Uzbekistan’s stability is crucial to a region that has great significance in international relations. The apparent capacity of Uzbek authorities to ignore their own international human rights commitments threw into question evolving human rights and sovereignty standards. The diplomatic fallout may significantly alter the configuration of great power politics in the region.
Uzbek authorities have suggested the disturbances were the result of a conspiracy by outside groups linked to international Islamist terror networks. However, there is no evidence the uprising was engineered from outside. It seems much more likely it was rooted in wider socio-economic frustration and oppression by local law enforcement and the judiciary.
