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Abstract

Japan’s recent reaffirmation of nuclear energy represents a significant policy shift, particularly following the Fukushima Daiichi Accident in 2011, when the Japanese government announced a gradual reduction in its dependence on nuclear energy due to a loss of public trust. I employ the neoclassical realist framework and use rich data sources such as expert interviews, elite speeches, policy statements, government reports, and economic indicators, and explain Japan’s policy capacity for renewed commitment to nuclear energy. Deeply embedded institutional support, comprising formal guidelines, regulatory practices, and elite leadership, shapes nuclear policy continuity. Meanwhile, geopolitical developments such as energy supply chain risks from conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, emerging multilateral financing mechanisms, and global climate consensus on accelerating nuclear deployment set the timing for pursuing nuclear energy policy agendas in Japan. This paper is a timely, theoretically driven empirical contribution to public policy and international political economy, offering valuable insights for policy audiences on how geopolitical developments and the institutionalization of nuclear energy have revitalized policy capacity in Japan.

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The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has long been a central player in maintaining security and stability in Central Eurasia, particularly among former Soviet republics. However, the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict has tested the organization’s relevance and effectiveness in the current geopolitical climate. This paper seeks to examine the future of the CSTO in the post-Ukraine war context, focusing on its capacity to address regional security challenges and maintain influence in an era of shifting alliances. With Russia’s increasing isolation from the West and its strained relationships with neighboring countries, the CSTO’s role has come under scrutiny. By analyzing recent developments within the organization and the geopolitical realignments occurring within Central Eurasia, this paper explores whether the CSTO can remain a cohesive security structure or if regional powers will seek alternative security arrangements. Furthermore, the paper discusses the potential impact of Russia’s weakened influence on CSTO member states and how these nations may navigate new security dynamics.

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The US-Israeli war on Iran poses many theoretical and empirical questions related to alliances and balance theory in IR as well as the restructuring of regional power balance between the US and Russia in the minor Asia region encompassing the post-soviet republics. While this region has been subject to Russian and American competition for influence, the war on Iran paves the way toward tilting the power balance in favor of Russia, notably with the US shifts in foreign policy making and public opinion move away from a pro-Israeli US policy. Examining the context of the war, the factors influencing the US decision-making and the opportunity structures it opens for Iran and Russia in the region, this study reevaluates the traditional tenets of the power balance theory through the prism of the rising identity politics and structural transformations in US, Russia, and Iran foreign policies.

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Recent events demonstrate the alarming rise of radicalised Central Asian individuals involved in global terrorism, including the 2024 Crocus City Hall attack in Moscow, the 2017 New York truck attack and a series of lone-wolf incidents across Europe, the United States, and the Middle East. While terrorism was once dominated by actors from the Middle East, it has become increasingly internationalised, with Central Asia emerging as a significant source of recruitment. While scholarship has examined the regional drivers of radicalisation, less attention has been given to how educational disruption and state-led religious control shape these trajectories. Drawing on securitisation theory, this paper examines how the collapse of formal education and the securitisation of religious education in Uzbekistan have fostered ‘underground religious learning’. Far from being ad hoc, these networks appear popular among ‘uneducated’ or ‘undereducated’ youth and cultivate loyalty to insurgent movements, contributing to global manifestations of violence. Using the case of Uzbekistan, the study explores the interaction between state and non-state education, analysing how restrictive policies inadvertently legitimise underground religious education. Using qualitative methods, including discourse analysis, review of underground education cases and interviews from the region, the paper sheds light on the role of education in radicalisation and the implications for counterterrorism.

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The twenty-first-century transformation of Eurasian geopolitics has sparked renewed scholarly interest in regional institutions and their contributions to security management. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is one such organization, a multilateral cooperation platform in Central Eurasia. SCO was established in 2001 by China, Russia, and four Central Asian states and was originally used to build confidence and secure borders, but over time, it has adopted a more institutional approach to regional security, economic unity, and political stability. This paper will examine the role of the SCO in the re-engineering of Eurasian regionalism, focusing on changes in security cooperation mechanisms and institutional adjustments.

In the analysis, the SCO security architecture is given special consideration, with a focus on the institutional role of the Regional Anti-terrorism Structure (RATS), which coordinates intelligence sharing, counterterrorism activities, and joint operations among member states. RATS has also become a centre of fighting the so-called three evil forces, which are terrorism, separatism, and extremism, through reactionary databases, operational cooperation and shared counterterrorism exercises. With these efforts, it is evident that the organization has enshrined security collaboration in the region, which has been distressed by fragmented rules and competing geopolitical interests.

The SCO is also placed in the context of Eurasian regionalism and multipolarity in the paper. Nowadays, Eurasia has become a central figure in the development of global power relations, particularly following the conflict in Ukraine and the shift in the pace of relations among Russia, China, and Western countries. The present SCO summit declarations signal the organization’s wish to contribute to an equal and indivisible security architecture in Eurasia, with a normative perspective that questions the West’s approach to security and promotes the ideals of sovereignty and non-intervention.

This paper argues that SCO is a distinct type of regionalism due to its institutional development and security cooperation mechanisms, and will address contemporary geopolitical processes and mechanisms of security cooperation. The organization demonstrates the responses of regional institutions in Central Eurasia to the most complex geopolitical environment and the ways they may promote collaboration among states with diverse strategic priorities. Lastly, the study has also shed light on ongoing debates over regional politics and power relations by illuminating the SCO’s evolving role in shaping security processes and institutional order in Central Eurasia.

Keywords- Eurasian Regionalism, SCO, RATS, Multipolar, Three Evil Forces, Geopolitics