Publication Categories

Parliamentary Elections in Uzbekistan through the Eyes of the Observer

On December 22, 2019, the parliamentary elections were held in Uzbekistan for the the first time after President Shavkat Mirziyoyev succeeded the country’s long-serving leader Islam Karimov who passed away in September 2016. The author of this article participated in the elections as an observer, and this analysis is based […]


Alternative Route Via Central Asia: Uzbekistan’s Vision

On December 19-20, 2019, a meeting of the heads of the national railways of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan was held in Tashkent. The agenda of the negotiations was the development of an international multimodal route. The meeting was productive, as the parties agreed to launch a pilot train […]


Positive Neutrality Based on Gas Exports: Overview of Turkmenistan’s Foreign Policy

Turkmenistan, under its first president Saparmurat Niyazov, proclaimed its permanent neutrality status on December 12, 1995, when the UN General Assembly adopted a special resolution on the issue, which was backed by a relevant constitutional law. Since then, the doctrine of ‘positive neutrality’ has become the basis of the country’s […]


UN Population Prospects: Case of Central Asia

  According to the UN World Population Prospects report published on June 17, 2019, the world’s population is expected to increase by 2 billion people within the next 30 years, from current 7.7 billion to 9.7 billion in 2050. By the end of the 21st century, the world population is likely […]


Main Trends in Kazakhstan’s Foreign Policy in 2018

The end of a calendar year is always a time when results and achievements of an outgoing year are summarized and assessed. This article attempts to highlight important events for Kazakh diplomacy in 2018 and strives to understand what the country’s foreign policy has lost or gained. The first notable […]


GUAM: Still Relevant Regional Actor?

On March 27, 2017, the heads of governments of the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development – GUAM (acronym standing for Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova) member states gathered in Kiev for the first time in almost a decade since its 2008 summit in Batumi, Georgia. The regional grouping was […]


About the Status of School Teachers

The quality of teacher training, the low status of the profession and the low incomes of teachers are deterrents to the development of school education, Kasim-Zhomart Tokayev, Chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan, said on Friday during the parliamentary hearings. In his opinion, the government needs to think about how […]


Recent Developments in the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway Project

Taking into the fact that the Trans-Eurasian rail cargo is on the rise it is not surprising that regional countries are strongly interested in enhancing their railway network with new routes and new logistics hubs. Increasing competitiveness of the East-West international transport corridors that create an integrated freight railway network […]


Reflections on the 70th Anniversary of the National Academy of Sciences

February 22, the National Academy of Sciences held a general meeting on the 70th anniversary of its foundation, to which Nursultan Nazarbayev, the President of Kazakhstan, was invited, and for the first time in recent years, the general university community – teachers and professors of universities of Almaty were present […]


Renewable Energy as a Potential Driver of Kazakhstan’s Growth*

Kazakhstan has implemented important reforms and achieved major breakthroughs in its political and socioeconomic development, and the nation’s energy and mineral resources have played a crucial role in this transformation. At the same time, however, Kazakhstan has not largely succeeded in developing its non-resource-based industrial and tradable sectors, which results […]