SpecialEurasia wants to celebrate the last year of activities with our friends, partners, sponsors, and followers, hoping to begin the following year with the same commitment. In 2022, we have improved our activities and projects and affirmed our presence in Italy and abroad thanks to webinars, official visits, meetings, and training courses.
We are delighted to see that SpecialEurasia has increased its domestic and international audience and impact on public opinion. Different media agencies and think tanks mentioned SpecialEurasia analyses and monitoring reports, confirming that our team has released outstanding and high-standard assessments.
We confirmed that our geopolitical model might support public and private institutions in understanding the Eurasian geopolitical dynamics and creating a framework to interpret current events and forecast future scenarios.
We have improved SpecialEurasia Monitoring & Risk Analysis Map by updating more than 250 reports, risk assessments, and analyses covering different issues and topics related to the Eurasian strategic chessboard.
We continued publishing Geopolitical Report ISSN 2785-2598 to investigate the current geopolitical and socio-cultural events and trends shaping the world of international relations, business and security. Italian and foreign scholars, researchers, and analysts shared their views, perspectives, work results, reports and research findings on Geopolitical Report, confirming the importance of our magazine.
SpecialEurasia enlarged its network of partners by signing agreements with Mondo Internazionale, European Affairs Magazine, Minter Group Srl, and Confidential Agency to enhance training activities and consulting services and organise events to allow the Italian and foreign audience to deepen their knowledge of the world of international affairs and geopolitics. These partnerships emphasised SpecialEurasia’s desire to create a network of Italian and foreign actors to promote research projects and improve our working activities in consulting, Intelligence analysis, cyber security, travel advisory, and training.
Monitoring, research, and geopolitical reports
It was a long and intensive year characterised in international relations and geopolitics by the conflict in Ukraine and U.S. – China confrontation over Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific.
We decided to investigate the Ukraine conflict, focusing on the linked geopolitical risk, jihadist propaganda, cyber security, and impact on energy and food markets. Our intensive work on Ukraine culminated with the publication of a book titled “Conflitto in Ucraina: rischio geopolitico, propaganda jihadista e minaccia per l’Europa” (Ukraine conflict: geopolitical risk, jihadist propaganda, and threat for Europe), which the Italian audience welcomed with huge interests.
During the last year, we have paid massive attention to the security and stability of the Caucasus, especially after the military escalation at the Armenian-Azerbaijani borders registered in September 2022.
We have covered the major political crisis in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Gorno-Badakhshan in Tajikistan, Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan) and assessed the regional geopolitical risk as a medium level since the area has experienced local riots, disappointment, and economic hardness caused by the Ukraine conflict, and the rise of jihadist propaganda by the Islamic State.
In 2022, we did not forget Afghanistan. Since the U.S. troops’ withdrawal from the country and the Taliban’s rise to power, we have analysed local Afghan dynamics, regional and international actors’ interests and strategies, and the terrorist threat from the Islamic State Khurasan Vilayat (ISKP) and other terrorist groups.
Official visits abroad and events
Travelling abroad is a crucial component of SpecialEurasia to enhance its network of contacts and partners and better understand local dynamics.
We officially visited Oman to attend the 31st World Congress of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in Muscat. This event allowed SpecialEurasia to deepen its knowledge of the Gulf Arab countries and the Middle East and create links with regional Arab partners.
In October 2022, SpecialEurasia organised an official mission to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. Our team met with local representatives and government members and discussed the country’s foreign and domestic policies, economic performance, and the South Caucasus stability undermined by the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict and the Azerbaijani aggression against the Armenian sovereign territory.
It was a year full of events. We started with our webinars on the Caucasus, the Middle East, and Afghanistan, which gathered experts and SpecialEurasia analysts to discuss regional geopolitical changes and developments and inform our audience about the main trends and risks.
Our team attended several events to promote the book on Ukraine and provided some insights in different interviews. Furthermore, as speakers or distinguished guests, we attended online conferences and webinars on Yemen, the Caspian Sea, and the Iranian SCO membership.
All these activities confirmed that SpecialEurasia has become a promising reality and Intelligence platform in Italy and abroad. Our commitment is to continue organising or attending international and local events and planning other visits abroad, which we consider essential to thoroughly understand the situation in a target area.
Training courses
Our Training & Courses activities are still an essential part of our activities. In 2022 we launched the 1-to-1 formula to offer a complete and well-structured course in geopolitical Intelligence, open-source Intelligence, and terrorism analysis.
At the same time, we organised with ASRIE Analytica and Centro Studi Roma 3000 online training courses in OSINT and geopolitics in March 2022 and May 2022. At the end of the course, the participants could research, evaluate, and exploit open sources and produce valuable Intelligence for the decision-making process.
In May 2022, SpecialEurasia, CeSEM, ASRIE Analytica, and Polo Accademico Internazionale organised a geopolitical analyst course titled “L’Asia vista da Mosca e da Pechino. Geoeconomia dell’Unione Euroasiatica e della Nuova Via della Seta” (Moscow and Beijing’s view on Asia. Eurasian Economic Union and Belt and Road Initiative’s geoeconomics). After the first successful training course, in October 2022, SpecialEurasia, always in partnership with CeSEM and also with UniDolomiti, and Istituto Internazionale delle Scienze Sociali, organised the online course titled “Geopolitica delle crisi moderne: dall’unipolarismo al multipolarismo” (Geopolitics of current crises: from a unipolar to multipolar world).
We ended our training season in November 2022 when SpecialEurasia, in collaboration with Opinio Juris – Law & Politics Review, organised a training course in “Geopolitica dello Spazio Post-Sovietico” (Geopolitics of the post-Soviet space) after our official visit to Yerevan in Armenia.
