Baku Dialogues Vol.5 | No.2 | Winter 2021-2022

Abstract

The first issue of Baku Dialogues was released in Fall 2014 and was published semi regularly in the years that followed. The present issue, published in Fall 2020, marks the relaunch of Baku Dialogues, ADA University’s flagship English-language quarterly journal. Henceforth, the publication’s subtitle is Policy Perspectives on the Silk Road Region. This choice reflects a triple intention. First, to cover broadly topics of geopolitical relevance to the overlapping set of regions to which Azerbaijan and its neighbors belong. We thus define the Silk Road region loosely as the geographic space looking west past Anatolia to the warm seas beyond; north across the Caspian towards the Great Plain and the Great Steppe; east to the peaks of the Altai and the arid sands of the Taklamakan; and south towards the Hindu Kush and the Indus valley, looping down around in the direction of the Persian Gulf and across the Fertile Crescent. Second, to focus on contemporary cross-cutting issues that impact on the international position of what we view as one of the few keystone regions of global affairs, ranging from energy politics and infrastructure security to economic development and cultural heritage. Third, the choice of subtitle is indicative of our deep-seated conviction that the comprehensive rejuvenation of a vast region that stood for centuries at the fulcrum of trade, innovation, and refinement requires both a healthy respect of frontiers as sovereign markers of territorial integrity and a farsighted predisposition to ensure the region can continue to grow as a strategic center of attraction for capital, goods, talent, and technologies. The editorial premise of Baku Dialogues is that the Silk Road region is and will remain an important seam of international relations, continuing to serve as (i) a significant political and economic crossroads between various geographies; (ii) an important intercessor between major powers; and (iii) an unavoidable gateway between different blocks of states, regional associations, and civilizational groupings. The intended audience of Baku Dialogues is diverse: national, regional, and international policymakers, diplomats, officials, legislators, commentators, thought leaders, journalists, business executives, think-tankers, academics, scholars, and students—all those who in one way or another pay attention to issues of consequence affecting the trajectory of this part of the world. As has been the case throughout its publication history, Baku Dialogues is and will remain an independent policy journal. The content of each issue of the journal (e.g. essays, interviews, profiles, etc.) thus does not represent any institutional viewpoint. The analyses provided and viewpoints expressed by the authors featured in Baku Dialogues do not necessarily reflect those of its publisher, editors, consultants, Editorial Advisory Council members, and anyone else affiliated with ADA University or Baku Dialogues. Our sole acceptance of responsibility is the provision of a forum dedicated to intellectual discussion and debate.