International Terrorism: Middle East, Eurasia, and beyond: Central Asia

Is the United States, in its fight against terror and pursuit of the present Osama Bin Laden, recklessly creating conditions in Central Asia to produce the next Osama? Crosston studies this controversial argument in this political analysis of US foreign policy on Central Asia.

Ahmed Rashid, whose masterful account of Afghanistan's Taliban regime became required reading after September 11, turns his legendary skills as an investigative journalist to five adjacent Central Asian Republics—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—where religious repression, political corruption, and extreme poverty have created a fertile climate for militant Islam.

As Western forces withdraw from Afghanistan, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) could become more dangerous to Western and Afghan interests. Both groups are active in the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater and may use northern Afghanistan as a springboard for extending the banner of Sharia north of the Amu Darya River, the natural boundary separating Afghanistan from post-Soviet Central Asia.