Central Asia

Kazakhstan misses a chance to use the first OSCE summit in a decade to bridge the security gap between Europe and Central Asia.

With suspicion high on all sides, the latest round of talks on Iran's nuclear programme look doomed before they start. So why is anyone bothering?

Nine years after the first post-Taliban UN talks on Afghanistan were concluded in Bonn, one border province is still left oddly isolated.

A wave of violence in Tajikistan is raising fears that the government is losing control of parts of the country. It’s a dangerous development in unstable Central Asia.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wants his son to succeed him. But does a trip reminiscent of Prophet Muhammad’s also reveal something about his health?

Despite his country’s woeful human rights record, the US military still indulges Uzbekistan’s president. Don’t expect a change soon.

Stopping Iran from getting a nuclear bomb is a bi-partisan issue. It’s essential Republicans work with the Obama administration.

The best way to ensure Iran doesn’t acquire a nuclear bomb is to make clear it does have a right to an enrichment programme.

The timing of Gen. Petraeus’s good news on Afghanistan is strangely convenient for Washington—and glosses over the reality of a likely civil war.

The US has long resisted talking to the Taliban. But as the July 2011 drawdown date approaches, it’s running out of options.

Michael Scheuer takes The Diplomat just outside its regular beat for a closer look at Saudi Arabia. Still the biggest oil supplier to Asia’s largest economies, is the kingdom really as stable as its leaders like to make out?

The nomadic Kuchi are being driven from their lands, says Karlos Zurutuza. They’re second-class citizens in their own country.