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Trump's trade corridor

TRIPP for Central Asia — Tempting, but Fraught

The government of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has stepped up efforts to involve Central Asian countries in the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP). Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have expressed cautious interest in the project. TRIPP is a 43-kilometer transport corridor that will run through Armenian territory along the Iranian border and connect the two parts of Azerbaijan. The corridor is expected to include roads and railways, pipelines, power transmission lines, and fiber-optic cables.
USSR symbol (AI Generated)

BESA Post-Soviet Conflicts Research Digest No. 35 (August 2026)

In August 2026, PSCRP analytical materials were largely focused on the developments in the South Caucasus, Central Asia, and Russia. The PSCRP team provides an overview of the year that has passed since the joint declaration was signed in Washington between the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia. In the same vein, the PSCRP team analyzes the role of the Middle Corridor, officially known as the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.
Iranian and Turkic influence regions (AI illustration)

Reimagining the Persianate Sphere: Iran’s Response to Turkic Regional Integration

In mid-August 2026, Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Aref met in Tehran with Tajikistan’s Minister of Energy and Water Resources, Daler Juma. The substance of the meeting was unglamorous: oil bitumen and petrochemical exports, aviation fuel, a joint energy commission, and a first half of 2026 in which bilateral trade already ran some 15 percent ahead of the same period in 2025. Only after working through this ledger did Aref turn to build on the “extensive cultural, civilizational, and linguistic commonalities” between the two countries by establishing a “Union of Persian-Speaking Countries and Regions,” and to pursue the idea “seriously” through further meetings and visits.
Kremlins plans in Caucasus (AI generated)

A Year of Peace (the Kremlin Never Wanted)

Twelve months after the White House ceremony that startled the Caucasus, Yerevan and Baku are trading grain, oil, and even goodwill — an outcome that owes less to diplomacy-as-usual than to Ilham Aliyev’s decision to finish a war Moscow preferred to keep simmering.

On the Potential of the Kazakh Irredenta in the Russian Federation

Kazakhstan is the second-largest state by area (after the Russian Federation) to have emerged as a result of the collapse of the USSR. At the time it gained independence, it was also the only post-Soviet state in which the titular nation constituted a minority. As a result of the large-scale colonization of its territory by non-indigenous populations, predominantly Russians, under the Russian Empire and subsequently the USSR, the share of Kazakhs declined from 81.8% to 30% between the censuses of 1897 and 1959.
Written Sovereignty: Turkey, Russia, and Iran in the Battle Over Post-Soviet Scripts

Written Sovereignty: Turkey, Russia, and Iran in the Battle Over Post-Soviet Scripts

Script is rarely a neutral technical choice in this region. Which alphabet a state teaches its children is a declared vector of civilizational allegiance — a public signal of which power it expects to matter for its future. This is what "written sovereignty" means in practice: not legal independence, but the ongoing, contested right to decide whose cultural gravity a nation writes itself into. Three powers are currently making competing claims on that gravity in the post-Soviet Turkic and Persianate world — Turkey, Russia, and Iran — and they are not equally equipped to press the claim.
Transport coridor (AI Illustration)

Azerbaijan Uses the Middle Corridor to Consolidate Its Geopolitical Position

The Middle Corridor, officially known as the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), is a vital logistics route connecting East Asia and Europe. It is a multimodal corridor combining road, rail and maritime transport. By bypassing traditional northern transport routes, it helps strengthen regional connectivity and improve trade efficiency. Azerbaijan plays a key role in this transport network, using its strategic position on the Caspian Sea to ensure the uninterrupted transit of goods between China, Central Asian countries and European markets.

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