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Event transcripts and videos

The Hungry Steppe Famine, Violence, and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan with author Sarah Cameron (video)

Russian Policy in Syria and the Middle East: Determination, Delight, and Disappointment (video)

PASSION of Igor Savitsky

Symposium on China’s Mass Incarceration of Uyghurs (video)

“Not In Our Name”: A research and documentary project developed by RFE/RL (video of the discussion)

Encounters at the Edge of the Muslim World: A Political Memoir of Kyrgyzstan with author Eugene Huskey and Ambassador Kadyr M. Toktogulov (video)

Research Updates

#Hashtag Activism: Youth, Social Media and Politics in Kazakhstan

Vulnerability and Resilience of Young People in Kyrgyzstan to Radicalization, Violence and Extremism: Analysis across Five Domains

Urban Tourism and a Culture Clash: Understanding Anti-Arab Tourist Sentiment in Baku

Turkmenistan: Plebiscite of a Nation of Artisans

Secondary Schools and Inequality: Navigating the Fragmented Landscape of Educational Choices in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Russia’s Policy in Syria and the Middle East: Determination, Delight, and Disappointment

Books and Memos

Изобретение концепта Средней/Центральной Азии. Mежду наукой и гeoполитикой

Искусство народов Центральной Азии

Russia’s Policy in Syria and the Middle East

Determination, Delight, and Disappointment

From our partners

Summer Language Training Information: Title VIII Funding Available for summer 2019.

Revival in the Post-Soviet Era: Linking Contemporary Azerbaijani and Central Asian Art to Its Ancient Roots

CESS PHOTO CONTEST

Call for Applications – IU IAS Summer Repository Research Fellowship

CESS 2019 Call for Proposals Now Open!

PhD scholarship in the area of agricultural policy

The European Union’s New Strategy for Central Asia: An Early Assessment with Fabienne Bossuyt @ Voesar Conference Room, Suite 412

Apr 23 @ 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Although the European Union’s engagement with Central Asia has remained limited, the EU’s role in the region has evolved from an invisible and arguably ineffective donor to that of a full-fledged actor over the past fifteen years. Nevertheless, the EU still punches below its weight in the region. Because the EU’s strategy for Central Asia, developed in 2007, became increasingly outdated and subject to criticism from a wide range of stakeholders, a new strategy will be launched in May 2019. In this talk, Fabienne Bossuyt provides an early assessment of this new strategy. She evaluates whether the new strategy enables the EU to optimize its role as an external actor in Central Asia and ensure that the EU’s involvement in the region produces tangible and lasting results, effectively contributing to the sustainable development.

*Chatham House Rule applies*

Fabienne Bossuyt is Assistant Professor at the Centre for EU Studies at Ghent University (Belgium). Her main area of expertise is EU’s relations with Central Asia. Her current research projects focus on aspects of the EU’s relations with and policies towards Central Asia and other post Soviet countries, including democracy promotion, development policy and human rights promotion. She is currently coediting a book on the EU-Russia relationship (Brill), as well as a book on the EU’s and China’s engagement with Central Asia (Routledge). She has been involved in the preparation of the EU’s new strategy for Central Asia, including as rapporteur for the EU Special Representative for Central Asia and as policy advisor, inter alia, for the German and French MFAs.

RSVP

Russia’s Islamic Diplomacy: Institutions, Informality, and Believers @ Lindner Family Commons (6th Floor)

Apr 29 @ 10:30 AM – 5:30 PM

9:30-11:00am Panel 1. Russia and Islamic Institutions Abroad

Mark N. Katz (George Mason University)

Always Looming: The Russian Muslim Factor in Moscow’s Relations with Gulf Arab States

Clement Therme (International Institute for Strategic Studies)

Russia and the Islamic worlds: the case of Shia Islam

Denis Sokolov (Center for Strategic and International Studies)

Political Groups in Russia’s Islamic Clergy and their Activities at the Regional, National, and International Level

11:00-11:30am Coffee Break

11:30-1:00pm Panel 2. Russia’s Religious Para-Diplomacy

Guzel Yusupova (Durham University)

Tatarstan’s Paradiplomacy with the Islamic world

Jean-Francois Ratelle (Ottawa University)

A Kadyrovization of Russian Foreign Policy In the Middle East: Autocrats in Track-two Diplomacy and other Humanitarian Activities

Marlene Laruelle (The George Washington University)

Russia’s Soft Power toward the Muslim World

1:00-1:45pm Lunch

1:45-3:15 pm Panel 3. Identity, Economics and Politics of the Hajj from Russia

Mikhail A. Alexseev (San Diego State University)

Effect of the Hajj Pilgrimage to Mecca on Socio-Political Views of Muslims in Russia’s North Caucasus

Sufian N. Zhemukhov (The George Washington University)

Hajj in Russia: State Policy and Industry Management

Azat Akhunov (Kazan Federal University)

The Economics of Hajj: The Case of Tatarstan

The Initiative “Islam in Russia, Russia in the Islamic World” is generously funded

by the Henry Luce Foundation

April 2019 Apr 2019