Tightropes and tradeoffs: A U.S. diplomat looks back on Central Asia

Former U.S. diplomat Daniel Rosenblum posing for a photo in the Bozzhyra Valley in western Kazakhstan.

This week, an unusual edition of the CAPS Unlock podcast. I speak to Daniel Rosenblum, the recently retired U.S. ambassador to both Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, about his decades-long engagement with Central Asia and the future of U.S. foreign policy in the region.

We begin with Rosenblum’s personal journey, shaped by his family’s early activism for Soviet Jewry, and trace his career through labour union work, U.S. foreign assistance partnerships, and ultimately diplomacy. He reflects on the enduring goals of U.S. policy in Central Asia and the tensions between supporting democratic governance and engaging in hard-headed security cooperation.

We also talk about the long arc of independence in Central Asia: how countries like Kazakhstan have learned to walk a diplomatic tightrope between great powers, why Uzbekistan’s reforms remain significant despite backsliding, and whether the West sometimes judges the region too harshly. Finally, Rosenblum shares his views on the dismantling of USAID under the Trump administration and what might be lost if the U.S. abandons its development commitments.