By MJ Weaver Last week, the International Criminal Court (ICC) publicly unsealed two additional arrest warrants for senior Taliban figures Mr. Agha and Mr. Nadim. Although the warrants were initially issued on September 9, 2025, they remained sealed until October 5, 2026. Their release followed the public issuance of arrest warrants for Mr. Akhundzada and... Continue Reading →
Sklifosovsky Insitute, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Madelynn Linet On Tuesday, October 6th, an attack was committed in the Black Sea. Two commercial vessels, in Bulgaria’s Exclusive Economic Zone in the Black Sea, were struck by drones, which led to the deaths of at least two people. According to the Bulgarian Prime... Continue Reading →
Dan Lundberg, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Madelynn Linet For decades, Russia has remained one of Central Asia’s largest suppliers of oil and petroleum products. However, recent disruptions to Russia’s oil-refining industry and the introduction of restrictions on fuel exports have exposed the risks of high dependence on Russian energy supplies. Russian... Continue Reading →
By John W. Parks Central Asia’s open doors have increasingly welcomed foreign investment over the decade. Though China throws large swaths of money at the region, the West (the U.S. and Europe) are not sitting the bench in this great game. Western interests and investments in Central Asia reflect the increasingly globalized nature of the... Continue Reading →
By John W. Parks The first few weeks of President Trump’s second term have produced substantial changes to the foreign policy of the United States. Tariffs imposed on the US’s largest trading partners and the drastic cutting of funds for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have begun to build an American future... Continue Reading →
By: John W. Parks Following recent industrial trends, China has begun the expansion of an innovative market into the Central Asian region. Kazakh Invest, a nationalized investment company of Kazakhstan, signed agreements with two Chinese drone producers to build manufacturing hubs in the Almaty region of Kazakhstan. As of January 2025, Yesil Technology Company and... Continue Reading →
By John W. Parks As war in Ukraine continues to damage Russia’s credibility and economic security, other Eurasian producers have been forced to utilize alternative avenues of trade. In response, China, along with Turkey, the European Union, and Central Asian states have dedicated increasingly more resources to the development and expansion of a bypass route.... Continue Reading →
By John W. Parks As of November 2024, construction has begun on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railroad (CKU) inside Kyrgyzstan. The railroad will connect the Uzbek terminal of Andijan to the Chinese terminal of Kashgar, passing through several Kyrgyz cities and the Fergana Valley along the way. Leaders of these countries have championed the construction of this... Continue Reading →
By John W. Parks Thinking of Central Asia as a roundabout, or a master key, or a distribution hub of global trade infrastructure, could not be any more correct. China, Iran, and the United States have recently ramped up their initiatives to include the Central Asian states in trade partnerships. Though the Great Powers have... Continue Reading →
By Julian Fischer-Lhamon Türkiye reacted relatively positively to President-elect Trump’s second electoral victory; markets rallied and President Erdogan invited Trump to visit the country and claimed to hope for a relationship reset. Cool relations between Washington and Ankara have persisted since the Trump administration when in 2018, the wrongful arrest of the American pastor Andrew... Continue Reading →
