Central Asia in Global Politics

The course is designed as an in-depth study of the place of Central Asia in Eurasian and global politics, and the policies of key external actors, such as Russia, the United States, China, the European Union, Turkey, Iran, Japan, South Korea and India, toward the region. Students are familiarized with the ways Central Asia has been contextualized both in scholarly sources and media. We will dwell on the changing geopolitical dynamics of the region and analyze how developments there are intertwined with bigger contexts and stories, including nuclear non-proliferation and state-building, political Islam and democracy promotion, energy markets and climate change, the war in Ukraine and diversification of licit and illicit trade flows. We will define similarities and differences in the foreign policies of Central Asian states and discuss the future prospects of the region.
Class Notes:IR_subfield