The World Today

Kyrgyzstan was once an island of relative tranquillity and democracy in Central Asia. The renewed violence in the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions in the southwest, together with April’s revolution – the second in five years – seals its status as CentralAsia’s most unstable country. Respected former diplomat Roza Otunbaeva, whose interim government’s claim to legitimacy rests on the fragile basis that it was put there by the people by force, has announced that she will not run for the presidency herself at the end the year. A provisional government is a lame duck, but it has issued shoot-to-kill orders during curfews. The great powers have interests there, but they have stopped short of intervention.

Twenty years ago in the wake of the Cold War an organisation was founded to bring peace and democracy from Vladivostok to Vancouver. It is now chaired by Kazakhstan, but its lack of action on the violent disputes in neighbouring Kyrgzstan suggest organisational death.

The rise of China and the international financial crisis could be reducing interest in democracy as a solution to Southeast Asia’s problems of political stability. Divisions still run deep in Thailand despite the violent dispersal of the latest protests. There are democracy doubts too in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. Singaporean leaders have never been believers.

Britain should stop suggesting it needs to choose between Europe and America as security partners. Closer cross-channel cooperation could have military benefits, increase London’s influence in Washington and support the defence industry. Not least it would help achieve national objectives.

A year on from the disputed Iranian presidential election, the government still has many questions to answer. Although protesting its innocence, the means and motives for fraud were present. Urban myths are not enough to explain what happened.

All eyes are on Afghanistan. The American troop build-up continues, while the British look forward to leaving. Across the border in Pakistan a convoy supplying those soldiers is torched close to the capital. Security there is looking increasingly unsteady; various Taliban groups are gaining a grip. Time to keep an eye on Pakistan too.