Articles

Articles


March 26, 2018

U.S.-Russian Nuclear Muscle-Flexing: Opening Path to a New Arms Race?*

On February 2, 2018, the U.S. Department of Defense released the Trump administration’s version of the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), the policy document that describes the role of nuclear weapons in the U.S. national security strategy [U.S. Department of Defense, 2018]. The new NPR that provides for the development and […]
March 26, 2018

Prospects and Challenges in Realizing the TAPI Project

On February 23, 2018, the ceremony to mark the beginning of the construction of a 700-kilometer long Afghan section of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline was held in Herat, Afghanistan’s northwestern province. The inauguration event was attended by high-ranking government officials including President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly […]
February 28, 2018

Kazakhstan to Expand Regional Nuclear Security Cooperation*

Since 1990s, Kazakhstan has always been in the forefront of activities related to nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear security in Central Asia as the region faced many common problems inherited from the Soviet-era military programs, as well as new threats, such as illicit trafficking in nuclear and radioactive materials. Having disposed […]
February 21, 2018

What are the Reasons for Early Presidential Election in Azerbaijan?

According to the decree signed by President Ilham Aliyev on February 5, 2018, the date of Azerbaijan’s next presidential election was rescheduled to an earlier date by more than six months – from October 17 to April 11. Despite the announcement that this decision was made in accordance with the […]
February 20, 2018

Changes in the Vector of Academic Mobility

International student mobility is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon in higher education in many countries of the world. The dominant trend of the past few years has been the growing flow of students from developing countries to universities in Europe, primarily British ones, and the United States. To receive education […]
February 5, 2018

ZIPF’s Law and Economics of the Cities in Kazakhstan

During the Soviet era, the urban and regional development in Kazakhstan was strictly regulated and often based on means other than economic. With the collapse of this system, Kazakhstan, just like the rest of the Soviet Union, was fully exposed to all kinds forces that shaped current urban and regional […]
February 5, 2018

New U.S. National Security Strategy and Central Asia

On December 18, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump presented in detail his administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS). The document that each president has to produce gives the U.S. Congress a guide of the main foreign policy priorities of the administration in charge. Apart from the U.S. Congress, Trump’s NSS was […]
February 5, 2018

New Chapter in Kazakhstan-U.S. Relations*

Kazakhstan and the United States have agreed to elevate their relationship to the level of enhanced strategic partnership through engaging in closer political and economic cooperation to the benefit of both nations. This has become a major outcome of President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s January 16-18, 2018 official visit to the United […]
February 2, 2018

Current State of Border Issues in Central Asia

It is widely accepted that national borders are a fundamental factor in determining the degree of tension or cooperation in relations between states and within a region as a whole (Moraczewka, 2010). At present, Central Asia faces significant border issues because, unlike its external borders, the process of demarcation of […]
December 18, 2017

The Price for Recent Breakthroughs in the Caspian Dispute

In 1996, the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan held the first meeting dedicated to resolving the issues of the Caspian Sea legal regime with special attention paid to harmonizing positions and developing common approaches towards drafting the Convention on the Caspian Legal Status. Over the past […]