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Eurasian Security & Prosperity
Eurasia is the planet’s single largest landmass, containing the bulk of human connectivity and resources. Though this continental region is separated from the United States by oceans, it represents the focal point of American foreign policy interests. What makes Eurasia even more significant for Washington is that it is geospatially sandwiched between two principal U.S. adversaries, China and Russia. The Eurasian supercontinent is also where other emergent powers such as India, Turkey, Iran, & Japan are projecting influence.
Guided by the values-driven mission and vision of New Lines, the Eurasian Security & Prosperity portfolio helps our nation’s decisionmakers craft policies that will enable the United States advance human connectivity across Eurasia and beyond. The portfolio seeks to accomplish this endeavor through a strategic study of the major foreign policy challenges emanating from this broad region.
The Eurasian Security and Prosperity portfolio is directed by Dr. Kamran Bokhari.
Eurasian Security & Prosperity Initiatives
Countering China: The Missing Eurasian Dimension
The U.S. lately has focused on the Indo-Pacific basins to counter China at sea, but Beijing is a long way from being a maritime power, and its investments in the Belt and Road Initiative show its growing influence over land. Beijing is eyeing the waning influence of Russia as an opportunity to expand its influence in Eurasia, particularly Central Asia. This project seeks to give the U.S. tools to position itself to counter China’s westward march in Eurasia and offer concrete recommendations on how Washington can help build resilience of Central Asian states so they can resist the Chinese ingress.
Managing Regime Evolution in Iran
The evolutionary regime-change process that has been underway in Iran for the past several years is intensifying under the weight of internal and external pressures. It is highly likely that the IRGC-led military/security establishment will supplant the clergy as the dominant power center once current supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leaves power, with serious implications for stability in the country and in its strategic environs. This project examines how Iran will behave in the fast-approaching post-Khamenei era and how the United States can manage the country and the region.
India: A Rising Geoeconomic Player with Political Problems
Having emerged as the world's fifth-largest economy India is well on its way to projecting influence around the world – though there are considerable domestic political and economic indicators that serve as significant arrestors in the path of New Delhi. The South Asian power seeks to be a key ally of the United States while simultaneously maintaining geopolitical distance from Washington. On the domestic front, India is moving toward an illiberal, majoritarian democracy. The policy space is filled with skewed assessments on the extent to which the right-wing religious nationalism of India’s ruling party will impact the state. This project provides nuanced analysis and forecasts and offers recommendations on for the U.S. to optimize this critical relationship.
Trans-Caspian Energy and Trade Corridor
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has underscored the need to reduce dependency on Russia for energy resources. Russia has long been the main source of oil and gas for Europe, and Moscow has made sure that all energy traverses through its territory. The Kremlin’s weakening, exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine, is an opportunity to establish a connective channel linking Central Asia and the South Caucasus region to Turkey and then on to Europe. This project seeks to understand the geopolitical arrestors in the path of the development of this corridor and identify what the United States and its allies and partners can do to realize it.
Eurasian Security & Prosperity Latest
Submissions
The New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy publishes work that combines geopolitical insight with subject-matter expertise. New Lines Institute publications examine tactical developments involving regimes, nonstate actors, local politics, ideologies, etc. Our work situates them in the strategic context of macro-level factors such as geography, populations, economics, military power, history, and culture. All our content must demonstrate analytical empathy and is geared toward advancing the cause of human security and stabilization and development on our planet. That said, we do not publish “op-ed” pieces, polemical content, or activist/advocacy work.
We welcome contributions from diverse experts with various sub-specialties to ensure that we consistently produce the highest-quality product. Our team firmly believes that expertise exists across the political spectrum and disciplinary fields; the key is to help our authors showcase it without indulging in partisan discussions. We expect our authors to focus on the how, why and (most importantly) the what next because our audience is already very familiar with the who, what, where, and when of the subjects we tackle.