• Central Asia in 2016 – part 3

    Today I continue the Central Asia prognosis for 2016 with a preview of a new project I’m initiating this year on higher education in Central Asia. Do please also check out part 1 on a Kazakh take on the regional outlook and part 2 on Tajikistan’s seemingly bleak prospects. I’m excited to announce that later this year, I will launch a new… Read more

  • Central Asia in 2016 – part 2

    This mini-series on the year ahead for Central Asia was kicked off with a global analysis of the opportunities and challenges facing the region by Kazakh thinktank Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of Kazakhstan (KazISS) and was inspired by two early January stories on the broader future for Central Asia. This second part draws on… Read more

  • Central Asia in 2016 – part 1

    Following on from my post at the beginning of January 2016, Central Asia: what lies ahead?, I’m going to dedicate the rest of this month to thinking about the situation in the region in the coming year. I plan to do this at both a macro (state, regional) level as well as considering the implications at a… Read more

  • Central Asia: what lies ahead? (updated)

    Happy new year! This is my fifth year of blogging on Central Asia, focussing on issues relating to higher education and social change. I open the year with an interesting analytical think piece from global intelligence agency Stratfor that attempts to surmise what the future might hold for the region. It’s available on their website… Read more

  • A Central Asian year in review

    As the end of another year of blogging on the wonderful world of Central Asia draws to a close, I have created my very own Facebook-style ‘year in review’ to recap on my most read articles of 2015. It’s clear that Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have dominated my blog this year in terms of country coverage.… Read more

  • President for life is a step too far

    I tried not to write about this. I really did. Although some of my posts have a political edge to them, I have endeavoured to keep this focussed on the impact for higher education and society in Central Asia. My aim is to keep positive, to look for ways that higher education can be improved… Read more