Statecraft and Geoeconomics: Impacts on Energy and Infrastructure in Central Eurasia

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

The American withdrawal from Afghanistan and Russian invasion of Ukraine scrambled the political and economic interests of major powers in the heartland of Central Eurasia. Trump administration policies added a third shock that could fundamentally lead to a new geoeconomic paradigm in this massive territory. The panel explores developments and prospects in energy and infrastructure, the defining drivers of Central Eurasian integration, through papers that explore EU-Chinese trade and transport, American strategic interests in critical minerals, Russian sanctions evasion as an opportunity in Central Asia and the Global South, and Kazakh nuclear energy and participation in uranium supply chains.

Sub Unit

• International Relations, Security Studies, Foreign Policy

Chair

• George Krol, Harvard U

Papers

• EU-PRC Cooperation on the Middle Corridor: Developments and Prospects - Richard Pomfret, U of Adelaide (Australia)

• Trump, Central Eurasia, and the Geoeconomics of Energy and Infrastructure - Marsha McGraw Olive, Johns Hopkins U

• Russia and 'Smart' Sanctions: How did Putin Turn Oil Sanctions into an Opportunity with the Global South, Central Asia and Beyond? - Adnan Vatansever, King's College London (UK)

• Kazakhstan’s Energy Policy After Bloody January: Charting a Radioactive Governance Debate - Nathan Mark Hutson, Kyiv School of Economics; Sofiya Matskevich, U of Texas at Austin

Discussant

• Nargis Kassenova, Harvard U