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Reports, Roundtables and Articles
Project Director: Prof. Michael Rywkin
The National Committee on American Foreign Policy’s Central Asia/Caspian Sea Basin Region Project is dedicated to
- defining and promoting U.S. interests in and around the Caspian Sea Basin, taking into consideration the geopolitical reality and the sovereign interests of the states of the region, and
- creating a track II framework to facilitate dialogue and advance such interests.
Since its founding five years ago, the project has sent three fact-finding missions to Kazakhstan, organized a number of international track II conferences, published four brochures with policy recommendations to U.S. policymakers, and consulted a number of times with U.S. policymakers in Washington, D.C. On one occasion the project organized a conference-- “Security and Stability in Central Asia”—on behalf of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National Security Series. Most recently the project cohosted with the Brookings Institution Energy Security Initiative an international conference in Washington, D.C.—“Strategic Assessment of the Caspian Sea Basin Region”—devoted to the geopolitical environment, pipeline security of the Caspian Sea Basin Region, and energy security for the United States and the European Union.
The specific objectives of the most recent conference were to (1) engage officials from and experts on Central Asia/Caspian Sea Basin Region countries—Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan—in a constructive track II geopolitical dialogue with officials and experts from the United States and the European Union about improved track I dialogue in the future, (2) focus on geostrategic developments in the region and energy security in particular in light of recent Russian actions, and (3) produce a report with policy recommendations for the new U.S. administration.
The project’s future work will continue to facilitate mutual understanding between the United States and the post-Soviet independent states of the region by providing a forum for open but confidential discussions of points of interests and contention that will benefit from being aired and considered in a track II forum prior to official state-level discussions.
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