Security Co-operation in Central Asia
The Struggle against the Drug Trade and Terrorism
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The drug trade and terrorism are key threats to Central Asia. In order to fight them, governments there are seeking to work together through the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. But effective co-operation going beyond symbolic military manoeuvres is faltering, because those in power distrust one another, see different threats, and prefer bilateral relations. The states are part of the problem: The regimes’ repressive domestic policies foment Islamic extremism and corruption. Infiltration by organised crime is paralysing state agencies.
(Osteuropa 8-9/2007, pp. 357–368)