Publication Categories

Afghanistan: A New Variable in Equation

The withdrawal of the United States (U.S.) from Afghanistan after 20 years has brought many unexpected circumstances for the region in general and to Afghanistan in particular. It is argued that withdrawal of the U.S. is quick and clumsy leading to chaos on a certain level in the country. The […]


Turkmenistan-Iran Energy Cooperation in the Context of Natural Gas Pipelines

Diplomatic relations between Turkmenistan and Iran started with Turkmenistan’s independence in 1991 and Iran was one of the first countries who recognized the sovereignty of Turkmenistan. From this date on, an intense relationship has started to be established between the two countries in the fields of energy, infrastructure and economy. […]


Eurasia Battle for Electric Batteries: View from Ukraine

The world shift towards decarbonization and achieving complete electricity generations from renewable energy sources (RES) creates a new power configuration in energy geopolitics. Apart from global state competition for investment in green projects (e.g., power stations, hydrogen infrastructure, carbon capture utilization & sequestration facilities), there is an ongoing trend in […]


The Crypto Ban, Great Migration and Bitcoin Mining in Kazakhstan

In July 2021, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), one of the leading research institutes in the world focusing on non-traditional financial instruments, which came into prominence, among other things, for the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) [Cbeci.org, 2021], a real-time index that tracks the total electricity consumption […]


Do Central Asian Countries Export Urbanization?

Currently, Central Asia is among the largest labor-exporting regions in the world. Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan rely very much on remittances sent by their citizens working abroad. According to the World Bank, remittances comprise about 28.4% of the GDP of Kyrgyzstan making it the second country in terms of remittances […]


The Court of the Eurasian Economic Union

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is one of the recent regional trade agreements. Despite the idea of Eurasian integration has a long history and was proposed by the first President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev in the early 1990-s, Kazakhstan together with Belarus and Russia formed a customs union only in […]


Kazakhstan’s Aspirations in Climate Change Policy

During an international conference “Ways to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and Kazakhstan’s carbon neutrality” on October 13, 2021, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev reaffirmed the country’s commitment to climate change policy. While emphasizing the need for urgent modification of fuel and energy structures, update of industry policies and regulations, […]


The Current Refugee Crisis in Afghanistan and Implications for Regional Countries

As was well expected in despair long before the fall of the Afghan government and the drastic Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the massive influx of refugees driven by warfare, famine and fear of persecutions turned into a full-fledged global crisis, affecting lives, security and welfare of millions of people inside […]


Differences and Similarities of Central Asian Elites

In all of the countries of the world, there is a relatively thin layer of the population that has more influence on the country’s fate in contrast to others. This group provides coordination capacity for the economic resources of a nation and directly influences a country’s present and future. These […]


An Overview of the Effects of Covid-19 Crisis on Global Freight Transport

The global spread of the COVID-19 has had an enormous impact on the aviation and air travel industry all around the world. In 2020, the number of passengers in aviation dropped by an unprecedented (-60%) or 2,699 million passengers compared to 2019. This resulted in $371 billion loss of passenger […]