China-Central Asia Regionalization and Its Impact on the Central Asian Region and Beyond

The article considers external security challenges in the Central Asian region (CAR), the causes of interstate instability and the emergence of regional conflicts. This study was conducted within the framework of the theory of conflict. The main conflict-causing foreign policy factors in the CAR are: the presence of hotbeds of military conflicts near the countries of the region; the threat of the spread of instability in the countries of the region and the likelihood of armed provocations; the activities of international terrorist and radical organizations and groups, the strengthening of the positions of religious extremism in neighboring countries near the borders of the CAR countries; the strengthening of China's economic role and its penetration into the CAR, the growing dependence of the countries of the region on the PRC; the penetration of extra-regional, Western actors into the CAR; conflicting interethnic and interstate contradictions and territorial-border disputes. The problems of cross-border interaction and the general use of water and energy resources in the CAR are considered. The reasons for the emergence of interstate conflict situations are indicated. These are the shortage of water and energy resources; territorial and border disputes with neighbors and the claims of some states to regional leadership; unresolved territorial claims, accumulated territorial disputes between the CAR states with insufficient validity of borders. Various approaches to solving the problem of water scarcity in the CAR are analyzed. Conclusions and forecasts of developments regarding the development of Eurasian integration and ensuring Russia's national interests in the CAR are given. It is concluded that the current and prospective situation in the CAR is based on integration and conflict scenarios. These two categories make up a dialectical pair, with the help of which it is possible to understand and describe the processes in the CAR, and throughout the post-Soviet space. Probabilistic scenarios of the development of integration processes in the Central Asian countries for the medium and long term are proposed.

Introduction. Currently the notion of the “soft power” is perceived as an effective way of nation’s non-forcible influence on other countries with a view to implement one’s own objectives. Suchlike implementation is confined to particular spheres to form a positive image of the nation. Higher education today is one of the most efficient instruments of the “soft power” implementation in the countries of Central Asia, for it allows securing friendly political and economic elite as well as enhancing the quality of labour migrants to the Russian Federation. The aim of the research is to analyze particular features of the “soft power” implementation in the domain of higher education in case with the region of Central Asia on the example of Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov (the city of Arkhangelsk, Russia, henceforth NArFU). Methods and materials. The study is based on systematic and comparative approaches to the analysis of the Russian “soft power” strategy in the domain of higher education. The study in hand also draws on general approaches to the “soft power” implementation in the region of Central Asia. The main sources for the analysis are annual reports on implementing the NArFU programme of development. These reports pay a great deal of attention to academic recruiting and academic mobility. Analysis. The Central Asia region is crucial from the view point of Russia’s interests. The region is rich in hydrocarbon deposits, it boasts a great transit potential in international trade, and this is the region where the biggest number of migrants come from to Russia. For these reasons Russia is strengthening its “soft power” influence on Central Asian countries in general and in the sphere of higher education in particular. From the very day of the NArFU foundation in 2010, the region of Central Asia has been considered as a high-priority region. The example of NArFU demonstrates that the number of international students in the total number of full-cycle students has risen by 8.4 times, wherein the growth is secured mainly by students from Central Asian countries. Central Asian students’ percentage of the total number of international students is 82–89.3%. The percentage of students from the region in question, doing short-term educational programmes is also high – 49.5–61.4%. Diverse mechanisms are exploited to attract would-be students to NArFU: agreements with educational establishments of the region; visits of NArFU’s representatives (both lecturers and students) to the region; NArFU’s participation in international exhibitions on education; presenting NArFU’s educational programmes on the basis of “Rossotrudnichestvo” regional offices; inviting school graduates to study within the quota for fellow-countrymen residing abroad; arranging off-site university testing and multi-disciplinary intellectual contests; higher educational allowances and medical insurance compensation; active promotion with the help of social media. The international Friendship Club and the team of tutors were set up to ensure better social and cultural adaptation, regular events and excursions take place on the same purpose. Results. Despite the fact that there is no general state-level integral concept on attracting school graduates from the countries of Central Asia to the universities of Russia, NArFU managed to occupy the niche on the educational market of the region. University’s administration has been pursuing a clear course towards attracting would-be students from Central Asia, exploiting a wide range of mechanisms to enhance academic recruiting, relying upon the advantages of Arkhangelsk region in the sphere of migrants’ adaptation. Over the recent ten years the factors mentioned above have brought about more than eight times growth of students from the region of Central Asia in NArFU.

<p>The 'Aralkum' desert (the former Aral Sea) in Central Asia is a comparatively new desert that has formed over the past several decades due to water mismanagement associated with the inflowing Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, and is now a known source of dust aerosol in the region. It is known that recently dry lakebeds can be efficient dust sources, due to the availability of readily erodible alluvial sediments. As a dry lakebed with a new area of over 60,000 km<sup>2</sup> exposed to aeolian wind erosion the Aralkum has become a significant driver of dust storms in the region. Other such lakebed dust sources in the Central Asian region include the Sistan Basin on the border between Afghanistan and Iran, and Lake Urmia in Iran. However due to a paucity of measurement sites it is difficult to quantify the behaviour and consequences of dust activity in the region.</p><p>Using the dust transport model COSMO-MUSCAT we simulate dust emissions over the course of one year from these relatively new dust sources, exploring the resultant dust emission and transport patterns, quantifying the radiative effects of this dust, and assessing the viability of measuring such dust using remote sensing techniques. Making use of the Global Surface Water dataset (produced by the Copernicus Programme) in order to define the surface water coverage in various epochs, we make estimates of dust emissions for the Central Asian and Middle Eastern region under three scenarios: 1) the 'Past', representative of water coverage in the 1980s; 2) the 'Present', representative of water coverage in the 2010s; and 3) the 'Aralkum' scenario, representing only dust emissions from the present-era Aralkum. In the Present scenario we estimate that the Aralkum area (here considered as 43-47°N, 58-62°E) emitted 28 Tg of dust over the course of a year from March 2015 to March 2016, out of 272 Tg produced by the wider Middle Eastern and Central Asian region. However ~66% of these Aralkum emissions occurred when the cloud cover was > 95%, raising questions as to the extent to which dust storm activity from the Aralkum is measurable. Modelling is therefore a particularly useful tool, complementary to remote sensing measurements, to understand dust activity in a region characterised by dramatic human-induced changes to the natural environment.</p>

Cloud–radiation processes play an important role in regional energy budgets and surface temperature changes over arid regions. Cloud radiative effects (CREs) are used to quantitatively measure the aforementioned climatic role. This study investigates the characteristics of CREs and their temporal variations over three arid regions in central Asia (CA), East Asia (EA), and North America (NA), based on recent satellite datasets. Our results show that the annual mean shortwave (SW) and net CREs (SWCRE and NCRE) over the three arid regions are weaker than those in the same latitudinal zone of the Northern Hemisphere. In most cold months (November–March), the longwave (LW) CRE is stronger than the SWCRE over the three arid regions, leading to a positive NCRE and radiative warming in the regional atmosphere–land surface system. The cold-season mean NCRE at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) averaged over EA is 4.1 W m–2, with a positive NCRE from November to March, and the intensity and duration of the positive NCRE is larger than that over CA and NA. The CREs over the arid regions of EA exhibit remarkable annual cycles due to the influence of the monsoon in the south. The TOA LWCRE over arid regions is closely related to the high-cloud fraction, and the SWCRE relates well to the total cloud fraction. In addition, the relationship between the SWCRE and the low-cloud fraction is good over NA because of the considerable occurrence of low cloud. Further results show that the interannual variation of TOA CREs is small over the arid regions of CA and EA, but their surface LWCREs show certain decreasing trends that correspond well to their decreasing total cloud fraction. It is suggested that combined studies of more observational cloud properties and meteorological elements are needed for in-depth understanding of cloud–radiation processes over arid regions of the Northern Hemisphere.

An overview of the CCMS Pilot Study on Environmental Decision-Making for Sustainable Development in Central is presented. This CCMS pilot study is focused on the following countries of the Central Asia (CA) region: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The presentation discusses the pilot study objectives, historical information concerning establishment of this pilot study, technical issues addressed, and overall approach focused on capacity building, as based on declared Central Asian needs for education; training; and technical assistance (involving decision-making tools such as risk assessment, cost-benefit analysis, landscape science tools, decision support software, structural/functional analysis, etc.). As a key accomplishment of this pilot study, the role of risk assessment in environmental decision-making process was addressed. This component of the pilot study was focused on risk assessment as a tool for water resources management decision-making in Central Asia. Water resources, both in terms of water quality and water quantity, are of critical importance for sustainable development in Central Asia, as well as in other parts of the world. Risk-based approaches can play an important role as part of the overall decision-making process related to sustainable resources use in the Central Asia region.

Recently, noteworthy progress has been made in the transition to gender equality, and the actions of several governments worldwide have been described as steps towards finding positive solutions to this issue. Ensuring gender equality is crucial in achieving sustainable development and effective economic growth at both the national and regional levels. Various articles on gender studies in the Central Asian (CA) region were retrieved using Scopus, one of the most popular databases. VOSviewer Version 1.6.20 was employed to analyse different metrics such as co-citation networks, co-occurrences, and author keywords. A total of 132 articles were extracted from the Scopus database and analysed through five bibliometric analysis units: evolution of scientific production, analysis of authors, analysis of sources/journals, analysis of countries and institutions, and analysis of author keywords. The main findings of this study can be summarised in the following three key points: (i) The scientific output of articles addressing gender issues in the societies of CA countries remains insufficient, and the commitment to achieving gender equality does not align with international and regional interests; (ii) Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan are recognised as countries that devote considerable attention to scientific research related to gender in the CA region. In contrast, Turkmenistan is identified as a country that does not engage in gender research at the international level, primarily due to a lack of materials in the Scopus database; (iii) Overall, it can be concluded that the implementation of gender equality in the Central Asian region still lacks substantial support from the state, as research related to gender issues in this area has predominantly been conducted and supported by democratic and well-developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

Sustainable supply of energy and access to water are among the major issues facing the Central Asian and South Asian countries due to climate change. There is a need of an environmental friendly and cost-effective energy production technology to achieve reasonable energy production without affecting climate by release of any kind of greenhouse gases. This renewable and sustainable source of energy can be provided by floating photovoltaic systems/technology (FPVS) which also helps in achieving sustainable supply of clean water. This chapter discusses the working of Floating Photovoltaic (FPV) technology and its technical, economic and ecological feasibility over the land-based PV systems. It also discusses the prospects of implementing this technology in Central Asian, South Asian and South East Asian region by providing the case studies of already implemented systems in different parts of the world. The implementation of FPVS in Indus Basin, Kabul River Basin and water resources in Central Asian Countries, South Asian and South East Asian Countries can prove to be greatly effective by controlling huge amount of evaporation and precipitation and can prevent climate change in this region at bigger scale.KeywordsRenewable energyFloating photovoltaic systemsFeasibilityCentral AsiaSouth Asia

Cost-Effectiveness of Cervical Cancer Prevention in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Стратегия всеобщего йодирования соли стала мощным импульсом для стран Юго-Восточной Европы и Центральной Азии за период с 2000 по 2009 г. К концу первого десятилетия несколько стран региона уже достигли оптимального потребления йода; другие страны стремительно двигались к достижению той же цели и лишь в нескольких странах прогресс в сторону всеобщего йодирования соли оставался обнадеживающим. В данной статье приводятся данные субрегиональных семинаров (для стран Восточной Европы, Центральной Азии и Юго-Восточной Европы), проведенных в 2015 и 2016 гг. Оба семинара демонстрируют стремление стран регионов Юго-Восточной Европы и Центральной Азии к устойчивому устранению йодного дефицита. Несмотря на определенные недостатки, данные, полученные от стран региона, не предполагают каких-либо серьезных препятствий на пути к победе над йодным дефицитом. Тем не менее, России и Украине необходимо приложить больше усилий для развития и рационализации стратегии всеобщего йодирования соли, так как именно эти страны находятся в списке отстающих в данном вопросе.

Universal salt iodization (USI) strategies gained strong momentum in countries of the Southern Europe and Central Asia (SECA) region during the 2000–2009 decade. By the end of the first decade, several countries in the region had already reached the goal of optimum iodine nutrition; other countries were quickly approaching this goal, and in only a few countries the progress toward USI had remained slow. This paper reports an overview of the two Sub-Regional workshops (for countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia and South-Eastern Europe) conducted in 2015 and 2016. Both workshops demonstrate that the SECA region remains on track in the pursuit of USI for sustainable IDD elimination. Notwithstanding the noted imperfections, none of the data or information from countries of the region suggested that the conquest of iodine deficiency is seriously threatened. However, more efforts should be made to develop and streamline USI strategies in Russia and Ukraine, two major countries that are lagging behind.

Soybean mosaic virus (SMV) is one of the most serious viral pathogens, causing reductions in soybean yield worldwide. Using more than 350 time-stamped SMV coat protein encoding gene sequences from more than a dozen countries and regions in Central Asia, East Asia, North America, South America, and Western Europe, we investigated the phylodynamics of SMV to understand the origin and dispersal of the virus via Bayesian phylogeographic inference. Our analysis revealed that the most recent common SMV ancestor occurred in approximately 1511 (95% credibility interval, 1075-1848) Common Era, and the evolutionary rate of the coat protein gene was 3.751 × 10-4 substitutions/site/year (95% credibility interval, 2.694 × 10-4-4.879 × 10-4). Our results suggest that the SMV population may have originated in South Korea and that South Korea has been the major center for the dissemination of SMV. The virus first began to emigrate from Korea to China in the late 17th century, and it took more than 150 years to spread from South Korea to Japan. However, after the 20th century, SMV spread from South Korea to South America, North America, and Western Europe. Furthermore, our results suggest that the migration history of SMV may be related to important human historical events.IMPORTANCESoybean mosaic virus (SMV) is a pathogen that severely affects soybean production areas around the world and can cause up to an 86% reduction in soybean yield. This article provides a comprehensive reconstruction of the phylogeographic history of SMV. Our results revealed the geographic origin and migration history of SMV on a global scale and that the migration history of SMV is correlated with human factors. These results have important implications for the sustainable management of soybean production in the field.

At the beginning of the XXI century, the Central Asian region became one of the most important geopolitical centers of the modern world. Before starting to analyze the current position of the Central Asian States in the world political system, it is necessary to determine the geopolitical framework of this concept. The problem of regionalization of the “Central Asian region” phenomenon is still relevant. Increasing the importance of regions in the system of international relations in the twenty-FIRST century from the point of view of international security, positively increases the importance of the “Central Asia” region in Eurasia.The article analyzes the role of “ Central Asia “in the system of international relations based on the concepts of “Central Asia”,” post-Soviet Asia”,”Greater Central Asia”,”heartland”. The article analyses the importance of Central Asian region in the world political system. The Central Asian region has become one of the most important geopolitical centers of the modern world. The geopolitical role of the region is determined by its intercontinental significance for trade and other relations between the countries of Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The history of the region’s geopolitical development is analyzed as the main scientific method. In Central Asia, the political role of each participant in the region is analyzed based on the conceptual analysis of the data accumulated by reviewing the literature, a scientific analysis and the necessary conclusions are made.

ObjectivesThis scoping review aimed to map the literature on depression and anxiety among people living with HIV and key populations in the Eastern European and Central Asian (EECA) region. The review assessed the burden of these disorders, identified inconsistencies in measurement approaches and highlighted gaps to inform future research and policy efforts.DesignA scoping review was conducted using Arksey and O’Malley’s framework, involving a systematic search, screening and synthesis of published and grey literature in EECA Data sources: a comprehensive search was performed across five databases (CINAHL, PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science and PsycINFO) between July 2023 and February 2024. Additional sources were identified through Google Scholar and hand searches of reference lists from relevant research groups. Eligibility criteria: Original research articles published between January 2013 and July 2023, involving participants aged 16 years or older and reporting data from one or more EECA countries were included. Eligible studies were in English, Georgian or Russian. Excluded were reviews, editorials, treatment outcome studies, pooled data from other regions, conference materials and dissertations.Data extraction and synthesisData extraction was performed independently by team members using a Covidence template. Studies were categorised based on target populations, measurement approaches and reported prevalence of depression and anxiety. Narrative synthesis was conducted due to the heterogeneity of study designs and outcomes.ResultsOf 3514 articles identified, 58 met inclusion criteria. Depression prevalence ranged from 8.5% to 88.0% and anxiety from 3.0% to 74.0%. Depression was assessed using 15 different scales, while anxiety was measured with eight tools. Reported prevalence exceeded global estimates, highlighting the need for targeted interventions.ConclusionThe review highlights the burden of depression and anxiety in EECA, variability in measurement approaches and a lack of longitudinal and implementation research. Future efforts should standardise measurement tools, develop cohort studies and address implementation barriers to improve mental health and HIV outcomes in the region.

Middle childhood and adolescence are critical times for the growth, development, and establishment of healthy eating habits. The Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region has been through economic and nutrition transitions over the past 20 years, which are likely to have affected the nutritional status of this group. This review aimed to collate data on the nutritional status and dietary patterns of school-aged children (SAC) and adolescents (5-19 years) across the ECA region in order to inform policy and programming decisions. A systematic search of the literature in Pubmed, Cochrane, and ScienceDirect databases was conducted (April 2019), complemented by a systematic review of nationally representative surveys. Inclusion criteria were any data on micronutrient deficiencies, overweight, stunting, wasting, thinness, or dietary patterns in SAC and adolescents in the 21 UNICEF-defined countries of ECA, published since the year 2000. Results included 134 published papers and 6 sources of survey data. The majority of studies were conducted in Turkey (56%), with all other countries having fewer than 10 studies each; 8 countries in the region having no studies on this age group at all. The most significant nutrition issue was overweight and obesity. Micronutrient deficiencies, particularly anemia, emerge as a further challenge. Dietary patterns were worse in urban areas and boys. The findings of this review suggest that there are 3 critical areas that need immediate attention: the promotion of healthy diets and physical activity to address high levels of overweight/obesity, anemia prevention efforts, and addressing the considerable data gaps for SAC and adolescent nutrition.

This study examines the impact of international reserves on real exchange rate (RER) stability in the Europe and Central Asia (ECS) region, focusing on how financial development levels affect this relationship. Using panel threshold regression, the analysis reveals that international reserves significantly stabilize RER when reserves exceed 17.28 % of GDP, especially in countries with underdeveloped financial systems. The findings suggest that reserves play a more critical role in less developed financial markets, providing insights for policymakers on optimal reserve management and financial development strategies in emerging economies.