Essay --

Uzbekistan is a large Country (about the size of France) and is strategically situated in the middle of the region, not only bordering the other four Central Asian Countries, but also Afghanistan. It is by far the most populated Country in the region, and the less ethnically fragmented, which also means less influence of regional factions than in the neighboring Republics. Its territory, the towns of Bukhara and Samarkand, and was the focal point of the main dynasties flourishing in Central Asia, from the Timurids, to the Shaybanids, and the Emirates of Khiva and Bukhara. The Russians recognized this historical role by elevating Tashkent as their military and administrative center in Central Asia. Also under the Soviet rule, Uzbekistan was recognized as a primus inter pares in the region by Moscow, which assigned to the Republic most of the regional institutions, from the Central Asian Military District to the Muftiyya(Spiritual Directorship). Uzbekistan was also the most represented of the five Republics in the USSR central institutions. All these factors cooperated to provide the Country with vital infrastructures and a political experience which proved essential to its success as an independent State: it is possible to say that, in the problematic context of contemporary Central Asia, Uzbekistan was the only Country with comparative advantages able to allow it to perform a significant role also at the international level. This was in fact the purpose of the ambitious President Karimov who, after a period of necessary restructuring and State-building, began an assertive foreign policy trying to achieve independence from Moscow (both through political freedom and economic self-sufficiency) and to reach close cooperation with the ... ...hts record. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, newly independent states have born. Along with the newly independent countries came new borders that had to be patrolled and new border guards who had to be trained. These new borders remained virtually transparent until new national customs services were created in 1993-1994. This was one of the reasons that international drug traffickers took a strong interest in the region. Drug trafficking is another challenge for Uzb ekistan government because the most important source of terrorist organizations is drug and narcotic. The only group significantly involved in trafficking Afghan opiates was the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), in particular, is believed to finance terrorist activities from drug trafficking, commodity smuggling and contributions from external sources.