Uzbekistan and the Bush Doctrine
U.S. Policy after Andijon
Leon Aron
July 28, 2005
  • Print
  • Download

On May 13, Uzbek troops opened fire on protesters in the Ferghana Valley city of Andijon, killing several hundred civilians. The crackdown marks the latest escalation in the repressive rule of President Islam Karimov, who—despite longstanding criticisms of his human rights record—has positioned himself as a U.S. ally in the global war on terror.

Should the Bush administration continue to partner with the Karimov government, or is it time to take a harder line with Tashkent? Following the success of pro-democracy movements in Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Georgia, and Ukraine, what are the implications of the Uzbek crackdown for President George W. Bush’s "forward strategy of freedom"? What are the implications of a shift in U.S. policy for Uzbekistan’s internal politics and the stability of Central Asia?

Please join AEI for a panel discussion to examine these and other questions. Speakers include William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard; S. Frederick Starr, chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University SAIS; Martha Brill Olcott, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Chris Seiple, president of the Institute for Global Engagement; and Jennifer Leonard of the International Crisis Group. Leon Aron, director of Russian studies at AEI, will moderate.

About the Author

 

Leon
Aron

  • Leon Aron is Resident Scholar and Director of Russian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of three books and over 300 articles and essays. Since 1999, he has written Russian Outlook, a quarterly essay on economic, political, social and cultural aspects of Russia’s post-Soviet transition, published by the Institute. He is the author of the first full-scale scholarly biography of Boris Yeltsin, Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life (St. Martin’s Press, 2000); and Russia’s Revolution: Essays 1989-2006 (AEI Press,2007); Roads to the Temple: Memory, Truth, Ideals and Ideas in the Making ofthe Russian Revolution, 1987-1991 (Yale University Press, Spring 2012).


    Dr. Aron earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University, has taught a graduate seminar at Georgetown University, and was awarded the Peace Fellowship at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He has co-edited and contributed the opening chapter to The Emergence of Russian Foreign Policy, published by the U.S. Institute of Peace in 1994 and contributed an opening chapter to The New Russian Foreign Policy (Council on Foreign Relations, 1998).


    Dr. Aron has contributed numerous essays and articles to newspapers andmagazines, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, theWall Street Journal,   Foreign Policy, The NewRepublic, Weekly Standard, Commentary, New York Times Book Review, the TimesLiterary Supplement. A frequent guest of television and radio talkshows, he has commented on Russian affairs for, among others, 60 Minutes,The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Charlie Rose, CNN International,C-Span, and National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and “Talk of theNation.”


    From 1990 to 2004, he was a permanent discussant at the Voice of America’s radio and television show Gliadya iz Ameriki (“Looking from America”), which was broadcast to Russia every week.

  • Phone: 202-862-5898
    Email: laron@aei.org

  • Assistant Info

    Name: Daniel Vajdic
    Phone: 202-862-5942
    Email: daniel.vajdic@aei.org
Show More | See Full Profile
AEI on Facebook