Uzbekistan's foreign policy (1991-2001): A decision-making analysis

The foreign policy of independent Uzbekistan (from 1991 to the events connected to the Afghan campaign of autumn 2001), carried on through a decision-making analysis model, shows several features of a harsh path of state-building and transition from Communism: the discontinuous process of emancipation from Russia, matched by attempts of approaching the USA (crowned by success only after 9/11); the strategies pursued to overcome serious economic problems (which, added to projects of Uzbek hegemony over the whole of Central Asia, led several times to the edge of a regional war); the uneasy relation with Islamic movements in a country surrounded by fundamentalist forces; and the irrelevance of civil society and international organizations and NGOs in the Central Asian affairs.