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Eastern Mediterranean Energy Geostrategy on Proposed Gas Export Routes
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Eastern Mediterranean Energy Geostrategy on Proposed Gas Export Routes (PDF) Published by Fondation pour le Recherche (Click to download) From 2008 onwards, the security and political order in this subsystem, existing since the onset of the Cold War, collapsed, due to the deterioration in relations between the USA’s two most capable regional allies, Turkey and Israel and the continuing fallout of the Arab Spring. It’s been replaced by a widening civil war in Syria and a geopolitical rivalry among Turkey, Israel, Cyprus and Greece and between Western countries and the emboldened powers of Russia and Iran. In the meanwhile, the EU-Cyprus-Greece-Israel energy cooperation was strengthened by Europe’s interest in the diversification of routes and sources of gas supplies (EU Second Strategic Energy Review, 2008) and the promotion of the Southern Gas Corridor Strategy (SGC). This strategy, was mostly triggered by the worsening Russia-Ukraine relationship in 2006-2009 and the Kremlin’s decision to annex Crimea, legally making part of (...)
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China Struggles with Belt and Road Pushback
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“It’s normal and understandable that development focus can change at different stages in different countries, especially with changes in government. So China can also make some strategic adjustments when cooperating with these countries, but it’s definitely not a reconsideration of the B&R (Belt and Road) initiative”, Wang Jun, deputy director of the Department of Information at the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges told the Chinese Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper. Credit: Center for Global Development (Click to enlarge) The Chinese concession, initially made public in an August 27 speech by President Xi Jinping and reaffirmed by the Global Times. came in (...) -
The Assault on Fortress Qatar
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In order for such a move to work, the Saudi-led bloc had to rely on primitive tribal tactics — hoping that this would create cracks in Qatar’s internal cohesion — thus generating enough problems inside Doha to facilitate the idea of a soft coup against the emir of Qatar. Don Saoud and Fort Qatar (Click to enlarge) The tribal card Big and powerful tribes, such as al-Hawajer and al-Murrah, can be found on both sides of the border in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. At the very beginning of the crisis, King Salman of Saudi Arabia ordered the leaders of these tribes to be paid monthly bonuses of around $1800 to $2600 each. One reason for this was to prepare the ground for his decision to (...)
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Tajikistan Agriculture Problem
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Food Security and Political Stability in Tajikistan Raj Kumar VIJ Books (India) Pty Ltd (2018) ISBN-10: 8193759133 ISBN-13: 978-8193759134 This book is an attempt to fill the academic void on Tajikistan, especially pertaining to its food security. This work traces the history of agriculture and food production in Tajikistan from mid-19th century when (...) -
Uzbekistan after Karimov
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Karimov Dynasty Islam, Gulnara & Lola (Click to enlarge) First, right at the start of his period of rule, Karimov allocated additional domestic land plots to the population, which enabled many families to keep body and soul together at a time of great economic hardship. This also allowed the political situation to stabilize. However, the benefits (...)
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World Bank Update on Tajikistan
According to the IMF, total gross external debt as a percentage of GDP for Tajikistan averaged 59.3% between 2000 and 2014, and was estimated at 67.9% in 2017. Tajikistan’s external debt is projected to keep rising in 2018 and 2019 as the government ramps up construction of the Rogun dam and other infrastructure projects.
On the other hand, ADB experts think to maintain their current growth momentum, Tajikistan must invest almost 8% of GDP in infrastructure. Tajikistan’s real GDP growth accelerated to 7.1% in 2017, from 6.9% in 2016. The poverty (...)
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Securing Xinjiang
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The emergence of a security component is not only highlighted by the establishment last year of China’s first foreign military base in Djibouti, but also in its stepped-up security cooperation with Afghanistan and other Central Asian nations that border on its north-western province of Xinjiang. Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region China’s security focus is driven by concerns about national and religious aspirations in Xinjiang of Uyghurs, an ethnic Turkic Muslim group that has long looked westward toward Central Asia and Turkey rather than eastward (...) -
Urbanization in Kazakhstan
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Urbanization in Kazakhstan (PDF) Seitz, William Hutchins. 2018. Urbanization in Kazakhstan : desirable cities, unaffordable housing, and the missing rental marke (English). Policy Research working paper; no. WPS 8530. Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group. (Click to download) The findings of William Seitz in its report to World Bank show that the two urban centres of Almaty and Astana are 190 and 240% more expensive to live in than the national average. According to him, housing is the primary driver of the disparity: after adjusting for inflation, (...)
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