Central Asia Center - New Lines Institute | Podcasts

Development Economist and World Bank Consultant Sobir Kurbanov joins Dr. Dania Arayssi to discuss his field experience across Central Asia, focusing on three themes: practical reform experience, the role of donors, and the importance of institutions. He highlights Uzbekistan’s rapid, top-driven reforms under new leadership, contrasts that with Tajikistan’s Digital CASA connectivity efforts, and ex...

Is Central Asia entering a new era of resource-driven geopolitics — or repeating old patterns of dependency? In this episode of the Central Asia Center Podcast, Senior Analyst Dania Arayssi speaks with Dr. Ariel Cohen, a leading expert on energy geopolitics in Russia and Central Asia, about the growing importance of critical minerals and energy security in shaping the region’s relationship with th...

What is the future of U.S. engagement in Central Asia, and how has Washington’s approach to the region evolved over time? In this episode of the Central Asia Center Podcast, Senior Analyst Dania Arayssi speaks with former U.S. Ambassador Daniel Rosenblum, who served in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and spent nearly three decades at the U.S. State Department across five presidential administrations. Dr...

In this episode of the Central Asia Center Podcast, Senior Analyst Dania Arayssi speaks with Richard Spooner, Senior Fellow at the Caspian Policy Center, about the evolving strategic partnership between the United States and Kazakhstan and what it means for the broader geopolitics of Central Asia. As global competition intensifies and new economic and security alignments take shape, Central Asia i...

In this episode of the Central Asia Center Podcast, Dr. Dania Arayssi is joined by Eugene Chausovsky, Senior Director for Analytical Development and Training at New Lines Institute, to examine the shifting geopolitical landscape of the Caspian region. As Russia’s war in Ukraine reshapes Eurasian power dynamics, new opportunities have emerged for Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Central Asia. The conversat...

In this episode of the Central Asia Podcast, Dr. Dania Arayssi speaks with journalist Alexander Thompson, co-author of the New Lines Institute report When Water Becomes Glue: Solving Central Asia’s Water Dilemma Through Collaboration to unpack the realities of water politics in Central Asia. The conversation explores how water resources are generated upstream in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan but consu...

In the inaugural episode of the Central Asia Podcast, host Dania Arayssi is joined by Dr. Kamran Bokhari, Senior Director at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, to examine the shifting geopolitical landscape of Iran, Central Asia, and the broader Eurasian region. The conversation explores Iran’s deepening domestic turmoil and structural decline, the weakening of Russian influence, and...