US Policy in Central Asia and Regional Security

The article focuses on American approaches to the problems of regional security and stability in post-Soviet Central Asia since the early 1990s. It discusses the priorities of US policies in Central Asia under the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations and argues that the advancement of US interests in Central Asia requires a coherence between the region-wide and the country-level tiers of American policies. Furthermore, it is argued that since the mid-1990s the development of bilateral relations between Washington and Central Asian countries has not been accompanied by a region-wide policy aimed at reducing security risks in Central Asia. The paper also discusses implications of US activism in Central Asia for long-term regional stability.