By adopting ‘The EU and Central Asia: Strategy for a New Partnership’ in 2007, the European Union (EU) was supposed to implement a comprehensive strategy for Central Asia. Although the framework of the Strategy was broad in content, energy and transport links have been the outstanding priorities regarding EU strategic interests, namely, security and stability. The aim of this paper is to review and analyze EU’s engagement with the region by examining, the content of the EU strategy, especially the focus on energy. The analysis shows that although the EU presents a comprehensive strategy aiming at cooperation with a balanced bilateral and regional approach in several areas, there are problems with implementation because of its late entry into the region. Moreover, the focus on energy corresponds to neglect in other areas. This suggests that the EU strategy is designed to serve EU interests more than those of Central Asian states.

Modern geopolitical challenges require the Kyrgyz Republic to concentrate on regional integration in its economic and political development. By the end of the 1990’s, the Kyrgyz Republic realized the need to adjust its development strategy in favor of regionalization, aiming at a partial recovery of economic and political ties that existed in Soviet times. In December 2014, the countries of Eurasian Economic Union (Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, and Belarus) approved the road map on accession of the Kyrgyz Republic, and between April-July 2015 parliaments of member countries ratified accession of the Kyrgyz Republic. This paper examines one of the most pressing questions for the Kyrgyz Republic: how will accession to the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) impact economic and political development in the Kyrgyz Republic? We consider some of the main issues surrounding accession to the EEU by noting some historical parallels with the analysis in H. Spruyt’s (1994) influential work, The Sovereign State and Its Competitors: An Analysis of Systems Change. We argue that accession of the Kyrgyz Republic to the EEU is positive from a current economic standpoint. However, since there are also political risks along with potential long-term economic risks, we argue for a cautious yet balanced position.

Perennial questions about religious freedom and democracy include, ‘what are the moral limits to religious freedom?’ and ‘what does respect for religious freedom require?’ In this paper I examine some aspects of these questions and consider some examples from the context of Central Asia. My aim is to highlight the relevance of some basic elements of political morality to any democratic state. There are a variety of forms of state religion policy that are consistent with democracy. Moreover, if we try to apply liberal political values in the Central Asian context there are interesting and difficult challenges. I consider some of these challenges by briefly discussing religious freedom in the Kyrgyz Republic.

In the short space of one year, from July 1989 to May 1990, all five Central Asian republics passed legislation making the national languages state languages and Russian the language of inter-ethnic communication. This was preceded in the Soviet period by frequent discussions and complaints in the republican press over the deplorable state of the national languages – one of the few politically acceptable expressions of national self-identity at that time. This paper will examine the significance of language legislation to the nation-building process in Central Asia as an important factor in the moves of these republics towards sovereignty and finally independence from the center and in asserting national awareness among the people.

This paper is devoted to the news coverage of the Crimean crisis by the Kyrgyz mass media. Nearly all Kyrgyz mass media, including popular internet news sources, covered the annexation of the Crimean peninsula by the Russian Federation. However, despite facts that provide evidence that an annexation took place some Kyrgyz news institutions and the majority of Kyrgyz citizens did not call the event an annexation; instead, citizens and media typically used more ‘neutral’ words to describe this event. Data for this paper is based on a frame analysis of two popular Kyrgyz internet news sources, Akipress and Vecherniy Bishkek. The aim of this analysis is to identify the ideological orientation of mass media presentations of the Crimean crisis. Some Kyrgyz media have a pro-Russia ideological orientation. Data on Kyrgyz public opinion is based on responses to a questionnaire.