CAUCASUS
June, 2006
Kicking the Opium Habit? Afghanistan's Drug Economy and Politics since the 1980s
Journal Article, Conflict, Security & Development, issue 2, volume 6
By Vanda Felbab-Brown, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program/Program on Intrastate Conflict, 2005–2007
AP Photo
April-June 2006
"Turkey's Energy Policies in a Tight Global Energy Market"
Journal Article, Insight Turkey, issue 2, volume 8
By Brenda Shaffer, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1999-2000; Former Research Director, Caspian Studies Project, 2004-2007
Despite this extensive activity in the energy sphere, it seems, however, that Ankara's energy policy has been undertaken without a strategic plan and with little integration of energy issues into Turkey's overall foreign and security policies.
March 23, 2006
"Hasty Poppy Eradication in Afghanistan Can Sow More Problems"
Op-Ed, Christian Science Monitor
By Vanda Felbab-Brown, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program/Program on Intrastate Conflict, 2005–2007
"...Increasingly, the Taliban insurgents have joined forces with some of the Pashtun drug traffickers in the south, protecting drug convoys for payoffs and carrying out joint operations. Meanwhile, interdiction efforts have only consolidated the drug industry, strengthening the hold of local warlords — now police chiefs and government officials — on the drug trade while crowding out small traders.
The popular discontent in Afghanistan with the failure of Kabul to deliver security, social services, and basic livelihood is steadily growing. Although much has been achieved, expectations of improved living conditions have been growing at a much more rapid pace. Increasingly, the discontent is directed against President Hamid Karzai himself. The popularity he enjoyed after the presidential elections in 2004 is slipping. By the fall of 2005, unemployment and lack of basic necessities had paralyzed Kabul with protests...."
AP Photo
January-March 2006
"Issue Indivisibility and Time Horizons as Rationalist Explanations for War"
Journal Article, Security Studies, issue 1, volume 15
By Monica Duffy Toft, Associate Professor of Public Policy
This paper focuses on two rationalist explanations for war: issue indivisibility and time horizons. It argues that both types of bargaining problems have not only been undertheorized in the international relations literature, but that a non-trivial proportion of the violence witnessed since the end of the Cold War may be explained by these obstacles to non-violent conflict resolution. It uses the case of Russia's two most recent wars in Chechnya.
December 2005
How the Weak Win Wars: A Theory of Asymmetric Conflict
Book
By Ivan Arreguin-Toft, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 2002-2009
"In How the Weak Win Wars, Arreguin-Toft means to convince the reader that when the very strong meet the weak in asymmetric armed conflict, strategy matters more than power. Despite minor excursions in his conclusions, he achieves this goal through expert scholarly analysis and a writing style that elucidates complex topics with facility. His work is extremely relevant in the current geopolitical context and serves as a warning to US policy makers to get military strategy right, regardless of relative power. Arreguin-Toft's argument makes perfectly clear the perilous consequences of neglecting the importance of strategic interaction."
— Edward Bradfield, Harvard International Review (Summer 2005)
Read the entire review.
November, 2005
The Intersection of Terrorism and the Drug Trade
Book Chapter
By Vanda Felbab-Brown, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program/Program on Intrastate Conflict, 2005–2007
October 2005
"From Pipedream to Pipeline: A Caspian Success Story"
Journal Article, Current History, issue 684, volume 104
By Brenda Shaffer, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1999-2000; Former Research Director, Caspian Studies Project, 2004-2007
“The goal of winning the pipeline battle was less to gain the moderate volumes of oil and gas in the Caspian than to maintain (in the case of Russia) or attain (in the case of the United States and Iran) significant presence in the region.”
Fall 2005
Drugs and State Building in Afghanistan
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Pr?cis, issue 1, volume XV
By Vanda Felbab-Brown, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program/Program on Intrastate Conflict, 2005–2007
May 21, 2005
Uzbekistan's Tiananmen
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Fotini Christia, Former Research Fellow, Intrastate Conflict Program/International Security Program, 2004–2005, International Security Program, 2007–2008
March 1, 2005
U.S. Policy in the South Caucasus in the Second George W. Bush Administration
Conference Paper
By Brenda Shaffer, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1999-2000; Former Research Director, Caspian Studies Project, 2004-2007
