Tajikistan and Myanmar

Available for over a year

Pascale Harter introduces personal experiences, impressions and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world. In this edition: strategies, risks, opportunities and threats - both military and economic. As close as he can get to the uneasy border area where Tajikistan and Afghanistan meet, Jamie Coomarasamy hears the story of one Tajik shepherd who was kidnapped by the Taleban - and escaped. As NATO forces prepare to leave Afghanistan next year, there's concern about how ready neigbouring countries will be to fight drug trafficking, terror attacks or crime which might spill out beyond its borders. In Yangon, now emerging from a suffocating era of isolation and underdevelopment as Myanmar's military government was targeted by sanctions, there's a new spirit of commerce in the air. Businesspeople, both foreign and Burmese, are flocking into town - but there are barely enough usable premises to house their companies, or electricity to keep them operating. Jonathan Head meets some of the strivers who are trying to get the country up and running.