Defining certain foreign policies has been a topic of debate, discussion, contingency, analysis, and lots of writing. Think tanks approach these definition efforts from different lenses: historic, scholarly, functional, political, etc.

The Greater Caspian Region countries follow a foreign policy that was first labeled by Kazakhstan as multi-vector, which means to find a balance in its relations with Russia, China, the European Union, and the United States.

That said, due to today’s rapidly changing global geopolitical environment and COVID-19-induced economic and social disruptions, it becomes increasingly challenging to balance foreign relations with multiple partners that have diverging regional agendas.

On July 30, the Caspian Policy Center (CPC) will bring together leading research think tanks based in Washington and the Caspian to discuss the current geopolitical dynamics of the U.S. presence in the strategically-located Caspian region.

09:00 – 9:05   Welcome remarks by Efgan Nifti, Executive Director, Caspian Policy Center

09:05 – 10:25   Panel discussion and Q&A session moderated by Ambassador (ret.) Richard Hoagland, Board Member,  Caspian Policy Center

Panelists include:

• Ambassador (ret.) Farid Shafiyev, Chairman of the Center of Analysis of International Relations, Azerbaijan
• Ambassador (ret.) Giorgi Badridze, Senior Fellow at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (Rondeli Foundation), Georgia
• Iskander Akylbayev, Executive Director of the Kazakhstan Council on International Relations, Kazakhstan
• Eldor Tulyakov, Executive Director of the Development Strategy Center, Uzbekistan
• Brianne Todd, Assistant Professor of Central Asian Studies at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University, USA
• Victor Kipiani, Chair of the Geocase, Georgia
• Esmira Jafarova, Deputy Chairman of the Center of Analysis of International Relations, Azerbaijan

Note: The current list of panelists is tentative and will be updated upon confirmation of additional speakers’ participation.

10:25 – 10:30   Closing remarks