Is Kazakhstan’s rising star fading?
Introduction Kazakhstan’s economic prosperity and active foreign policy have given it increasing regional power status. Kazakhstan has stood out internationally...
Politics
Towards a new EU Strategy for Central Asia
Tactics or Strategy? Ten years after the inception of the European Union’s (EU) Strategy for Central Asia, in June 2017...
Renewing EU and US Soft Power in Central Asia
Western influence in Central Asia is at an all-time low since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Throughout the 1990s...
On a positive note…
Opportunities for Central Asia Central Asia receives rather limited attention when compared to other parts of the world, and when...
Implementation and review of the European Union – Central Asia Strategy: Recommendations for EU action
This paper, commissioned by the European Parliament, assesses the implementation of the European Union (EU) Strategy for Central Asia and...
Mastering a Façade democracy: elections in Uzbekistan
President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan has been re-elected after scoring 90 per cent of votes at the Uzbek general elections...
Reviewing the EU’s approach to Central Asia
Introduction(1) The European Union’s (EU) Strategy for Central Asia is being reviewed for the fourth time. Over the last eight...
EU-Kyrgyzstan human rights diplomacy: good effort but weak follow-up
On 29-30 October, the 5th EUKyrgyzstan Civil Society Seminar(CSS) was held in Osh in southKyrgyzstan, where the violent June 2010...
What role for the European Parliament in Central Asia?
The challenges – internally and externally – for the new European legislature are numerous. Despite being only a small part...
European National Policies Series – Russia and Central Asia
Russia is a unique actor in Central Asia. It is the former colonial power and it continues to shape the...
Looking for National Consensus in Post-Violence Kyrgyzstan
Following the June 2010 violence in Kyrgyzstan, ethnic nationalist voices of all stripes have become particularly loud, expressing their views...
Uncharted waters: Presidential successions in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
Popular legend holds that the 18th century French King, Louis XV, claimed that after his death everything would fall apart...