Strategic Objectives in Central Asia

By Dr. Chris Seiple on 19 September 2001

Domestic Recommendations

• Revisit the entire national security framework and organization. It is time for a new national security act (similar to what Uzbekistan has done with the October 2000 decree reorganizing the Ministry of Defense and the 11 May 2001 Defense Law reorganizing the national security structure).
  
  • Critical to this process will be a restructuring of how the U.S. gathers, analyzes, and distributes information and analysis.
  • Equally critical is the process of developing interagency experts who see the whole picture all the time, not just a specialized field of view.
• We must include a comprehensive framework for Homeland Defense; this civilian command framework should address, for example, cyber-attacks, weapons of mass destruction (WMD), critical infrastructure, and ballistic missiles.
• The link between law enforcement and the military needs to be carefully examined.

Foreign Policy Recommendations

• We must have very clear regional policy goals for not just the military fight, but the humanitarian-civic-economic aftermath as well.
• In order to do that, the U.S. must reconceive of this region geographically; all U.S. agencies should group these countries as the Department of Defense's Central Command does. CENTCOM is the only U.S. agency to group Central and Southern Asia together in its regional approach.

What Should U.S. Policy Be?

Policy: "Create the opportunity for the peoples of the Central and Southern Asia region to build a stable security complex for themselves that denies terrorism."

• Why "regional"? A significant humanitarian relief and economic development package must be made ready for the region because we cannot afford to make the "BKM Mistake" of the Balkans. There we initially did not display the political will to address the situation in its totality and a regional policy emerged only in piecemeal fashion after the predicable, and perhaps preventable, dominoes of Bosnia, Kosovo, and Macedonia fell.
• Why "security complex"? Security is a mosaic of many things, political-military-economic-civil-humanitarian that takes place between and among many state and non-state actors. We must allow for all of these dimensions, all of these players.

What Should U.S. Objectives Be?

• The capture of Usama bin Laden.
• The destruction of the Al-Qaeda network.
• The removal of the Taliban from power.
• The facilitation of an immediate and comprehensive humanitarian effort that lays the foundation for economic growth (Prior to Sept. 11th, Afghanistan was already home to the worst humanitarian emergency in the world).
• The delivery of a comprehensive economic package, led by the World Bank and IMF, to the entire region that is tied to basic economic and civil society principles (e.g., in Uzbekistan, the full convertibility of the som and the guarantee of basic freedoms).
• The creation of sustainable trade routes from Central Asia through South Asia to the sea.
• The provision of a comprehensive law enforcement training package to all countries of the region.
• The sustainment of a viable regional mechanism for collaboration and coordination that includes all of the region's actors -- plus China, Russia, and the U.S.
• The use of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's proposed coordination center in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, as a major node in the "Counterterrorism Coalition" of intelligence sharing and mutual action.
• Explore the real possibility of a new era of relations with Iran while being a real peacebroker in Kashmir and the Middle East.

Concluding Comments

This policy should be announced before any military action -- covert or overt -- is taken. Let the world know that we will do exactly that which we say we will do. We will keep our promises to destroy the heartland of terrorism and we will build that heartland up, not in an American way, but in an economic way that is congruent with the region's traditions and cultures.

There is an old joke from the Soviet days. In order to have a prosperous economy, you must first lose a war to the U.S. In 1948, we provided the Marshall Plan to Europe. Why? Because we loved the Europeans so much? Yes, but also because Western Europe was becoming a breeding ground for communists.

Today, terrorists are being bred throughout Central and South Asia because they have no economic wherewithal and they possess no voice to express their grievances. We cannot destroy one network or one terrorist when there are so many other networks and terrorists ready to replace them. It will be a never-ending battle if we just focus on stopping terrorist organizations or killing terrorists. In fact, we will only create more of them. We must strike at the roots, not the leaves. We must create economic opportunity. In Uzbekistan, for example, the full convertibility of the som is Uzbekistan's #1 national security objective.

Finally, let me conclude with this: No matter the issue, what counts most is the means by which we cooperate to face-down, and eventually defeat, these global issues. As President Bush has recently suggested, it will take an "adjustment in our thinking" to do this. We will need new experts -- like my institute -- that examine the interrelationship between issues we have previously kept separate. It will not be easy, but it is necessary.

Last updated 12 January 2009