Publication

This report discusses the Special Operation of the Tajik armed forces in the Mountainous Badakhshan Autonomous Province in 2012 in response to the murder of a government official. The author analyzes four ulterior objectives that authorities may have sought in launching a brief but forceful assault on the province. She concludes that the incident in Badakhshan is symptomatic of the rocky center–periphery relations between a post-war central government and neglected and desolate autonomous regions, as well as turf wars over economic and political interests that plague the vulnerable countries of the region.