Program on Central Asia

Join our mailing list!

We support the study of the Central Asian region using tools and insights from various fields of social sciences and humanities. Our activities include research projects, seminar series, curriculum development and course offerings, creation of digital resources for the study of the region, facilitation of research by students and visiting scholars, and cultural events.

While the program aims at generating and disseminating knowledge and resources on Central Asia spanning different periods of its history, our main focus is on the independence period and current developments. We approach Central Asia as a region that opened up as a result of the dissolution of the USSR. The states, economies, and people of Central Asia are now an integral part of the globalized world, and developments in the region cannot be properly understood without tracing and analyzing different forms of connectivity, influence, and interdependence.

Initiatives and Projects

Energy Transition in Central Asia

RETCA addresses energy security challenges and environmental problems in Central Asia by studying the governance and politics of the region’s green energy transition.

Caspiana

Caspiana: A Digital Toolbox for Students and Scholars of Central Asia and the South Caucasus is a resource to facilitate research on the countries east and west of the Caspian Sea.

Central Asia and Caucasus Seminar

A series of public seminars on topics in the history, culture, and politics of the Central Asia region.

Apartments with satellite dishes atop and mountains in the background

Regions and China's Belt and Road Initiative

This seminar seeks to foster vibrant, comprehensive, and fruitful discussion on the ongoing transformations in geopolitics and governance triggered by the BRI.

Sign in Uzbekistan that says, “Welcome, American friends!”

American Diplomats in Central Asia

The accounts of American diplomats who worked in the 1990s and first decade of 2000s shed light on this dramatic period of global history and reveal behind-the-scenes workings of international politics.

Black Sea Lab

The Black Sea Lab is an exploratory collaboration across research initiatives at the Davis Center, consisting of a series of conversations to assess scholarly trends and new avenues of inquiry related to security challenges in the Black Sea region.

Related Insights

A renewable energy facility combining wind turbines and solar panels in Kazakhstan’s steppe.

From Targets to Implementation: Strengthening Kazakhstan’s Green Transition Framework

In a new report, authors from our Program on Central Asia call on Astana to revise and strengthen its current decarbonization strategy. Read their key findings and recommendations.

Memoir: Birth of C5+1 and Uzbekistan’s 'Awakening'

For our Program on Central Asia, retired U.S. diplomat Daniel Rosenblum recounts witnessing the end of Islam Karimov’s rule and Tashkent’s new focus on improving relations with its neighbors.

Russia, Central Asia, and the Global South: Imperial Reconfigurations and Legacies

In a new article for Demokratizatsiya, political scientist Nargis Kassenova, director of our Program on Central Asia, examines the region's management of its "Russia challenge" amid the contradictions between Moscow's neo-imperial practices and its anti-colonial rhetoric.

Collage of various diplomacy-related memos and photographs.

Upcoming Event