Central Asia
What is U.S. Central Asia Policy?
On September 19, President Joe Biden met with all five leaders of the Central Asian countries at the UN General Assembly in New York as part of the “C5+1” summit....
Will Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan’s Reforms Be Transformative?
Recently, among Central Asian countries, it has become a trend to create a “new Stan” after the countries’ so-called founding fathers. For instance, before starting his second term in 2021,...
Favored Partner: Washington’s Central Asia Opportunity After Ukraine
As Russia faces growing challenges in its war in Ukraine, the latest being the withdrawal of Russian forces from the city of Kherson, the conflict is producing ripple effects in...
The Great Game: Why Xi Sees an Opportunity in Central Asia
The 20th National Congress did not go according to plan for Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The unexpected public ouster of former president Hu Jintao indicated the possibility of an intra-elite...
Can Central Asia Seize the Initiative?
SINCE THEIR independence from the USSR, the five Central Asian states that emerged from the wreckage of the Soviet Union in 1991 have been the object of great power dreams....
Has Russia’s War in Ukraine Killed the CSTO?
Vladimir Putin believes that Russia’s great power status hinges on its ability to act as a regional hegemon over the post-Soviet states of Eurasia. Russia’s main strength in the region...
The West Should Welcome the Middle Corridor
Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine sent Europeans scrambling to find alternative suppliers of natural gas and severely disrupted commodity supply chains between Europe and Asia. To reduce their...
The U.S. Must Exercise Restraint in Central Asia
Before the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, this month, two member states, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, clashed over territorial disputes. September 20 marked the official signing of a...
The Middle Corridor: How Europe Can Transform Central Asia
Central Asia is a tough neighborhood. A colonizer to the north, an economic behemoth to the east, international pariahs to the south, and distances that are continental in scale, it...
Central Asia Must Choose Reform Over Repression
A new era, marked by mass protests and regime changes, is dawning across Central Asia. Nearly half of the workforce in these countries is comprised of the generation born after...
Central Asia Should Move Towards Regionalism to Avoid Great Power Competition
For a long time, Central Asia has been understood through the lenses of the “great game” and “great power politics.” With the shift in U.S. strategic interests from counterterrorism to...
Moscow Tells Central Asia—Don’t Host NATO or U.S. Forces
Nearly two months after the withdrawal of essentially all Western forces from Afghanistan, Russia has made it crystal clear that it doesn’t want to see any foreign military build-up in...