AT THE CENTER

The Middle Corridor Linking Asia and Europe: Promise and Challenges

The Middle Corridor, also known as the Trans-Caspian International Transit Route (TITR), is an emerging transcontinental, multi-modal network of transit routes. It offers an alternative both to the Northern Route through Russian territory and to the sea-based routes that dominate Asia-Europe trade. In particular, the Middle Corridor links China to the Central Asian states, passing

“The most important summits between leaders in Washington and Moscow—during the Nixon and Reagan administrations—took place precisely when the two governments recognized the dangers of inveterate mutual hostility and sought to limit them.”

-Paul J. Saunders

“The threat to the liberal order comes not from political shifts within democratic societies from liberal to conservative parties; that’s the normal cycle of democratic politics. It comes from resurgent autocrats in Russia, China, North Korea and Iran who do not tolerate such political shifts. Authoritarianism, not nationalism, poses the real threat to the liberal order.”

-Jacob Heilbrunn