Research – Central Asia Program

Kazakhstan Constitutional Reform 2026: Autocratic Institutionalisation or Personalization of Dictatorship?

13 May, 2026

CAP POLICY BRIEF by Sofya Du Boulay and Dinissa Duvanova, March 23, 2026 Sofya Du Boulay is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Politics at the University of Sussex. She is a…

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Reclaiming Civic Space in Authoritarian Central Asia: Why and How Western Donors Must Rethink Their Engagement

2 April, 2026

CAP WORKING PAPER by Sebastien Peyrouse, April 2, 2026 Sebastien Peyrouse is the Director of the Central Asia Program and a Research Professor in the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian…

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Kazakhstan Constitutional Reform 2026: Autocratic Institutionalisation or Personalization of Dictatorship?

23 March, 2026

CAP POLICY BRIEF by Sofya Du Boulay and Dinissa Duvanova, March 23, 2026 Sofya Du Boulay is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Politics at the University of Sussex. She is a…

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Kazakhstan’s Regional Ecological Summit: A Turning Point for Environmental Protection?

19 March, 2026

CAP POLICY BRIEF by Wilder Alejandro Sánchez, March 19, 2026 Wilder Alejandro Sánchez is President of Second Floor Strategies, a consulting firm in Washington, D.C. He covers geopolitical, defense, environmental and…

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How Iran did not take the Taliban into the “Axis of Resistance”

2 December, 2025

Author: Dr. Antonio Giustozzi is a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). He took his PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).…

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United We Stand. Central Asian Unity: The Way Forward

29 May, 2025

Authors: Aitolkyn Kurmanova is an expert on economic policy in Central Asia, and authored several studies on regional economic cooperation, trade, commodity and financial markets. She has a bachelor’s degree…

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Resource Dependency: A Critical Look at Human Development and Inequality in Turkmenistan

29 January, 2025

Author: This policy brief has been developed by researchers at the Progres Foundation. The extended research on human development has been published on the organization’s website. 1 The Progres Foundation…

Map of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route Tanvir Anjum Adib, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons /Cropped from original, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Middle_Corridor_Route.svg

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The Trans-Caspian Middle Corridor Is Thriving

27 January, 2025

Map of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route Tanvir Anjum Adib, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons /Cropped from original, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Middle_Corridor_Route.svg

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Researching Central Asia. Navigating Positionality in the Field

20 November, 2023

Virtual Roundtable December 12, 2023 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 am EST Researching Central Asia can be interesting, entertaining, life-changing, traumatizing and, at the very least, thought provoking. The way…

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A Year in American School: A View of an Alien, Parent, and Educator

29 April, 2023

Bolashak Reflections: A Series of Essays by Bolashak Fellows on What They Have Learned from Their Studies Author: Aigul Sarenova Aigul Sarenova serves as the Dean of General Education at…

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Internationalization of the Educational Activities of the University

25 April, 2023

Internationalization of the Educational Activities of the University A. T. Zhunissov, E. A. Assan, and A. M. Mukhambetzhan Abstract At present, one of the tasks of modern higher education is…

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10 Apps for Accessing and Navigating This Odd Digital World from the Point of View of an Educator

6 January, 2023

Bolashak Reflections: A Series of Essays from Bolashak Fellows on What They Have Learned from Their Studies by Madina Yussubaliyeva Digital tools and programs are being improved for users with…

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Why Should People Form Professional Groups and Associations?

13 December, 2022

Bolashak Reflections: A Series of Essays by Bolashak Fellows on What They Have Learned from Their Studies Author: Gaini Seitenova If the power of bad people is achieved by the…

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What Can We Teach Our Students about Democracy?

8 December, 2022

Bolashak Reflections: A Series of Essays from Bolashak Fellows on What They Have Learned from their Studies. Author: Mirey Kabasheva A few days ago, I and my fellow friend from…

Book talk with the author of Social Innovations in Post-Soviet Countries

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Tricky Summitry as Rising Powers Meet at Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Samarkand

21 September, 2022

Tricky Summitry as Rising Powers Meet at Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Samarkand Rising Powers Initiative – Sigur Center for Asian StudiesPolicy Alert #250- September 21, 2022 The 2022 Shanghai Cooperation…

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Black Snow of December (Excerpt from Amanat)

30 August, 2022

By Asel OmarTranslated from Russia by Shelley Fairweather-Vega TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: Asel Omar’s “Black Snow of December” presents a version of events from Kazakhstan’s recent history that, alas, are still little discussed…

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Bлияние программ переселения на повышение конфликтности в регионах Казахстана

15 July, 2022

Авторы Айман Жусупова, кандидат политических наук, руководитель проектов Евразийского центра по человеческим ресурсам (Алматы, Казахстан) Гульмира Илеуова, кандидат социологических наук, президент Общественного фондa «Центр социaльных и политических исследовaний «Стрaтегия» (Алматы,…

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The Future of The CASA-1000 Electric Megaproject in the Context of the New Afghanistan

12 July, 2022

An Economic and Financial Impact Analysis Waris Ahmad Faizi is currently an Erasmus+ exchange student at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (OVGU) in Germany, where he is pursuing an MA…

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Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss: Turkmenistan’s Presidency and Serdarism

8 April, 2022

By Victoria Clement Dr. Victoria Clement is the owner of Central Asian Insights, a consulting firm in northern Virginia. Clement has more than twenty-five years experience developing, executing, and presenting…

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Inequality Between Students of Rural and Urban Schools in Kazakhstan: Causes and Ways to Address It

9 November, 2021

By Zhaslan Nurbayev Zhaslan Nurbayev is a PhD / Candidate of Sciences in History and Associate Professor in the Department of Regional Studies of L.N. Gumilev Eurasian National University. In 2014-2015,…

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Transition to Sustainability in Azerbaijan: Policy Review and Analysis

29 October, 2021

By Ilaha Abasli Ilaha was a Spring 2021 CAAFP Fellow. She is a PhD researcher at Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus Rotterdam University. Ilaha holds a Master’s degree in International…

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Facilitators of Societal Change? Exploring Educated-Abroad Youth’s Potential to Advance Gender Equality in Turkmenistan Through Civic Activism

27 October, 2021

By Rustam Muhamedov Muhamedov Rustam was a Spring 2021CAAFP Fellow. He is an independent researcher focusing on social-political and security developments in Turkmenistan and wider Central Asia. He is currently…