Recent Events

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  The Gulf States and Central Asia: Converging Foreign Policies?

  Gulf state activity in Central Asia has steadily increased in recent years. The growing ties come due to shared religion and culture, alongside burgeoning trade, investment, and development initiatives from the Gulf region. This turn of events comes as a very welcome development for Central Asian states, offering them another direction for their various multi-vector

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  Chips, Apps, and U.S.-China Competition

  As the Biden administration and the Congress increasingly focus on U.S. competition with China, policymakers confront complex problems illustrated both by microchip supply chains and by current debates surrounding TikTok. These problems raise fundamental questions: What forms of trade, investment, and commerce should the United States allow? What should it limit? Which goods can and

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  U.S. Nuclear Energy Leadership and Exports

  After long struggles, America’s nuclear industry is becoming a focal point for U.S. efforts to increase clean energy supplies—domestically and internationally—and as one among many dimensions of escalating geopolitical competition, especially with Russia, which dominates the global markets for nuclear reactors and nuclear fuel. While recent administrations and Congresses have worked intensively, often on a

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  Afghanistan and Central Asia Since the Taliban Takeover

  The shockwaves of the August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and subsequent Taliban takeover have reverberated across Central Asia. In a water scarce region, Taliban efforts to build the long-desired Qosh Tepa Canal on the Amu Darya River and a water diversion project on the Helmand River have strained relations with downstream Central Asian states

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  Russia’s Changing Profile and Influence in Central Asia

  Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has had a major impact on its relations with the states of Central Asia. It has given rise to new efforts in some quarters to further de-colonialize from the Tsarist and Soviet legacies. Western sanctions have altered regional economic supply chains, and the large recent influx of

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