murtazashvili, associate professor and director of the Center for Governance and Markets at the University of Pittsburgh. “It is a really good opportunity right now for the US to fundamentally rethink how it sees this region,” she said.
Presently, the biggest demand for US engagement in the region is in education, she claimed. “This is an issue that should be at the heart of a very positive strategy for the future of Central Asia, which has a very young population. Let’s create a strategy that is based on the past, understands the past, but really turns the page into a new era.”
(Elaine Pasquini is a freelance journalist. Her reports appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and Nuze.Ink.)
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