Addressing Soft Security Challenges in Kazakhstan and Central Asia

Kazakhstan has already taken the regional leadership on soft security issues in the whole Central Asian region. This conference will discuss the region’s main soft security issues: water management, regulating migrations and refugees flows, developing disaster preparedness and reaction to climate change. It will bring together scholars and experts to offer a full panorama of the soft security situation and the way Kazakhstan can address these challenges.

9:00 AM Opening, Yerkin Akhinzhanov, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Kazakhstan

9:15-10:15 AM Keynote speaker: Johannes Linn (Brookings Institution)
Q&A

10:15 – 11:15 AM The Water/Energy Nexus and its Regional Dimension
Chair: Kamiljon Akramov (International Food Policy Research Institute)

Kathleen Kuehnast (US Institute of Peace)
Whose rules rule? Water and Energy in Central Asia

Kai Wegerich (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research)
Water security in the Syr Darya

11:15 – 11:30 PM Coffee-break

11:30 – 12:30 PM Natural Disaster and Climate Change Preparedness

Chair: Kai Wegerich (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research)

William Brown (Brookings Institution)
Implications of Climate Change for Kazakhstan

Reinhard Bodemeyer (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zusammenarbeit GIZ)
Local coping strategies – the neglected option in tackling climate change in Central Asia

12:30 – 1:15 PM Lunch

1:15 – 2:15 PM Strategies and Challenges of ensuring Food Security in Central Asia

Chair: Marlene Laruelle (GWU)

Kamiljon Akramov (International Food Policy Research Institute)
Agricultural transformation and food security challenges in Central Asia

Sebastien Peyrouse (IERES, George Washington University)
Food policy in Kazakhstan: domestic stakes, regional consequences

2:15 – 2:30 PM Coffee-break

2:30 – 3:30 PM Kazakhstan as a Eurasian Crossroads. Managing MigrationChair: Sebastien Peyrouse (GWU)

Dejan Kedserovic (International Organization for Migration)
Migration and Development Nexus Case in Kazakhstan

Marlene Laruelle (IERES, George Washington University)
Kazakhstan as a Migration Pole: Regional Opportunities, Domestic Challenges

3:30 – 4:30 PM Reception

The Kazakhstan Initiative at GW gratefully funded by the Kazakhstan Embassy in Washington D.C.