Central Asia Posts

I'm still linking to interesting posts on the sidebar. Nathan's Nazarbaev Forever! is good reading for anyone, whether you're interested in Central Asia or not. Kazakhstan is considering amending the constitution to remove term limits for the president (this may just be a formality; Nazarbaev already ignored his term limit to run in the last election). Nathan cuts to the real issue though:

As far as I am concerned, institutional arrangements are far more important than things like specific human rights cases because they are a much more meaningful indicator of a regime’s trajectory...

Western policymakers should, however, be sending the message that we are not just concerned about behavior, but also about how institutions constrain and/or encourage behaviors conducive to democracy.

I've also been very pleased with Bonnie Boyd's Central Asia on the foreign policy blogs.