Central Asia: Aral Sea Problem.

Following the Soviet Union's collapse, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan entered an international system transformed by globalization and the emergence of a liberalized economic order. The challenge to integrate into this system was tremendous, since the Central Asian states had only reluctantly embraced independence. Finding themselves cut off from their traditional sources of revenue from Moscow, new Central Asian heads of state had to deal with stagnating economies, collapsing social welfare systems, high levels of corruption, disgruntled populations, and severely damaged environments. Despite these daunting problems, the breakup of the Soviet Union brought great hopes that the successor states would embark on a path toward building free market democracies.

To assist the Central Asian states in meeting these formidable challenges, the U.S. government followed a policy of active engagement through economic, political, and environmental assistance programs. In short, U.S. policy in Central Asia has pursued four objectives: democracy building, free market economies, regional cooperation, and integration into the international system. Motivated by geopolitical concerns, the U.S. has relied upon foreign aid as a means to help the Central Asian states disengage from Russia's sphere of influence while precluding a rapprochement with Iran. Central Asia is considered strategically important, since it borders Russia, China, Iran, and Afghanistan. Moreover, most of the newly discovered oil and gas reserves in the Caspian Basin are located offshore of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan.

Washington's underlying goal in Central Asia has been the creation of a stable political and economic climate favorable to American business interests, especially in the energy sector. The U.S. sought to gain access to the newly discovered oil reserves in the Caspian Basin in order to lessen its dependence upon Persian Gulf oil. Due to the substantial amount of oil and gas reserves in the Caspian Basin, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott stressed conflict-resolution as "Job One" for U.S. foreign policy in the region. The resolution of conflicts within and between the Central Asian states and in the Caucasus is considered essential to attract the much-needed foreign investment to develop and market these oil and gas resources.

To bring about peace and regional stability in Central Asia for the development of these new energy reserves, U.S. foreign policy has focused its efforts on tangential issues outside the Caspian Basin in order to build trust and confidence among the Central Asian states. Given the broad array of interest in Central Asia due to the above geostrategic concerns, environmental issues presented an obvious opportunity for U.S. international intervention. Indeed, the environment has provided a safe issue-area for intervention, since both U.S. policymakers and the Central Asian leadership recognize the need for help in cleaning up the environmental consequences of seventy years of centralized planning.

Specifically, the U.S. government has directed its activities toward fostering regional cooperation over freshwater resources in the Aral Sea Basin as a means to achieve broader regional stability. Although the desiccation of the Aral Sea was not the worst problem facing the Central Asian states, it had a name that could attract aid. The Aral Sea was once the fourth largest lake in the world, but between 1960 and 1990, the Aral Sea slipped to sixth place. Due to policies that gave preference to irrigation for agriculture, Soviet planners withdrew unprecedented amounts of water from the two main rivers feeding the Aral Sea--the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya--in order to cultivate cotton. As a result of these policies, the Aral Sea shrank to half its original size. With independence, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan needed to cooperate to share these transboundary rivers while mitigating the Aral Sea crisis.

The U.S. government through its Agency for International Development (AID) chose to tackle the Aral Sea problem as the precursor to its energy program in the Caspian Basin. According to the U.S. Department of State, all elements of Washington's Aral Sea strategy were designed to support its main goal of encouraging regional cooperation. Thus, by encouraging regional cooperation regarding an environmental issue, Washington hoped to lay the groundwork for facilitating the creation of a new legal regime to demarcate the Caspian Sea, which would expedite oil and gas exploration offshore.

The U.S. government devised several small-scale but visible projects to improve water quality and public health conditions in the hardest hit regions near the Aral Sea to demonstrate its commitment to peace and stability in Central Asia. It built a reverse osmosis plant in Dashhowuz, Turkmenistan, and constructed chlorination facilities in several cities along the Amu Darya delta. Thus, by focusing on practical, real problems, Washington sought to establish its presence in the region. As part of these efforts, the State Department opened up a regional environmental office in Tashkent, Uzbekistan to coordinate U.S. environmental efforts. These projects aimed at fostering regional cooperation have had mixed results in mitigating the desiccation of the Aral Sea and improving the health and livelihood of the populations in the disaster zone.

Key Points

* U.S. foreign policy is geared toward oil development in Central Asia.

* The Aral Sea crisis has offered a safe issue-area in which to exert U.S. foreign policy in Central Asia.

* Effectively mitigating the Aral Sea crisis in Central Asia has proven more difficult than originally conceived by U.S. and Central Asian policymakers.

Erika Weinthal, Department of Political Science, Tel Aviv University