Inkwell Institute

First, that is a rhetorical question.

Most Americans cannot find Central Asia on a map…..

I recently was commissioned by a man to do an assessment of this Central Asian country…..he was very secretive……I had to do all my research on his computer and sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Apparently this person was about to enter into a business agreement that would put him and his company in the country and he needed to know the facts about the situation on the ground.

As part of this report I gave him a copy of an op-ed I did for a website called “Legationes”

Source: Inside Kyrgyzstan – In Saner Thought

My op-ed gave the general information about the country that anyone interested in visiting would need to know.

He also wanted more information about the society and the trends that are prevalent…..

I found a report that would help this person out….I also made sure to tell him that it is a site that many “think tanks” that do research on the possibilities of crisis……

Kyrgyzstan models itself as Central Asia’s only parliamentary democracy, but multiple challenges threaten its stability. Divided ethnically between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks and geographically north and south, the state is deeply corrupt and fails to deliver basic services, in particular justice and law enforcement. Its political institutions are under stress: the October 2015 parliamentary elections had a veneer of respectability but were undermined by systematic graft at the party and administrative level, and presidential elections will test state cohesion in 2017. The 30 August suicide car bomb attack on the Chinese embassy in Bishkek underscored Kyrgyzstan’s security vulnerabilities. There is need to prevent and counter the threat of growing radicalisation by bolstering the credibility of its institutions and adopting a more tolerant attitude toward non-violent Islamists.

In the absence of political pluralism, a reliable state and economic opportunities, growing numbers of citizens are taking recourse in religion. Islam has become a central factor in public life since the end of the Soviet era.

Source: Kyrgyzstan: State Fragility and Radicalisation | International Crisis Group

I also included an op-ed I did for Legationes on the country……

Source: Inside Kyrgyzstan – In Saner Thought

After a couple more weeks of presented my findings and report to the man and he was happy and dismissed me….I told him that he might want to follow-up for the situation in Central Asia changes almost daily……

His last words were….”I will be in touch”……

I cashed the check and had a beer……we both were happy.