CARDS REMIXED FOR THE NEW ‘GREAT GAME’ THE SILK ROAD’S NEW REALITY In 2013, China’s newly nominated President Xi Jinping gave a much-heeded speech in Astana, Kazakhstan’s brushed-up capital. His main concern focused on nothing less than how to invigorate the ancient Silk Roads, „in order to promote people-to-people friendship“. – After eleven years, in […]
THE SILK ROAD VIRTUAL MUSEUMBRINGS GLOBAL HISTORY ONLINE When we think of the Silk Road, we often picture camel caravans crossing deserts or traders carrying silks and spices along dusty mountain passes. Yet the Silk Road was never a single route. It was an extraordinary web of connections, stretching across continents and seas, linking civilisations […]
WHY UZBEKISTAN IS LOSING ITS PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD Nostalgia can become a source of strength, but it is time to stop pushing away those who have long acted as our unofficial ambassadors. I am standing in the reception hall of the Uzbek embassy in a European capital. An inspiring speech is being delivered in […]
A LAND OF CHANCES, BEAUTY, AND PROMISE A few months ago, I had the privilege of visiting Uzbekistan — a land where every day seemed to offer me another chance. Another chance to see, to taste, to learn, to be humbled. I boarded the sleek high-speed train from Tashkent to Samarkand, watching the landscape unfold […]
BIG PROJECTS, BIG FAILURES POST-SOVIET MEGAPROJECTS ARE NOW MONUMENTS TO AMBITION RATHER THAN DEVELOPMENT Over the past three decades, the post-Soviet space has embraced megaprojects with a fervour reminiscent of Soviet-era “gigantomania”. A new terminal, a new city, a new tech hub, a new railway – each presented as a leap into the future. Too […]
DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE AND SUSTAINABLEDEVELOPMENT IN CENTRAL ASIA Central Asia is often defined by its oilfields, mountain ranges, and the revival of the Silk Road trade routes. Yet its most valuable resource, above all, is its people. Since the 1990s, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and their neighbours have undergone profound demographic shifts. Fertility rates, once among the […]
MOUNTAIN CROSSROADS: WHY CENTRAL ASIA’S PEAKS DEMAND A NEW VISION Mountains are not passive backdrops to human history; they are dynamic, living systems that have shaped civilizations, economies, and ecosystems for millennia. Nowhere is this more evident than in Central Asia, home to some of the world’s most formidable ranges—the Pamirs, Tian Shan, Hindu Kush, […]
AFGHANISTAN’S NORTHERN QUESTION:ETHNICITY, LANGUAGE, AND POWER ATTHE HEART OF ASIA Afghanistan’s modern political history cannot be understood without examining the intersection of war, ethnicity, and state identity. From the Soviet invasion in 1979 to the return of the Taliban in 2021, Afghanistan has repeatedly experienced ruptures that have reshaped not only its political system, but […]
THE CRITICAL ELEMENT: WATER, NOT MINERALS, WILL DEFINE CENTRAL ASIA’S FUTURE In Central Asia, much of the conversation still revolves around oil, logistics, borders, and geopolitical influence. Yet the most decisive resource of the region’s future is neither hydrocarbons nor transit corridors. It is water. Stripped of diplomatic language, the reality is stark: the region […]
ONE BELT, ONE ROAD, BUT DIFFERENTAPPROACHES TO INFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING PERSIST IN FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS Of course, the transition of the Former Soviet Republics from Communism to Market Economy witnessed a dramatic fall in infrastructure spending. Consequently, different republics progressed at different speeds, though with an increasing realization that such spending is necessary to develop their […]
THIRTY FIVE YEARS ON: DOES THE FOUNDING FATHERS’ MODEL OF THE POST-SOVIET STATES STILL WORK? The collapse of the Soviet Union is rarely seen as a deliberate project. Rather, it is viewed as a crisis or a chain of events that spiralled out of control. Yet, when the early years of independence across the post-Soviet […]
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IS A NATIONAL STRATEGIC CHOICE Sustainable development in Kazakhstan is not an abstract policy aspiration. It is a deliberate strategic choice that shapes our domestic reforms, our regional engagement in Central Asia, and our partnerships with the European Union. As emphasised by President Kassym Jomart Tokayev at the National Kurultai–2026, sustainability forms the […]
INTERSECTING INTELLIGENCE AND CREATIVITY IN THE AGE OF TECHNOLOGY “Technology does not create depth – it merely reveals the level of human thinking.” As sustainable development is increasingly shaped not only by environmental factors but also by intellectual and technological ones, a new type of leadership is emerging – leaders capable of rethinking the future […]
When war broke out in the Middle East at the beginning of March, I was in Astana. I felt somewhat distant from the news headlines and perhaps that espouses the common view that Central Asia has always been somewhat distant in global minds — geographically, politically, even psychologically. Yet distance has never guaranteed insulation. The […]
