Kyrgyzstan is a country in Central Asia that during its recent 32 years of history has seen three of its president’s overthrown, two instances of mass ethnic violence and 32 prime ministers. After gaining independence in 1991, Kyrgyzstan encountered a range of socio-economic problems associated with the collapse of the USSR, the establishment of a new state, the rupture of traditional economic and trade relations with other Soviet republics, and the suspension of centralized financial subsidies from Moscow. The new government had to seek other sources of funding for its sustainability and development. The international community treated Kyrgyzstan as a “more advanced democracy” (Garcés de los Fayos and Mendonça 2018) than other regional states, as an “island of democracy” (Anderson 1999) surrounded by Russia, other authoritarian Central Asian countries, and China. This recognition led to increasingly international, mainly Western, support, which included development aid and assistance with democratiz‐ ation and governance reforms. There was an expectation that Kyrgyzstan would become a more liberal and prosperous state as a result.Read the research article

US foreign policy in the South Asian region is characterized by changeability and dynamism. The main purpose of this article is to reveal the constructivist aspects of US foreign policy in this region. The article used historical, comparative political, inductive and deductive scientific methods. The paper concludes that the US foreign policy in South Asia from the Cold War to the present day has consisted of ups and downs, the foreign policy vector has been directed either towards Pakistan or towards India, and today relations are mainly directed towards India . The article includes the main seven periods of US foreign policy in the South Asian region. In particular, in 1947-1965, the attention of the United States in the region was focused on Pakistan, and in 1965-1979, due to the Vietnam War, it moved away from the region. The war of the USSR in Afghanistan, which took place in 1979-1989, again strengthens the importance of Pakistan in the foreign policy of the United States. In 1989-1998, the United States began to pursue a separate foreign policy with both India and Pakistan due to its pursuit of global hegemony. In 1998-2001, India and Pakistan are subject to US sanctions due to their nuclear weapons tests. Consequently, the War on Terror, which began in Afghanistan in 2001, increases the priority of Pakistan in the foreign policy of the United States. This continued until 2021, when the United States withdrew its forces from Afghanistan. Since the time of President Barack Obama, the role of India in the foreign policy of the United States has increased dramatically. During the period of D.Trump, this country was officially given the status of “Major Defense Partner”. The article differs in that it is revealed from the standpoint of the theory of international relations of constructivism and can be useful in the work of specialists in this field.Read the article

The Taliban’s lightning-fast takeover of Afghanistan received rather calm and “wait and see” reactions from nearly all the Central Asian Republics (CAR), with Tajikistan being unusually outspoken about the events unfolding in its southern neighbour. Although the CARs did not welcome the Biden administration’s swift decision on the allied forces’ sudden departure from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, they reluctantly adapted to the reality. Since then, the Central Asian countries’ respective policies towards a Taliban-led Afghanistan have shared certain similarities, with trade-driven pragmatism being their most important characteristic. This article explores the affairs of the CARs with Taliban-led Afghanistan, which are largely shaped by Western countries’ reticence in recognising the Taliban as the official government of Afghanistan.Download the article

The article contains an analysis of the previous and current state of Uzbekistan's hydropower, which has a history of almost 100 years, the country's hydropower potential, existing problems and their rational solutions, construction of new hydroelectric power stations, modernization of old hydroelectric power stations, investments in the field, practical cooperation with leading foreign energy companies. , current and promising projects are highlighted.Download the article

In this review article we will talk about modern trends in nuclear energy, define what Small Nuclear Power Plants are and prospects for the development of nuclear energy in the Central Asian countries.Throughout the 20th century, public attitudes toward nuclear energy have been complex and evolving, fluctuating between periods of rosy optimism and well-founded skepticism. There was the Atoms for Peace initiative in the 1950s, followed by the powerful anti-nuclear movement of the 70s and 80s, shaped by the turning points at Three Mile Island (USA) and Chernobyl (Ukraine). With the looming threat of climate change, fears eased and nuclear capabilities expanded in the early 2000s - often called a nuclear renaissance - before turning sour again in 2011 following the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in Japan. Download the article

Central Asia is gradually becoming part of the global process of transition to a new technological structure, which Klaus Schwab called the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” (FIR). This process is most active in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, which are the locomotives of the region’s economic growth and are investing heavily in digitalization and creating an ecosystem of startups and venture capital, gradually turning into exporters of digital services. Meanwhile, when they talk about the digitalization of Central Asia, they most often consider its economic and technological aspects, while the value and closely related ethical aspects remain insufficiently developed at the academic level. However, as studies by Max Weber, Joseph Schumpeter and Douglas North have shown, ideological, value and institutional paradigms directly influence the nature of economic and technological development. Moreover, the technologies themselves then influence the consolidation of a new value system and the transformation of previous value systems. For Central Asia, this is more relevant than ever, given that the region today faces competition between value systems.View article here