Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's just-concluded eight-day Eurasia trip, encompassing Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, and Russia, from November 2 to 9 is highly significant in enhancing Chinese economic diplomacy on the international stage. Li's trip gives a strong signal to the rest of the world that China is ready to play a leading role in regional and international affairs. 

This series of events will draw international attention to the small, landlocked nation of 5.72 million. The World Nomad Games, in particular, will draw the kind of benign soft power attention most countries relish. The attention is much desired, especially when it comes with a potential boost to tourism in one of the region’s poorest states.

What do these three recent events tell us about Russian foreign policy? Putin is able to think strategically, using all hard and soft power tools to promote Russian foreign policy interests. To the average Western observer, Russia's recent actions in the Caspian, Iran or its CSTO military exercise are viewed as three different and unrelated things. 

Ambassadors or their spouses from 28 countries have each read a book from their country to Korean children for about 30 minutes at the gallery's seminar room. [...] "Ambassadors or their spouses read out a book in their language so children learn about the language of each country..." 

China’s “One Belt One Road” initiative clearly reads as an audacious vision for transforming the political and economic landscapes of Eurasia and Africa over the coming decades via a network of infrastructure partnerships across the energy, telecommunications, logistics, law, IT, and transportation sectors. 

On June 10 and 11, Kazakhstan hosted the Fifth Congress of World Religions.

A specter is haunting Washington, an unnerving vision of a Sino-Russian alliance wedded to an expansive symbiosis of trade and commerce across much of the Eurasian land mass — at the expense of the United States. And no wonder Washington is anxious. That alliance is already a done deal in a variety of ways: through the BRICS group of emerging powers (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa); at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Asian counterweight to NATO; inside the G20; and via the 120-member-nationNon-Aligned Movement (NAM).

The United States has two distinct approaches to human rights violations in the countries of the former Soviet Union. When it is in Washington's perceived strategic interest, the U.S. government normally remains quiet. When its strategic interests are not at stake, U.S. officials speak forcefully and work to expose human rights violations and corruption.