The August 2008 war with Russia demonstrated that implicit Western security guarantees given to Georgia were unreliable, and the existence of gas and oil corridor from the Central Asia to Europe, through the Georgian territory, entirely depended on Moscow’s benevolence. Therefore, Georgian policy makers sought to balance a resurgent Russian state by involving other regional […]
Continue readingDavid S. Landes, the emeritus professor of economics at Harvard University, writes that during Medieval Ages the Orient, mainly China, had possessed a power-driven spinning machine and industrial techniques centuries before the Industrial Revolution occurred in the Occident. The wealth and economic growth of China during that time made it one of the big commercial […]
Continue readingBook Review: İncirlik Üssü: ABD’nin Üs Politikası ve Türkiye (Incirlik AFB: The USA’s Military Base Policy and Turkey) By Selin M. Bölme, Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2012, 430 pages, ISBN-13: 978-975-05-0994-0 Turkish-American relations is a field in which, because of the dearth of academic, book-length studies available, essentially any addition is greatly welcomed. Selin M. Bölme’s study İncirlik Üssü: ABD’nin […]
Continue readingCOMMENTARY – The truism that the Middle East is going through a time of upheaval is, for once, true. The Arab Spring, the US withdrawal from Iraq, the stand-off between Iran and the West, and the rise of Turkey, have redrawn the geopolitical map, and its new lines are not yet clear. The new Middle […]
Continue readingSince the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, academics and policymakers alike have issued stark warnings stating that radical Islamic groups constitute a clear and present danger in modern Central Asia. According to such thinking, scholars and government officials maintain that militant Islamic organizations such as Al Qaeda, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and […]
Continue readingThe international community, following the September 11, 2001 events and the subsequent outbreak of war in Afghanistan “rediscovered” the strategic importance of the Central Asian region. Germany was among the first countries to pay more attention to this region. However, Berlin already had decades of experience of dealing with major issues in Central Asia. Germany […]
Continue readingCentral Asia’s unique geographical position and border disputes bring researchers to complex studies of its past, present and future. Border disputes in the region consist of many components, and the one of the least described is the issue of enclaves. Enclaves appeared in Central Asia (CA) during the Soviet policy of creating national republics in […]
Continue readingA Caucasian proverb reads, “When will blood cease to flow in the mountains? When sugarcane grows in the snows.” In spite of the fact that Moscow officially announced the end of its decade-long anti-terrorism campaign in the North Caucasus in mid-April 2009, the considerable spike in the number of violent attacks carried out by insurgents […]
Continue readingThe construction of the Kul Sharif mosque inside the White Kreml of Kazan was a strong symbolic act in most respects. Planned in 1996, it took nine years to finish and cost millions of dollars to construct. More importantly than its mere economic cost is the high number of questions and debates the building created […]
Continue readingTurkey is undergoing major transformations in several areas. Its economy has substantially grown in the last decade. It is now considered a regional power with rising influence in global affairs. Notwithstanding these achievements, the most important arena of change in Turkey is actually domestic politics. And the constitutional politics lies at the center of this […]
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