Telling the story of CAPS Unlock

Experts from across Central Asia gather at CAPS Unlock to exchange ideas and address the region's most pressing challenges.

 

So, what exactly is CAPS Unlock?

Let’s get the name out of the way first. People always ask about that.

CAPS stands for Central Asia Policy Studies.

“Unlock” takes a little more explaining.

One popular little factoid about Central Asia – a region that, for our purposes, comprises Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – is that it is landlocked. That means we have no direct outlet to any of the world’s oceans. Uzbekistan, in fact, can boast the rare accolade of being one of only two countries to be double-landlocked. (The other one is Liechtenstein).

The landlocked paradigm casts Central Asia into the role of a space hemmed in by geography. Vast steppes and mountains constrain our access to global markets.

And there is a political dimension to this too. We live in a challenging neighborhood. Russia to the north, Afghanistan to the south. Other directly bordering nations are China and Iran. Those are countries with which we enjoy dynamic and often (but far from always) mutually advantageous ties, but some of them in turn have frequently fraught relationships with the rest of the world.

The task we set ourselves, therefore, is to think about and explore ways Central Asia can unlock its potential and overcome the obstacles thrown in its way by geography, bureaucracy, and even history.
In short, everything we do is aimed at conducting applied research that can influence policymaking and governance decisions to improve people’s lives. In doing this, we focus our energies on four core areas:
Regional and international relations: We analyze how Central Asia interacts with other parts of the world, be it China, Russia, the European Union, the United States, or the Gulf States. Our goal is to understand how these relationships can better support the social development of the region and foster stronger cooperation among neighboring countries.

Climate change: Central Asia is one of the regions of the world at most risk of falling prey to the negative fallout of climate change. We believe introducing compulsory climate education in schools across the region can help change the future. An informed generation that understands how interconnected everything is can drive positive change.

Socio-economic inequality: We study the challenges of social and economic inequality, as well as how Central Asian governments are responding. This work focuses on producing recommendations to reduce inequality and using approaches tailored to the region.

Digital development and AI governance: Central Asia has a high rate of internet penetration. Public life is fully in the throes of rapid digitalization. But these developments raise complex legal, ethical, and regulatory questions. We aim to contribute to the region’s technological advancement by exploring these challenges.

There is another dimension to what we are doing here.

Ditching cliches

Our objective is not just to unlock, but also to unblock. To rewrite tired, inaccurate and yet stubborn narratives.

Despite its ancient history as part of the Silk Road, Central Asia remains little understood. There is limited knowledge about what is happening in the region, what debates are taking place, what problems people face, and what opportunities they see. The region remains poorly connected to the outside world – and even within itself.

That’s why we see our role as helping build an expert community within the region, one that produces and shares knowledge both about and from Central Asia.

We must be candid about the challenges, however. Civil society actors and scholars alike are living through some especially difficult times. It is imperative that now more than ever, we build strength through networks.

That is why serving as a platform for the exchange of knowledge, organizing discussions, bridging communities across countries and generations lies at the heart of our mission. To do this, we seek and provide funding to regional experts, so that their voices can be heard. We support local research, host public events, invite global experts to the region, translate their work into local languages, and make regional expertise available to international audiences.

Our story

So what’s our story?

Our organization is new, but not entirely new.

CAPS Unlock emerged from what used to be Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan. Up until 2023, the foundation played a vibrant role in helping nourish the civil society of Kazakhstan into a meaningful and constructive force in the country’s public life.

When the Open Society Foundations underwent major restructuring, we faced a choice: close down or reinvent ourselves. We chose the latter, because times change, and we must adapt to new needs.
When George Soros launched his foundations in the late 1980s and early 1990s across the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, he made clear they were created for a limited time, with the explicit goal of supporting the development of strong civil societies. Once those societies could stand on their own, the foundations would step away.

That’s why, by the early 2010s, Open Society stopped funding operations in much of Eastern and Central Europe. Today, many successor foundations have risen out of the ashes of those operations and continue their work as independent actors in their countries, playing vital roles in their democratic development.

This became a source of inspiration for us.

Moving forward, we strive to reflect the full spectrum of Central Asia, to emulate the intricate patterns of a traditional carpet, rich in colour, texture, and meaning. Each thread tells a story, and no two are alike. Yet woven together, they form something strong, resilient, and unmistakably Central Asian.