Regional cooperation · Aug 2026
Wider, not deeper: Cholpon-Ata and the limits of Central Asian regionalism
The Cholpon-Ata summit brought Azerbaijan into the leaders' format without giving the format more substance.
Publications
Analysis and commentary on Central Asian politics, foreign policy and regional affairs, by CCA fellows and invited authors.
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Foreign policies · Mar 2026
Central Asia's foreign fighter dilemma in post-Assad Syria
How Central Asian governments are dealing with their citizens in Syria after the fall of Assad.
Outside powers · Apr 2025
Bridging regions: Central Asia and the Gulf States deepen cooperation
Gulf investment and development aid are growing in Central Asia as Western donors step back.
Central Asian foreign policies
How the Central Asian states conduct their foreign relations, and who decides.
Central Asia's calculated silence on Syria
Why Central Asian governments stayed quiet while others moved to engage Syria's new authorities.
Central Asia's foreign fighter dilemma in post-Assad Syria
How Central Asian governments are dealing with their citizens in Syria after the fall of Assad.
Actors and factors of the foreign policy decision-making of Uzbekistan
Foreign policy making in Uzbekistan remains closed, slow and centred on the president, despite Tashkent's more active diplomacy.
Transformation of Tajikistan's foreign policy towards Russia
Four stages in Tajikistan's policy towards Russia since 1991, and what drove each of them.
Foreign policy making in Kazakhstan: Soviet template, influence groups, and societal role
The Soviet template behind Kazakhstan's foreign policy making, and the formal and informal circles that influence it.
Kyrgyzstan and the changing geopolitics of Central Asia
Three features of Kyrgyzstan at independence that set its foreign policy priorities for years to come.
Does Central Asia belong to the Global South?
The case for bringing Central Asia into debates on the Global South.
The way forward for a regional diplomacy for peace in Afghanistan
How the region could support peace in Afghanistan as Washington reviewed its 2020 agreement with the Taliban.
Kyrgyz post-Soviet foreign policy: a habit of dependency
Kyrgyzstan's foreign policy as the policy of a state still under construction and in need of help.
Recipient, activist, protector: three modes of Tajikistan's foreign policy
The different roles Tajikistan takes with different partners, shaped by the legacy of the civil war.
Thirty years of Uzbekistan's international relations: Quo Vadis?
How Uzbekistan's international relations evolved over three decades, seen from inside the country.
The cost of pragmatism of Kazakhstan's foreign policy
Kazakhstan's policy of friendship with everyone, and the costs that come with its pragmatism.
From corridor to destination: rethinking Central Asia's role in the world
Beyond the Great Game and Silk Road metaphors: a region strategically placed but politically bypassed. Given at the Asian Leadership Conference in Seoul.
Podcast: Dr Aijan Sharshenova on the impact of the war in Ukraine on Central Asia
How Russia's war in Ukraine has affected Central Asia's external relations.
Central Asia's changing international role under debate
A keynote in Almaty questioning the narrative of Central Asia's emerging international agency.
Outside powers in Central Asia
Russia, China, the United States, Turkey and the Gulf states, and what each seeks in the region.
Central Asia in a shifting geopolitical landscape
How the war in Ukraine and a run of high-level visits have reshaped the region's international agenda.
Bridging regions: Central Asia and the Gulf States deepen cooperation
Gulf investment and development aid are growing in Central Asia as Western donors step back.
Trump's return: what's in store for Central Asia?
What Trump's second term means for the region, through US relations with Russia, China and the EU and the quiet end of democracy promotion.
Drivers of “brotherly integration”: Turkish foreign policy actors in Central Asia
Turkey's move from a Pan-Turkic “big brother” approach to pragmatism, and the presidency's grip on foreign policy decisions.
Chinese foreign policy in Central Asia: who makes it and what matters?
Who makes China's Central Asia policy, and how the security focus under Xi Jinping shapes it.
US foreign policy making in Central Asia
Washington's renewed attention since the war in Ukraine, and the case for working through allies rather than making large promises.
Understanding Russia's Central Asia policy
Russia long took Central Asia for granted; domestic and external changes have upset that arrangement.
Russia weakening in Central Asia?
Why Central Asian leaders, unlike Belarus, withheld support for Russia's war in Ukraine.
Does Russia have a strategy for Central Asia?
Russian official documents treat Central Asia as a coherent region; whether Moscow has a regional strategy is another question.
The limits of Washington's staying power in Central Asia
Thirty years of US engagement with the region, and what more than $14 billion in aid has and has not achieved.
Tightening the belt? Challenges for China's development-security nexus in Central Asia
The security concerns behind the development language of China's Belt and Road in the region.
Dr. Shairbek Juraev presents FIMI research in Brussels
Findings on foreign information manipulation in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, from analysis of more than 581,000 social media posts.
Podcast: the US drawdown and Russian-Chinese relations in Central Asia
A discussion with Eric McGlinchey on the region after a US withdrawal from Afghanistan, and on Russia-China relations there.
Regional cooperation, borders and water
Relations among the Central Asian states: borders, water and the formats for regional cooperation.
A line drawn for peace: Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan's historic step forward
The March 2025 border agreement and what has to follow for it to last.
Wider, not deeper: Cholpon-Ata and the limits of Central Asian regionalism
The Cholpon-Ata summit brought Azerbaijan into the leaders' format without giving the format more substance.
Central Asia's water: solidarity on paper, shortage on the ground
The Astana summit produced a declaration and a five-year plan, and avoided asking why water governance in the region has failed.
The April 2021 Kyrgyz-Tajik border dispute: historical and causal context
How Soviet administrative lines became contested state borders, and what led to the deadly clashes.
Peace on the brink in Central Asia
What the 2021 attack on civilians revealed about the new depth of insecurity in the region.
Central Asia and the Organization of Turkic States: what is at stake?
Remarks on the OTS and regional unity, given at Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University.
Dr Sharshenova discusses key obstacles to regional cooperation in Central Asia
The main obstacles to regional cooperation, in a short interview from a conference on Gulf-Central Asia economic relations.
The EU and Central Asia
The EU's strategy for the region, and the Central Asian side of the relationship.
Five questions the EU–Central Asia summit should clarify
What the Samarkand summit needed to settle for the partnership to gain a strategic direction.
Modest but consistent: EU policymaking towards Central Asia
How EU policy towards the region is made, and why its engagement stays modest.
Why no Central Asian strategy for the European Union?
The EU debated its strategy for the region at length; the Central Asian states have not debated theirs for the EU.
Grand strategies for small states: what connectivity for Central Asia?
Three challenges that could undermine Central Asia's place in the EU's new connectivity agenda for Asia.
Threats to stability in Central Asia: what role for the EU?
Stability as a shared priority, and what the EU can realistically contribute to it.
Central Asia and the EU in 2025: what has changed, what has not
An assessment of what has shifted in EU–Central Asia relations, and what has stayed the same.
Overcoming bottlenecks in EU–Central Asia connectivity
Remarks at the EU–Central Asia Think Tank Forum in Tashkent on what holds connectivity back.
A round table on the new EU strategy for Central Asia: a summary
Summary of a debate with Elgezit Media on the expectations, opportunities and risks of the 2019 EU strategy.
Economy, connectivity and development
Economic integration, connectivity, climate policy and development aid.
Exploring carbon pricing in Central Asia: insights from the Kyrgyz Republic
Whether a carbon price could work in the Kyrgyz Republic, from research for the CAREC Think Tank Network.
The rising imperative of disconnectivity
Why resilience needs plans for broken links as well as for new connections.
How does the EAEU serve smaller member states economically?
The economic case for and against EAEU membership for its smaller states.
The effects of remittances in Central Asia
What remittances worth a quarter of GDP or more do to the economies of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Three decades of development aid in Tajikistan
Development aid as a form of international relations, traced through thirty years in Tajikistan.
The Middle Corridor and Central Asia's connectivity: CCA at the Central Asia–UK Think Tank Forum
Why insurance, arbitration and financing frameworks matter more for the Middle Corridor than further corridor strategies.
A political test before a financial one: CCA on the SCO Development Bank
The political conditions that would decide whether the proposed SCO bank becomes a working lender or remains a political project.
Crossroads Central Asia at the U.S.–Central Asia Think Tank Forum
Whether critical minerals become a new resource curse or a basis for development depends on governance and on investment beyond extraction.
Author spotlight: Dr Gulnaz Isabekova-Landau discusses health aid and sustainability
Health aid in the region and whether donor-funded programmes outlast their funding.
Kyrgyzstan: politics and governance
Elections, presidencies, parties and the recurring crises of Kyrgyz politics.
Depoliticized politics: Kyrgyzstan's 2025 parliamentary elections
Why the procedural calm of the November 2025 snap elections is itself significant.
A new president and old presidentialism in Kyrgyzstan
Opportunities and risks after Sadyr Japarov's landslide and the vote for a presidential system.
Kyrgyzstan's fight against COVID-19
COVID-19 as a stress test for the governance system and a long-underfunded health service.
The October events in Kyrgyzstan: the trap of street power?
After 2005 and 2010, the October 2020 protests confirmed the street as the only working route to a change of power.
Turbulence in Kyrgyzstan: a hijacked revolution or business as usual?
The crisis that followed the 4 October 2020 elections and exposed the bankruptcy of the political establishment.
Patterns of party organization and mobilization in Kyrgyzstan
Why Kyrgyz parties have stayed weak and uninstitutionalised since the 2010 constitution.
Transition plans gone awry: is the downfall of Atambayev an argument for democracy?
How Atambayev's managed succession unravelled once his chosen successor took office.
Taking stock of the first year of Jeenbekov's presidency in Kyrgyzstan
Jeenbekov's first year after the region's first peaceful handover between elected presidents.
Teaching politics in Kyrgyzstan: reflections from the PoSIG Teacher Academy
For Kyrgyz universities bringing research into teaching, the main constraint is the teaching load rather than the mobility budget.
Voting patterns in the Kyrgyz parliament
What the voting record shows about how MPs use their votes.
Podcast: the COVID-19 and political transition in Kyrgyzstan
Andrew Kuchins, then President of AUCA, on COVID-19 and the political transition in Kyrgyzstan.