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Articles by Gavin Helf
Back to the Future? Kazakhstan’s Nuclear Choice
Although Kazakhstan denuclearized over three decades ago when it split from the Soviet Union, the Central Asian nation held a referendum on October 6 over whether it should build a nuclear power plant. With 73% voting yes, the referendum could reverberate beyond Kazakhstan and the Central Asia region. Safe nuclear power would be a boon for Kazakhstan, decreasing its reliance on fossil fuels while increasing economic resilience and helping it to address its immense climate change challenges.
Moscow Concert Hall Attack Will Have Far-Reaching Impact
USIP experts Mary Glantz, Gavin Helf, Asfandyar Mir and Andrew Watkins examine ISIS’ motivations to strike Russia, the Central Asian angle to the attacks, the impact of these attacks on the Taliban and implications for U.S. interests. Mir: ISIS-K hasn’t explicitly accepted responsibility for the attack as yet — only ISIS core in the Middle East has, without indicating which regional branch carried out the attack.
China Looks to Fill a Void in Central Asia
What this means for the United States is unclear, but what is certain is that Washington will have to ratchet up its own engagement in the region if it stands a chance to compete with China in its own backyard. For their part, Central Asian states do not want to be stuck in the middle of great power competition, but to balance relations with China, Russia and the United States.
Central Asia Prepares for Taliban Takeover
By Gavin Helf, Ph.D. and Barmak Pazhwak As U.S. and NATO forces drew down their military presence in Afghanistan this Summer, the country’s northern neighbors witnessed Taliban fighters swiftly overrun most of the rural parts of northern Afghanistan, establishing control over nearly all of the 1,500-mile border between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
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