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The purpose of this paper is to look to new opportunities that may be available to the nations comprising Central Asia. The region has recovered only slowly since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Based on secondary data from reports by the UN, ADB and other NGOs, academic papers and the press, a quasi‐mathematical equation is used to illustrate how infrastructure development is dependant on many factors. From this analysis the importance of the transportation sector for future growth is discerned. Historical detractors are noted and drivers for the future are discussed.

The paper finds that Central Asia's future growth and prosperity would be based on a robust redevelopment of all its infrastructures but primarily on the implementation of Maglev high speed rail systems to move freight quickly internally and for Eurasian transit.

Well‐integrated transport infrastructures enhance local wellbeing. The interconnectedness and interdependence of globalised economies depend on transport, but other aspects of the total infrastructure local and regional must be integrated to achieve growth. In the case of Central Asia it is seen that an accord between the Presidents is needed to ensure regional cooperation, which will lead to Eurasian cooperation.

The region has been forgotten, to some extent, by the global community, yet it has great potential to become again an important transportation hub between Europe and Asia. The value of the paper is in noting the push of many NGOs towards regional integration, which may be best approached, we suggest, from an initial investment in its transportation infrastructure.

Iran’s potential to expand its natural gas exports has received a great deal of attention since Hassan Rouhani’s election in 2013. Rouhani’s presidency centered around adopting a foreign policy approach to actively promote a constructive engagement and dialogue with the West, as well as seriously pursuing diplomatic and prudent interactions with Iran’s immediate neighbors and beyond on an equal footing with a view toward advancing mutual accommodation, respect, and shared interests. This chapter’s central argument is that Iran’s ability to export natural gas to Europe depends largely upon maintaining stable and strong trade ties with Turkey. The cooperation between these two countries, despite competition and occasional frictions, could arguably foster a balance of power at middle-power level countries that will be necessary for an enduring stability in the region.

This study employs Stein Rokkan's methodological approach to analyse state formation in the Greater Middle East. It develops a conceptual framework distinguishing colonial, populist and democratic pacts, suitable for analysis of state formation and nation-building through to the present period. The framework relies on historical institutionalism. The methodology, however, is Rokkan's. The initial conceptual analysis also specifies differences between European and the Middle Eastern state formation processes. It is followed by a brief and selective discussion of historical preconditions. Next, the method of plotting singular cases into conceptual-typological maps is applied to 20 cases in the Greater Middle East (including Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey). For reasons of space, the empirical analysis is limited to the colonial period (1870s to the end of World War 1). Three typologies are combined into one conceptual-typological map of this period. The vertical left-hand axis provides a composite typology that clarifies cultural-territorial preconditions. The horizontal axis specifies transformations of the region's agrarian class structures since the mid-19th century reforms. The right-hand vertical axis provides a four-layered typology of processes of external intervention. A final section presents selected comparative case reconstructions. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first time such a Rokkan-style conceptual-typological map has been constructed for a non-European region.

For centuries, Turkey has been the nexus of trade and enterprise in Southeastern Europe. Located between the continents of Europe and Asia, Turkey remains the historical portal of the Eastern and Western worlds. Although rooted in an entrepreneurial spirit, the antiquated trade laws in Turkey hindered the sprawling nation’s ability to trade with others. In the late 1980s however, Turkey liberalized its economic legislation, thus enabling the private sector to take the lead in generating growth and employment. This paper examines the evolving Turkish economy through the vehicles of history, the banking system, foreign investments, government apparatuses, and domestic markets and trade policy. Moreover, this paper identifies strategies and market sectors for potential investors. Finally, this paper offers a counterpoint which notes several possible and current economic pitfalls which have and may continue to handicap Turkey in the global marketplace.

As the number of international students increases globally, non-traditional destinations have emerged in the global higher education arena, despite the long-lasting dominance of traditional destinations, such as the United States, the UK, Australia, France, or Germany. In search of the causes of the change in the number of international students favoring non-traditional destinations, this study focuses on the Turkish case and identifies the macro-level efforts to increase the enrollment of international students in Turkish higher education institutions by utilizing the theory of new institutionalism and theories regarding the college choices of international students. As an upper-middle-income, developing country and an emerging non-traditional destination, constituting a regional hub for international students in the last decade at the crossroads of Africa, Asia, and Europe, the case of Turkey would give unique examples of macro-level strategies for increasing the enrollment of international students in other higher education systems.