In the Shadow of Tamarlane

America has officially entered into a strategic alliance with Uzbekistan, a relationship that is certain to reshape the geopolitical map of Central Asia. While the US has quietly sought to ingratiate itself with the Central Asian states of Kazakstan, Kyrgizstan, Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan ever since they broke away from the Soviet Union a decade ago, forging military-to-military relations with several of them under the auspices of NATO’s Partnership for Peace program, a US military presence close to Russia’s southern border would have been unthinkable even weeks ago.