Billions of dollars from the oil industry is consolidating the power of authoritarian president Ilham Aliyev in Azerbaijan and endangering the cease-fire with Armenia. Tobias Asmuth reports
What role does Islam play in the Central Asian republics? What progress has been made in the democratization process and how does the EU fit into the picture? An interview with Reinhard Krumm, director of the Central Asian Office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation
In geopolitical terms, the Gulf region has increased in importance over the last few years. The decisive factor in that process has been the presence of large oil and gas reserves in the area as well as its ambivalent relationship with Iran. Christian Koch looks at the rise of the six monarchies which make up the Gulf Cooperation Council
In the wake of the recent Lebanon crisis, Muslim-Jewish relations have further deteriorated. In Germany, however, the Jewish-Turkish Ülkümen-Sarfati Society, is actively encouraging better relations between the two communities. Abdul-Ahmad Rashid reports
If Europe and the US had their way, the drugs from Afghanistan would end their journey to the west at the border with Tajikistan. But such a proposal requires more resources than such a desperately poor country can manage. Tobias Asmuth reports