The armed conflict between Russian and Georgia has further exposed the fragile position of the energy links running through the smaller country from the Caspian Sea to developed market economies South Ossetia energy geopolitics on the ground today Russian forces … Continue reading →
The one-year anniversary of the EU’s Partnership Strategy with Central Asia (Central Asia Partnership) gets off to a slow start but is not without potential. Origins of the EU’s Central Asia Partnership Strategy One year ago this month, the European … Continue reading →
Ground was broken in Kazakhstan last week for construction of that country’s segment of a pipeline for Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline transmission, set to be the longest and most expensive such pipeline in the world. Its length is usually given as … Continue reading →
New prospects to extend the Caspian pipeline network with a Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline (TCGP) from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan have been receiving deserved attention in recent months. However, another project to pipe energy resources from the western to the eastern shore … Continue reading →
Prime Minister Karim Masimov has announced major Kazakhstan energy policy related decisions in the wake of President Nursultan Nazarbaev’s address to the nation last week. First, and most strikingly, he has ordered the suspension all negotiations with foreign investors on … Continue reading →
A little over a month ago, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbaev signed amendments passed several weeks previously by the Majilis (parliament) to the law “On the Subsurface and Subsurface Use” that would allow the government to amend or annul natural-resource contracts … Continue reading →
Recent weeks have seen increasing United States activity in favor of constructing the Trans-Caspian Pipeline for natural gas (TCGP, Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline) from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan. But what are the chances of anything really happening? From the technical standpoint, there … Continue reading →
Summary of remarks prepared for the panel “South Caucasus Frozen Conflicts: Overview and Comparison,” Frozen Conflicts Workshop, Centre for International Relations, Queen’s University, 20 April 2007 This report is a summary synthesis of previous research (Cutler 2003) examining four factors … Continue reading →
A significant indicator of Turkmenistan’s future diplomatic and economic course, and for the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline (TCGP) in particular, is whether new President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow will undertake a rapprochement with Azerbaijan. Former president Saparmurat Niyazov, self-styled “Turkmenbashi” (leader of Turkmens), … Continue reading →
When US President George W. Bush was in India this month, he caused a flurry of commentary, especially in the Indian media, by appearing to lift long-standing American objections to the construction of a natural gas pipeline from Iran through … Continue reading →