Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies–Estonia (GFSIS-E) launched a special series of analytical articles examining the evolving roles of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey in the development of the Middle Corridor. As one of the most promising transregional connectivity initiatives linking East Asia, Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and Europe, the Middle Corridor has acquired growing economic and geopolitical significance amid shifting patterns of global trade, intensifying great-power competition, and efforts to diversify transport and supply-chain networks.
The series seek to explore the opportunities and challenges that participating states face in leveraging the corridor’s economic and strategic potential. Contributors are assessing the implications of the Middle Corridor for their respective countries’ interests in trade, energy, transport infrastructure, logistics, industrial development, and regional integration. Particular attention may be devoted to issues such as infrastructure financing, regulatory harmonization, transit efficiency, logistical bottlenecks, and the corridor’s long-term competitiveness within the broader landscape of regional and interregional connectivity. Authors examine the extent to which the development of the Middle Corridor is shaped by the policies and strategic interests of major external actors, including Russia, China, the United States, and the European Union. Contributions further explore how states along the route seek to navigate geopolitical uncertainty, strengthen economic resilience, diversify external partnerships, enhance regional cooperation, and advance strategic autonomy in an increasingly fragmented international environment.
By bringing together expert perspectives from various countries, the project aims to provide a comprehensive and comparative assessment of the Middle Corridor’s future as both a critical trade and transport artery and a strategic geopolitical connector. The series will contribute to ongoing policy and academic debates on regional connectivity, economic integration, and the evolving geopolitical architecture linking Asia and Europe.
Read here the first article from the series entitled “The New Eurasian Logistics Order and the Strategic Reinvention of the South Caucasus” by Maka Daushvili