Eurasianet

It was the most challenging of times, it was the most fascinating of times.

The first US envoy to independent Kazakhstan recalls the embassy’s early days.

A former US Caspian energy envoy recalls the ups and downs of getting a key post-Soviet energy export route built.

Remembering an accidental leader whose brief political career mirrored the greater tragedy of his country.

A former American ambassador to Kazakhstan examines lessons learned since first visiting the country weeks after independence.

The former U.S. ambassador to Turkmenistan discusses lessons learned and missed opportunities in the early years of independence.

A former top U.S. diplomat reflects on Central Asia’s identity crisis.

Even in the late 1990s, there were already signs that President Rahmon would ignore the peace accords, writes the former U.S. ambassador.

A senior American official describes trying to square two Bush administration priorities: human rights and the Global War on Terror.

Behind the scenes with an American negotiator who helped forge a radical new level of U.S. engagement in Central Asia after 9/11.

While encouraging educational exchanges and agricultural innovation, Washington's first ambassador to Turkmenistan found government suspicion overwhelming.

The U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe became a frenetic staging post for the Afghan war in late 2001.

The former U.S. ambassador to Turkmenistan describes close interactions with a paranoid and shortsighted dictator.

The former U.S. ambassador recalls an economy in free-fall in the 1990s, with American assistance programs not "as efficient or productive as we had hoped."

Much diplomatic work gets done – and information gathered – in social settings, especially when some alcohol is involved.

When it set up its first Central Asia missions in the early 1990s, the State Department had no regional experts.

Although Karimov was hardly warm and cuddly, he had, on occasion, a sort of sense of humor, writes the U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan in the late 1990s.

What did America have to offer the Central Asian states at their independence? A senior diplomat reflects on programing assistance to support development, rather than squabbling elites.