Uzbekistan: A Strategic Challenge to American Policy

The need to promote observance of human rights in Central Eurasia often comes into conflict with the pursuit of security. Proponents of human rights causes often argue that the only way to achieve real security is to guarantee that rights are protected; advocates of realpolitik claim that sometimes there is no alternative to cooperation with rights-abusing states which nonetheless offer aid in countering security threats. In order to promote discussion of how best to balance these two aims, the Open Society Central Eurasia Project is sponsoring a series of publications that address these issues in the context of the region.

The first in this series, "Uzbekistan: A Strategic Challenge to American Policy," by Prof. Stephen Blank of the Strategic Studies Institute at the U.S. Army War College, concludes that much more must be done to reform if Uzbekistan is to remain a U.S. ally. Although the paper was written months before the May 2005 events in Andijan, its conclusions are only more relevant in the wake of this tragedy.