Feb 28,2017 Open Forum

Washington Insights (Vol. 5, No. 1)

Rarely has there been such a tumultuous period in US foreign policy, reflected in DC discussions of it; many unknown figures were joining a new administration as lines of authority and influence were not only in flux, they were in chaos. Few in the think tank community spoke for the Trump team, but on Asia […]

Editorial Staff

Abe Shinzo , Arms trade , ASEAN , Australia , Central Asia , comfort women , contingency , G8 , Georgia , India

Feb 10,2017 Open Forum

Xinjiang and the Trans-nationalization of Uyghur Terrorism: Cracks in the “New Silk Road”?

President Xi Jinping’s ambitious “One Belt, One Road” strategy has magnified Chinese concern for the security of its long restive northwestern province, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Xinjiang, as Owen Lattimore argued, throughout much of recorded history constituted (along with Tibet and Mongolia) the “marginal Inner Asian zone” of Chinese expansion.1 With the region’s […]

Michael Clarke

9/11 , Afghanistan , Al Qaeda , Central Asia , counterterrorism , critical theory , East Turkestan Islamic Movement , energy , globalization , Iraq

Feb 01,2017 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (January 2017)

Russia appears to be on the precipice of some important change with less optimism than before but more candor about uncertainties. The December Putin-Abe summit left more questions than answers, less a sense of success or failure than of doubt on what comes next. The Putin-Xi summit of late November was perfunctory, coming amid continued […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)

Abe Shinzo , ASEAN , Central Asia , comfort women , EAS , energy , Eurasian Economic Union , G7 , Greater Eurasia , GSOMIA

Dec 16,2016 Open Forum

Caught Between Two Big Powers? Central Asia Under the Weight of Russian and Chinese Influence

In 1991, the Soviet Union’s collapse reshaped the East/West problematic as it had emerged after World War II. Inside Soviet space, a number of cultural elements distinguished the five states of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) from the rest of the former Russian empire, namely their shared cultural, linguistic, and religious traits […]

Sebastien Peyrouse

Afghanistan , Arab Spring , Armenia , authoritarianism , banking , Belarus , Central Asia , Collective Security Treaty Organization , colonialism , colored revolutions

Dec 07,2015 Open Forum

Washington Insights (Vol. 3, No. 6)

Park Geun-hye’s visit to Washington, the aftermath of Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington, the state of Japan’s military, Russia’s assertive policy toward Japan, and the state of Central Asia were among the topics that drew scrutiny in autumn discussions in DC. In light of an upsurge in terrorism and great uncertainty over Syria, the pessimistic […]

Editorial Staff

Central Asia , East Asian security , National security , Sino-US Relations

Dec 15,2014 Open Forum

Looking Eastward to China: Beijing’s Central Asian Diplomacy and its Implications for China’s New Silk Road Initiatives

During a meeting with the presidents of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, and Pakistan on November 8, 2014, President Xi Jinping announced that China was contributing 40 billion dollars to establish a Silk Road Fund (silu jijin 丝路基金) to strengthen regional connectivity and enhance cooperation with neighboring countries. According to Xinhua news agency, the fund […]

Hasan H. Karrar

Bazaar , Central Asia , economic connectivity , informal economy , Maritime Silk Road , Silk Road Economic Belt

Sep 29,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (September 2014)

While the world’s gaze centered on Russia’s relations with the West and the on-again, off-again confrontation over Ukraine, Russian publications paraded a new, more assertive outlook on Russia’s “turn to the East” (povorot na Vostok). Giving impetus to this was an early July meeting of ambassadors addressed by Vladimir Putin, the statements at which on […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)

BRICS , Central Asia , dead hikiwake , India , liberal secularism , New Cold War , turn to the East , Ukraine

Aug 11,2014 Open Forum

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization: A Fading Star?

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) stands at a pivotal point in its history. On the one hand, the growing ties between Russia and China as well as the withdrawal of the Western powers from Central Asia and Afghanistan could provide it with more cohesive leadership and more opportunities to become Eurasia’s dominant security institution. On […]

Richard Weitz

Afghanistan , Central Asia , CICA , CSTO , energy , Eurasian Union , mutual reassurance , security threats , Ukraine

Jul 25,2014 National Commentaries

US Perspective

"Sino-Russian Relations"   The Ukraine Crisis and the Future of Sino-Russian Relations President Vladimir Putin has described the improvement of relations with Beijing as one of his major foreign policy accomplishments. While this rapprochement has had concrete economic and political benefits, Russia tended to view relations with China instrumentally, using China as a “card” to […]

Jeffrey Mankoff

Anti-Western sentiment , Arms sales , Central Asia , CICA , Eurasian Union , financial sanctions , gas pipeline , naval maneuvers , revisionist axis , SCO

Jul 11,2014 Topics of the Month

Multilateralism in Northeast Asia – 2

No one has profited more from the decline of multilateralism in East Asia than North Korea. Russia’s international isolation and China’s simmering confrontation with Japan over the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands have given Kim Jong-un much greater breathing space than his father and grandfather had had at any time since the late 1980s. In recent weeks […]

Sergey Radchenko

Central Asia , color revolutions , Eurasian Union vs. new silk road , islands to Japan , polarization vs. multilateralism , Putin-Xi summit , ROK promise to Russia , unequal trade