One of the things all of the contributors here at Registan.net hope results from this blog being in operation is that more people, hopefully more people with power and influence, can realize the true importance of Central Eurasia—from Afghanistan to Georgia. Alas, stories about the U.S. engaging in what can only be called neglect while systematically underfunding initiatives are a depressing regularity. As Joshua Kucera reports:
Overall, the budget for the Freedom Support Act, which provides aid to former Soviet states, is $346 million for fiscal year 2009, which actually starts on October 1, 2008. That is down from $396 million in fiscal 2008, and $452 million the year before that.
The aid is heavily weighted toward countries with a pro-Western orientation like Georgia and Ukraine, and it is designed “to promote economic and energy independence, help diversify export markets, and improve democratic governance in the face of increasing Russian economic and political pressure,” according to documents that the State Department released to justify the budget…
The budget for assistance to Armenia is $24 million, down from $58 million disbursed in fiscal year 2008. Aid to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan is down, as well.
Washington analysts bemoaned the meager budgets devoted to the Caucasus and Central Asia. “Central Asia and the Caucasus present largely Muslim societies that look positively to the West, maintain secular governments, and are open to modern thinking. Any sensible appreciation of the United States’ interests would lead to their being given generous support. Instead, Washington itself is forcibly weaning them from their US ties, using the budget as its tool,” said S. Frederick Starr, chairman of the Central Asia–Caucasus Institute in Washington.
“Both the current and proposed budgets for Central Asia and the Caucasus are monuments to weak analysis, inter-agency pettiness, and trite bureaucratic formuli,” Starr continued. “It is hard to imagine a wider gulf between the US’s real interests and its budgetary actions.”
My goodness, call the papers: we’re in agreement with Fred Starr! But he is absolutely right—this sort of neglect (and those countries are keenly aware of where we spend our money) will lead to burned bridges across the region. But here is the truly depressing part:
Meanwhile, many of the states surrounding the Caucasus and Central Asia stand to receive aid amounts that dwarf those to be given to the former Soviet states. Afghanistan, for example, is to get $250 million in counter-narcotics money, down slightly from last year, and $707 million to for democratization and economic development. Meanwhile, military aid to Pakistan is due to reach $300 million, the same level it has been at for several years, and Islamabad would also get $453 million for democratization and economic development.
Washington also intends to spend $65 million to “support the aspirations of the Iranian people for a democratic and open society by promoting civil society, civic participation, media freedom and freedom of information.” It would also launch broadcasts of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Azerbaijani service into Iran, where at least a quarter of the population is ethnically Azeri.
While I have become something of a broken record on Afghanistan, this is just appalling. Other countries in the region are incredibly important in the long term—and not just Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Uzbekistan is slowly gaining some warmth from the U.S. as it grants yet another cycle of amnesty, however temporary, to its human rights activists (a sad cycle we never seem to learn from). Kyrgyzstan has quite recently demonstrated a galling lack of security for radioactive materials—especially when headed for Iran. Speaking of Iran, they’re quite cleverly using the unbelievably cold weather in Tajikistan to slither into deeper defense ties with Dushanbe—right along the border with Afghanistan. And so on.
So what’s the deal, Washington? Mr. Bush? Why are you shorting a strategic region, and stomping on some of the little American goodwill left in the world?
This post was written by...
Joshua Foust – author of 1771 posts on Registan.net.
Joshua Foust is a Fellow at the American Security Project and the author of Afghanistan Journal: Selections from Registan.net. His research focuses primarily on Central and South Asia. Joshua is a correspondent for The Atlantic and a columnist for PBS Need to Know. Joshua appears regularly on the BBC World News, Aljazeera, and international public radio. Joshua is also a regular contributor to Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Reuters, and the Christian Science Monitor.