Eager to enhance its negotiating leverage with the United States and Europe, Iran is projecting imminent membership of the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in much the same way it pushed the signing of a much-touted 25-year cooperation agreement with the People’s Republic that has yet to have any real legs. Converting Iran’s SCO observer…
The long-standing plan to turn Russia against Kazakhstan, or vice versa, does not go out of the heads of security opponents in the Eurasian space. Current events in Belarus are also heating up this topic. After all, Kazakhstan, geographically, like Belarus, is not just any other country, but a huge geopolitical node that connects huge…
The no holds barred US-China strategic competition may be leading us to the complete fragmentation of the current “world-system” – as Wallerstein defined it. Yet compared to the South China Sea, the Korean peninsula, the Taiwan Straits, India-China’s Himalayan border, and selected latitudes of the Greater Middle East, Central Asia shines as a portrait of…
The US’ newly unveiled “Strategy For Central Asia 2019-2025” surprisingly isn’t sinister like some of the country’s critics might have expected, but that doesn’t mean that it’ll succeed since its viability almost entirely depends on bringing peace to Afghanistan first then convincing the regional states to more closely integrate with one another prior to collectively…
Every five to six years, roughly, the United States comes out with a ‘new’ Central Asia strategy. The Indian automobile industry might call it “facelift” — cosmetic changes to create an air of novelty, such as a new radiator grill, a tweak in the rear bumper, exciting colour options and so on. The document titled…
We are cruising on a pristine, 380 km-long four-lane superhighway from Almaty to Khorgos – finished in 2016 for $1.25 billion, 85% of the cost covered by a World Bank loan. And then, suddenly, riding parallel to us, there’s the real superstar of New Silk Road connectivity. Meet Yuxinou, the container cargo train plying back…
