Henry Liu, Contributing Photographer

Speaking Friday afternoon in the Humanities Quadrangle, former U.S. ambassador Daniel Rosenblum ’84 warned that America has “surrendered” the information war in Central Asia, leaving a vacuum for Russian and Chinese influence.

Rosenblum, who served as U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan from 2019 to 2022 and to Kazakhstan from 2022 to 2025, delivered a lecture titled “Battling the Firehose of Falsehood: Confronting Russian Disinformation in Central Asia” to an audience of around 45 in person and 35 over Zoom. 

The event was sponsored by the Central Asia Initiative of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Memorial Fund and Asian Crossroads at Yale, a student organization dedicated to fostering dialogue on Central Asia through both policy and cultural discussions.

Drawing on anecdotes from his six years in the region, Rosenblum described a relentless Russian disinformation campaign that portrayed U.S. diplomats as destabilizers. He recalled a 2023 incident in which Russian media claimed he had opened a NATO base in Kazakhstan. In reality, he had cut the ribbon on a U.S.-funded conference center for a Kazakh peacekeeping institute.

“While it is easy to joke about such an absurd idea,” Rosenblum said, “the intent behind such Russian information operations is deadly serious.”

To counter these narratives, Rosenblum said U.S. embassies promoted tangible success stories,  such as health programs that distributed protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic, agricultural exchanges that boosted local farmers and educational partnerships that sent Central Asian students to American universities.

But Rosenblum argued that much of that infrastructure has been dismantled since 2023. He criticized the Trump administration’s dismissal of more than 1,300 State Department staff, the elimination of USAID programs in the region and recent moves to defund Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

“Eight months into the second Trump administration, it seems clear that the information war is over in Central Asia — not because the Russians won. We have simply surrendered,” Rosenblum said. “A disparaged and a discredited America will be a weak America.”

Rosenblum also pointed to China’s growing role through the Belt and Road Initiative, which has brought investment, infrastructure and language programs to the region. Rosenblum acknowledged that China “was doing a pretty good job of winning friends and influencing people.”

Rosenblum urged students to recognize the stakes, despite what he characterized as bleak prospects for a renewed U.S. strategy.

“Nobody is coming home in body bags in this war,” he said. “But there are real casualties — namely, our country’s reputation, the effectiveness of our diplomatic representatives, and our ability to persuade other nations to work with us in pursuit of critical national interests.”

In an interview with the News after the event, Rosenblum stressed that the United States faces not only external challenges but also an internal reckoning over its role abroad.

“The biggest challenge today is ourselves,” Rosenblum said. “We have to decide as a country, do we want to be engaged in the world or not?”

“If we cut ourselves off from the world, we will ultimately be less secure and less prosperous,” Rosenblum added.

Student organizers said the event underscored the mission of Asian Crossroads at Yale to raise the profile of Central Asia.

“This is a very good example of one of our missions,” Umid Usmanov ’26, who founded Asian Crossroads in 2022, said. “Ambassador Rosenblum told us so much about the region.”

For Asian Crossroads co-chair Danat Kenzhegali ’26, the talk carried personal meaning.

“I got to learn a lot from the U.S. perspective about my own country,” Kenzhegali said. “I come from Kazakhstan, so it was very exciting to learn from a U.S. ambassador that went to the same school as the school I’m going to.”

Rosenblum is an alumnus of Trumbull College.