Domestic politics

Institutional Quality of Public Administration and Human Capital The quality of public administration depends directly on personnel policy. Professional, competent and honest civil servants are the fo...

Wages are rising, but family budgets barely notice Azerbaijan’s statistics offer a reassuring picture. Household incomes are rising faster than inflation, wages continue to grow and the manat remains...

Azerbaijan’s economy has emerged from the contraction recorded at the beginning of 2026. But it is too early to celebrate. Growth remains weak, oil and gas production is declining, and investment acti...

Azerbaijan’s preparations for the winter season How ready are the energy, heating, water and emergency systems for the winter of 2026–2027? The Azerbaijani proverb “Prepare for summer in winter, and f...

Global food prices have reached their highest level since January 2023. For Azerbaijan, which exports oil and gas but buys a substantial share of its essential food products — or the raw materials nee...

Working without formal registration allows businesses to cut costs and people to earn money immediately. But the long-term price is the absence of paid leave, insurance protection, a documented employ...

Field observation conducted on the coast near the settlement of Pirshaghi. August 2026 “It’s not as if this is your place...” This analysis begins not with figures, but with an ordinary observation. O...

According to the State Statistical Committee, Azerbaijan’s self-sufficiency rate in tomatoes has consistently remained above 100 percent over the past 20 years. The committee reported that in 2024 tom...

From Nuclear Deterrence to Transit Corridors: The Risk Landscape of the South Caucasus and Azerbaijan On August 6, 1945, a United States B-29 bomber detonated a uranium bomb called “Little Boy” over t...

Looking down on the northern Absheron coast, it is difficult not to notice a pattern. Azerbaijan's most restricted government compound — the presidential residence in Zagulba — is located neither in c...

The management of the Baku Metro has begun implementing the long-announced project to separate, or more precisely disentangle, the Red and Green lines of the city’s underground railway system. The mea...

The Road from Absolutism to Constitutional Government The Iranian Constitutional Movement (Mashruteh), which unfolded in the early twentieth century, is regarded as one of the most important turning p...

Higher education continues to improve a person’s chances of finding work. However, the gap between academic programmes and employers’ needs, the lack of practical experience and the limited number of...

Azerbaijan’s minimum wage exceeds the official subsistence minimum. But after mandatory deductions, the difference between the two falls to just 41 manats, while renting a home turns the formal surplu...

Supermarkets are gaining ground through scale, digital accounting and predictability, but traditional markets still support employment, agricultural sales and price competition. Their future depends n...

In the first half of 2026, average wages in Azerbaijan formally outpaced headline inflation. Yet food, rents, housing, utilities and some forms of transport rose faster than the incomes of many worker...