Because of the international strategic and economic dynamics in the last decades, the euro-Asian region has become one of the most crucial geopolitical areas of the current system of international relations. This is not a novelty, since already in the second half of the XIX century two great empire, the Russian and the British, in the famous Great Game argue over political and commercial supremacy on these vast and rich territories. Territories now doubly important: first for the extraordinary amount of natural resources available to them, and secondly for the position they occupy on the map of contemporary geopolitics, that is the crossroads of many of the most delicate dossier of the great foreign policy.Within what we define conventionally Eurasia, we must distinguish three areas:I. Russia (plus Belarus and Ukraine)II. Post-Soviet republics of the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia)III. Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kirgisia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan)Each of these areas has different characteristics and problems. The common factor is represented by the Russian factor: Russia is the core of the Eurasian space and the center of several regional organizations developed in it (Eurasian Union, Custom Union, ODKB et cetera). This region offers a number of opportunities for Western traders and economic operators in agriculture, logistics, new technologies, building industry, green-energy, fashion, design, artistic heritage and landscape. But every economic ambition shall be accompanied by an adequate knowledge of the political, social and cultural context. To this end, the Department of Political Science of the University of Pisa aims to activate for the autumn of 2014 a Winter School about the Eurasian Studies.

Course leader
Prof. Maurizio Vernassae-mail address: maurizio.vernassa@unipi.it

Fee info
EUR 250: .

University of Pisa
Address: Internationalization, Lungarno Pacinotti 43- Pisa
Postal code: 56126
City: Pisa
Country: Italy
Website: http://www.unipi.it/index.php/students/itemlist/category/479-summer-schools
E-mail: support.summerschool@adm.unipi.it
Phone: 0039- +39 050 2212272