Alexander Cooley
News Articles
Principles in the pipeline: Managing transatlantic values and interests in Central AsiaOctober 01, 2008After 9/11 the Central Asian states hosted coalition military bases and became important security partners for operations in Afghanistan. The rising price of oil and gas, coupled with a renewed western concern about its energy security, made the development and export of Central Asian production a much more pressing commercial and strategic priority for Brussels and Washington than it was in the 1990s. A region that was effectively ignored for over a decade has now become a vital area of transatlantic interest.
Base PoliticsNovember 01, 2005The U.S. air base closure in Uzbekistan in July illustrates the enduring problem the Pentagon faces in reconciling its presence in non-democratic countries with its commitment to promoting democracy. As the U.S. Army reshuffles military installations abroad, Cooley contrasts the contested nature of its basing presence in Central Asia with the relatively supportive political environment that is likely to surround new bases in democratic Romania and Bulgaria. He underscores how the United States can lose broad international legitimacy by dealing with non-democratic regimes, and even how it risks losing its actual military presence in the event of a sudden democratic transition in that host country.
Publications
Depoliticizing Manas: The Domestic Consequences of the U.S. Military Presence in KyrgyzstanFebruary 01, 2005Over three years since the United States established military bases in Central Asia to support Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), the military installation at Manas airport continues to define many aspects of the U.S.-Kyrgyz relationship. Much has passed in Kyrgyzstan since fall 2001, and several informative accounts have analyzed the dynamics of the evolving U.S.-led coalition presence. The overall argument of this paper is that through a combination of U.S. decisions about the base and the dynamics of Kyrgyzstan’s patrimonial domestic institutions, the U.S. presence at Manas has become “depoliticized.”
