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By Liga Rudzite, Tallinn University of Technology liga.rudzite@taltech.ee   Executive summary Support for the private sector as a tool for domestic resource mobilization in development cooperation contributes to the already complex nature of development, widening the scope of beneficiaries, but also of development practitioners. It can, and in many cases did, become an integral part of…

By Olena Levenets, Tallinn University of Technology   olenkalevenets@gmail.com  Photo Credit RawPixel Executive Summary Ukraine is undergoing the first major attempt to reform the system since gaining independence 27 years ago. International experience on the implementation of similar reforms, as well as Ukraine’s historical background and country’s specifics, point to several potential bottlenecks. The major ones…

By Maia Machavariani, Dublin City University mako.machavariani@gmail.com    Executive summary:    On October 28th, 2018 Georgia held its seventh presidential elections since its independence in 1990. Despite a quite hostile electoral campaign and more than 25 registered candidates, neither of the front-runners was able to win enough votes to secure victory in the first round. Thus…

By Elham Gharji, University of Coimbra. Summary Russia’s role in the international politics of the post-Soviet states encompassing the wider Caspian region of Central Asia and the Caucasus, has been subject of scrutiny ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The central puzzle concerns Russia’s continuous primacy over other regional and external actors in the region.…

By Sofya du Boulay – Omarova, Oxford Brookes University   Debating Authoritarianism(s) The number of electoral democracies in the world increased dramatically from 76 to 120 in the period between 1990 and 2000, also famously known as the ‘third wave of democratization’ (Stacher, 2012: 28). However, those political transitions only sometimes led to stable democracies. One of…

By Maira Zeinilova, PhD researcher, Dublin City University   Introduction This policy brief advances an earlier discussion concerning how main stakeholders promote women’s participation in institutional politics in Central Asia. Specifically, it focuses on the measures undertaken by the state institutions aimed at ensuring women’s greater representation and participation in political offices in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan…

  By Shairbek Dzhuraev, University of St Andrews   Executive Summary The recently unveiled vision of the European Union on Asia proposed connectivity as the heart of the relationship. This novel concept is set to become relevant for the EU’s relations with Central Asia as well, given the latter’s location between Europe and Asia. As a form…