Eurasia Outlook 2017: Economic, Social and Political Perspectives in Eurasia
Over the last three years, the Eurasian Research Institute (ERI) has been preparing weekly e-bulletins that provide readers with the timely and reliable analysis of recent developments in Eurasia. The analyses, which are prepared by our experts and, in some cases, by external experts, are appreciated by various academicians, specialists, bureaucrats and politicians from Turkey, Kazakhstan and other Eurasian countries. Since the ERI continues to receive positive feedback from the academic and expert communities in relation to the findings of the e-bulletin analyses we have once again become convinced how important it is to generate accumulate knowledge taking advantage of our physical presence in the region. During recent years, the Eurasian region, comprising a vast area from the Balkans to Mongolia, has undergone significant changes, which have only increased its importance as the strategic crossroads for energy routes, transportation lines, and migration flows. The countries of the region have started to recover gradually following the global economic crisis and the downtrend in oil prices at international markets. However, a mutually damaging confrontation between Russia and the West creates further challenges for the Eurasian countries preventing them from fully developing their economic potential, as well as from strengthening the existing dialogue platforms. This situation has brought the region to a potential turning point, which makes publications containing the analytical outlook of Eurasia including economic, political and social issues, substantially critical. That is why the ERI’s decision to continue publishing books by aggregating weekly e-bulletins will allow readers to keep abreast of the latest developments in the region, including the Eurasian economies and politics. This is the third edition of the Eurasia Outlook entitled “Eurasia Outlook 2017: Economic, Social and Political Perspectives in Eurasia”. This book is intended as a general analytical overview of the current events and ongoing changes in the Eurasian region. In order to provide reliable and sufficient information about recent transformations in the region, the authors of the book covered a wide range of issues related tofrom economyics, finance, energy, transportation, international relations, politics, security, and other related fields. As a result, the book gives a direct and detailed introduction to the current and pressing topicsissues serving as a useful resource both for professional scholars and experts, and for advanced graduate students. “Eurasia Outlook 2017: Economic, Social and Political Perspectives in Eurasia” consists of four chapters. Chapter I focuses on the economies of the Eurasian countries, examining in detail. In this chapter, their fiscal markets and balances of the Eurasian countries are examined in detail. Besides, the developments at the energy markets and in the industrial structures of the Eurasian countries are broadly considered in depth. Chapter II includes the analysis of political and economic cooperation of the Eurasian countries with special attention paid to the international and regional aspects. In this sense, their cooperation with international organizations and regional powers in international trade and in the energy sector is discussed in detail. In addition, security issues in the region and cooperation opportunities in regulating migration among the Eurasian countries are thoroughly analyzed. Chapter III is related to energy transportation and logistics in the Eurasian region. In this chapter, developments in the energy transportation routes and cargo flows in the region are investigated, along with the status ofdevelopments in Eurasia’s railway infrastructure. Chapter IV studies the socio- political and humanitarian dimensions of public life in the Eurasian countries. This chapter addresses not only the political factors, especially the political systems and election processes in the regional countries, but also the socio-cultural aspects. We would like to extend our thanks to Prof. Musa Yıldız, the President of the Board of Trustees of Akhmet Yassawi University, and the other Members of the Board of Trustees for their complete trust and unlimited support. We also thank Daniyar Nurbayev and Aigerim Manatkyzy for their assistance with editing and design works. In fact, we are most grateful to the entire Eurasian Research Institute team for their support in encouraging us throughout the whole process. We sincerely hope that this book will provide necessary information to a wide-ranging audience of readers and make an academic contribution for further research in the Eurasian studies.
Vakur Sumer
Director
Assoc. Prof. Vakur Sumer has received his Ph.D. on International Relations, from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. He is a faculty member at Department of International Relations, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey. He has worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Global Research Institute at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, NC, USA, and as a visiting scholar at the Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California-Davis, CA, USA. Sumer has been a researcher at Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg, Germany in 2012.
Zhengizkhan Zhanaltay
Deputy Director
Zhengizkhan Zhanaltay is a deputy director in the Eurasian Research Institute at H.A.Yassawi Kazakh Turkish International University. Zhengizkhan completed his bachelor’s degree at international relations department of KIMEP University in 2010. He completed his master thesis named ‘Oralmans integration into Kazakhstani Society: Turkish Kazakh Case’ in International Relations department of KIMEP University in 2014. His research interests include international migration politics, labor and ethnic migrants social and economic integration into society and remittance.
Nevzat Simsek
Director
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Simsek graduated from the Department of Public Administration in the Faculty of Political Sciences in Ankara University in 1994. He completed his master thesis named ‘A Study on the Cyclical Behaviour of Prices: The Case of Turkey (1963-1995)’ in the Economics Program in the Institute of Social Sciences of Dokuz Eylul University in 1998. In 2005 he completed his PhD thesis named ‘Intra-Industry Trade (The Analysis of Intra-Industry Trade in Turkey)’ in the Economics Department in the Institute of Social Sciences of Dokuz Eylul University. In the same year he got the best PhD t
Hayal Ayca Simsek
Visiting Research fellow
Hayal Ayca Simsek graduated from Public Finance Department of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences in Dokuz Eylul University in 1995 and she started working as a research assistant in Public Finance Department in 1996. Starting her master education in 1995, she completed this process in 1997 by presenting her master thesis namely ‘Alternative Fiscal Policies in Determining the Limits of Government’. Hayal Ayca Simsek started doctorate process in 1998 and completed this process in 2003 by presenting her doctoral thesis namely ‘Constitutional Economics As An Alternative for Achie
Lidiya Parkhomchik
Senior Research fellow
Lydiya Parkhomchik (nee Timofeyenko) was born on February 9, 1984 in Zelenodolsk city, located at the territory of the Republic of Tatarstan (Russia). Since 1986 she became resident of the Republic of Kazakhstan. She graduated the high school in 2001 and at the same year she admitted to Abylai khan Kazakh University of International Relations and World Languages. She graduated from International Relations Department with specialization of analyst with knowledge of a foreign language in 2006 and after that started to work as a lecturer at the Chair of International Relations of KazUIR & WL.
Dauren Aben
Senior Research fellow
Dauren Aben holds a Master’s in International Relations from Kainar University, Almaty, Kazakhstan, and a Master’s in International Policy Studies and certificates in nonproliferation studies, conflict resolution, and commercial diplomacy from the California-based Monterey Institute of International Studies. Dauren previously worked as a senior project manager and researcher at the Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education. In 2011-2014, he worked as a senior research fellow at the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In 2008-20