Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Follow Carnegie
- Search
- Global Resources
Global Centers
Languages
Russia’s aggressive behavior in Georgia will have implications throughout the Caspian Sea Region, forcing Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to rethink their strategic priorities with the West. Russia has reasserted itself as the dominant player in the region and revealed how difficult it is for the U.S. to maintain a strategic position around the Caspian.
Discussants review how to improve relations between the U.S. and Turkmenistan through economic partnerships and development aid.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Evan Feigenbaum elaborated on his perspective of the current state of U.S.-Turkmenistan relations and offered his thoughts on how the two countries can move forward.
Recent high-level meetings between Putin and Central Asian leaders and the conclusion of several deals that seem to give Russia more power over the latter’s oil and gas have catapulted Russian-Central Asian relations back into the spotlight, and cast them as amicable.
None of the five Central Asian states have fulfilled the democratic aspirations that were held by their citizens some fifteen years ago, not to mention the aspirations held by people like us, outside observers, the analysts and activists that are gathered at this meeting.
A discussion of the national interests and strategies of the U.S., Russia, and China in the region. Has a new Great Game taken shape? What kinds of competition and what degree of cooperation can be expected? How will political and social dynamics within Central Asia affect the plans of the great powers?
This event featured presentations by Turkmenistan's two major opposition leaders living abroad, Nurmuhammed Khanamov and Khudayberdy Orazov, speaking and participating in a discussion via live video-conference from Berlin. Carnegie Endowment Senior Associate Martha Brill Olcott moderated the event.
Although the official statement yesterday on Turkmenistan's president spoke of his "divine foresight," not even this dictator could foresee his own death or what will happen to his country afterward.
The states of Central Asia are of increasing strategic importance for the U.S., yet unfortunately the opportunities that U.S. policy-makers have for influencing developments in this region are relatively circumscribed.
A successful Russian modernization is the most reliable basis for the foreign attractiveness of the country. Volumes of energy resources as such will not make Russia a great power, energy is not the same as leadership, nor is harshness the same as effectiveness. This is precisely how a post-imperial project differs from a neo-imperial one.
Stay connected to the Global Think Tank with Carnegie's smartphone app for Android and iOS devices