After the collapse of the Soviet Union, new independent states have emerged in Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Central Asia has been a strategically important region during the Great Game and is becoming more important as each of the great powers finds interests in the region. The precarious stability in Central Asia is at stake and it is vital to understand how it is undermined, as instability will cause problems for the international community. This monograph examines the causes of instability in Central Asia, in particular, ethnic strife, border issues, resource scarcity, radicalism, and drug trafficking and examines how to identify pockets of instability in the region in order to create longer-term stability in Central Asia.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the student-authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency. (References to these studies should include the foregoing statement.)