Rebranding Uzbek cotton: An opportunity for lasting reform
A Toxic Legacy The spectre of the use of child and forced labour to pick cotton haunts the Uzbek government to this day. At its peak, the government orchestrated the…
Articles, Briefings and Essays
The views expressed in the articles are those of each respective author and do not necessarily reflect the views or position of the Foreign Policy Centre.
Rehabilitation here and now: Pursuing transitional justice in Uzbekistan
We urgently need a structure independent of the state’s prison administration that will have the authority to devise remedies in individual cases of past and ongoing abuse. The creation of…
Is President Shavkat Mirziyoyev a reformer or a follower of the Karimov dictatorship?
Over the past 15 years, more than 600 civil society activists have been subjected to politically motivated persecution in Uzbekistan.[1] At least half of these have been tortured and imprisoned,…
Uzbekistan: on the brink of social explosion
The socio-political situation in Uzbekistan has been tense in recent years but now in many areas a crisis may be unfolding in the wake of the pandemic. As the economic…
COVID-19: Actions taken in Uzbekistan
Since March 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic, along with the world economies has had a negative impact on Central Asian countries, including Uzbekistan. The pandemic and economic crisis have affected…
The pursuit of an uneasy balance: post-Karimov Uzbekistan and the Great Powers
Foreign policy continuity in the aftermath of leadership change has normally defined the evolution of Central Asian politics in the post-Soviet era. A strict policy of Neutrality characterised the international…
Conclusion and recommendations: A road map for future reforms in Uzbekistan
Spotlight on Uzbekistan has sought to examine the state of the reform process in the country across a wide range of areas, the perhaps unsurprising headline conclusion is that a…
If Labour wants to put human rights at the heart of its foreign policy, it needs to talk more about Putin’s Russia
On April 4th 2020 Keir Starmer was voted in as new leader of the Labour Party by a considerable margin against his rivals. One of his key campaign pledges was…
The curious case of the Republic of Karakalpakstan
The fall of the Soviet Union led to the emergence of the Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. They all had been Socialist Soviet Republics (SSR)…
The impact of Covid-19: A case for maintaining external aid commitments and international cooperation
In conflict affected and vulnerable regions around the world the impact from and reactions to Covid-19 are differentiated. Different countries find themselves at varying stages of the pandemic. The situation is variable according to…