Displaying items by tag: Caspian Region

Friday, 24 April 2020 00:00

Turkey and the Evolving Black Sea-Caspian Region

Mamuka Tsereteli

UIK Panorama, April 24, 2020

Following the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Unites States, together with Turkey and other Western allies, led the process of strengthening the political and economic sovereignty of the newly independent countries in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Turkey was a major anchor and channel of Western political, strategic, and economic interests in the Black Sea-Caspian region.

This collaborative effort brought about the development of the vibrant energy, trade, and transit connections between the Black Sea-Caspian region and the Mediterranean, delivering huge economic and political benefits to all the producing and transit countries of the region: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. But Turkey was, and continues to be, the major beneficiary of the economic, political, and security benefits of the East-West energy and transportation corridor, of the expanding pipeline, railway, highway, and port infrastructure, linking the country to Caspian resources and markets. Further, the enlargement of NATO and the EU also brought more security and economic development to the western shores of the Black Sea – to Bulgaria and Romania.

Published in Staff Publications

Strategic Pillars of Security for Georgia: Trans-Atlantic Integration, Economy, Democracy

Levan Mikeladze Foundation for the Caucasus Studies

and

Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins SAIS

invite you to participate in the conference

Strategic Pillars of Security for Georgia:

Trans-Atlantic Integration, Economy, Democracy

Thursday, May 12, 2016

1:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Kenney Auditorium

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies

1740 Massachusetts Ave, NW, 20036

Washington, DC

Conference Program

1:00 – 1:15

Registration / Check-in

1:15 – 1:30

Welcome: Mamuka Tsereteli, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute

Tina Mikeladze, Levan Mikeladze Foundation for Caucasus Studies

1:30 – 3:00

Georgia and Strategic Environment in the Black Sea-Caspian Region

Moderator: S. Enders Wimbush, Founder, Stratevarious/Member of the Advisory Board, LMF

Discussants: Kurt Volker, McCain Institute, Former US Ambassador to NATO

James MacDougall, Professor, National War College

Amb. William Courtney, Former US Ambassador to Georgia

Amb. Archil Gegeshidze, Ambassador of Georgia to the US

Svante Cornell, Director, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute

Job Henning, Fellow, Truman National Security Project

Glen Howard, President, Jamestown Foundation

Brenda Shaffer, Visiting Professor, Georgetown University

3:00 – 3:45

Remarks: Bridget Brink, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State

David Bakradze, State Minister of Georgia on European and Euro-Atlantic Integration

David Dondua, Deputy Minister of Foreign Relations, Georgia

3:45 – 4:00 Coffee Break

4:00 – 5:30

Internal Factors of Security in Georgia: Conflicts, Economy, Democracy

Moderator: Elizabeth Kvitashvili, President, Georgian Association in the USA

Discussants: Stephen Nix, Director for Eurasia, IRI

Melissa Muscio, Senior Manager, Caucasus and Central Asia, NDI

Jeffrey Mankoff, Senior Fellow, CSIS

George Khelashvili, DCM, Embassy of Georgia

Danica Starks, Policy Team Director for Eurasia, Dept. of Commerce

Kenneth Angell, Managing Director, SMEF, OPIC

Eftychis Gregos-Mourginakis, Executive Director, America-Georgia Business Council

Miriam Lanskoy, Senior Director for Eurasia, National Endowment for Democracy

David Soumbadze, Director, Rumsfeld Fellowship Program, CACI/LMF

5:30 - 5:45

Closing Remarks: S. Frederick Starr, Chairman, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute

5:45 – 7:00

Closing Reception, sponsored by Georgian Association in the USA

Georgian Association Annual Award Ceremony with Co-chairs of the Georgia Caucus in the House of Representatives: Congressman Ted Poe, R-Texas, Congressman Gerry Connolly, D-Virginia

Please register using this link.

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Read CACI Chairman S. Frederick Starr's recent interview on the resurgence of Imperial Russia with The American Purpose
Tuesday, 23 May 2023 00:00

Why Russians Support the War: Jeffrey Gedmin interviews S. Frederick Starr on the resurgence of Imperial Russia.

The American Purpose, May 23, 2023

Jeffrey Gedmin: Do we have a Putin problem or a Russia problem today?

S. Frederick Starr: We have a Putin problem because we have a Russia problem. Bluntly, the mass of Russians are passive and easily manipulated—down to the moment they aren’t. Two decades ago they made a deal with Vladimir Putin, as they have done with many of his predecessors: You give us a basic income, prospects for a better future, and a country we can take pride in, and we will give you a free hand. This is the same formula for autocracy that prevailed in Soviet times, and, before that, under the czars. The difference is that this time Russia’s leader—Putin—and his entourage have adopted a bizarre and dangerous ideology, “Eurasianism,” that empowers them to expand Russian power at will over the entire former territory of the USSR and even beyond. It is a grand and awful vision that puffs up ruler and ruled alike.

What do most Russians think of this deal? It leaves them bereft of the normal rights of citizenship but free from its day-to-day responsibilities. So instead of debating, voting, and demonstrating, Russians store up their frustrations and then release them in elemental, often destructive, and usually futile acts of rebellion. This “Russia problem” leaves the prospect of change in Russia today in the hands of alienated members of Putin’s immediate entourage, many of whom share his vision of Russia’s destiny and are anyway subject to Putin’s ample levers for control. Thus, our “Putin problem” arises from our “Russia problem.”

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CACI director Svante Cornell's interviewed on the 'John Batchelor Show' podcast regarding Turkey's 2023 presidential election
Friday, 19 May 2023 00:00

Listen to CACI director Svante Cornell's recent interview on the 'John Batchelor Show' podcast regarding Turkey's 2023 presidential election. Click here!
New Article Series on Changing Geopolitics of Central Asia and the Caucasus
Wednesday, 24 November 2021 11:53
CACI Initiative on Religion and the Secular State in Central Asia and the Caucasus
Sunday, 24 January 2021 13:53

In 2016, the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program launched an initiative on documenting the interrelationship of religion and the secular state in the region. This initiative departed from the fact that little systematic reserch had been undertaken on the subject thus far. While there was and remains much commentary and criticism of religious policy in the region, there was no comprehensive analysis available on the interrelationship of religion and the state in any regional state, let alone the region as a whole. The result of this initiative has been the publication of six Silk Road Papers studying the matter in regional states, with more to come. In addition, work is ongoing on a volume putting the regional situation in the context of the Muslim world as a whole.

Case Studies

Each study below can be freely downloaded in PDF format.

Azerbaijan's Formula: Secular Governance and Civil Nationhood
By Svante E. Cornell, Halil Karaveli, and Boris Ajeganov
November 2016

Religion and the Secular State in Kazakhstan
By Svante E. Cornell, S. Frederick Starr and Julian Tucker
April 2018

Religion and the Secular State in Uzbekistan
Svante E. Cornell and Jacob Zenn
June 2018

Religion and the Secular State in Kyrgyzstan
Johan Engvall
June 2020

Event video online

Religion and the Secular State in Turkmenistan
Victoria Clement
June 2020

Event video online

Articles and Analyses

Svante E. Cornell, "Religion and the State in Central Asia," in Ilan Berman, ed., Wars of Ideas: Theology, Interpretation and Power in the Muslim World, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.

Svante E. Cornell, "Central Asia: Where Did Islamic Radicalization Go?" in Religion, Conflict and Stability in the Former Soviet Union, eds. Katya Migacheva and Bryan Frederick, Arlington, VA: RAND Corporation, 2018.