Events Calendar - Central Asia Program

Police in Afghanistan: Continuing the Mission and Defining the Future @ Voesar Conference Room, Suite 412

Dec 1 @ 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]with Major General Masood Ahmad Azizi, MoI Deputy Minister for Strategy and Policy

Police are the long-term security solution to targeting the enablers of insurgency and criminals
Securing the public’s trust by the police is essential to defeating insurgents
Securing and retaining the public’s trust requires continued police professionalization

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Categories: The Policy Debate Tags: afghanistan police

Religion, State and Secularism in Eurasia… and Beyond @ Conference Room 505

Tickets

Feb 19 @ 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

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This seminar will explore state-sponsored secularism in the Eurasian continent, and how the authorities use the concept of the separation of state and religion to consolidate authoritarian policies. It looks at Russia, Central Asia and China, comparing them with the Middle-East. In the name of state secularism, Islamic communities are prohibited from interfering in politics, while the state strictly monitors religious activities, and interactions with the rest of the Ummah are looked upon with suspicion.

4:00pm Presentations

Alexsey Malashenko (Carnegie Moscow)

Sean Roberts (GWU)

Nader Hashemi (University of Denver)

5:15pm Discussion[/vc_column_text][vc_button title=”Please RSVP” target=”_self” color=”btn-warning” icon=”none” size=”btn-large” href=”http://go.gwu.edu/religion” el_class=”align-center”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories: CERIA Tags: Central Asia eurasia Islam nation states religion secular state secularism

Syria Calling: Migration, Mobilization and the Transformation of the Central Asian Jihad @ Conference Room 505

Tickets

Feb 23 @ 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]with Eileen O’Connor, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs

and Noah Tucker, Registan.net

Key points:

• Perhaps surprisingly, ISIS appears to be weak in its resources for online recruit-ing in Central Asian languages, but benefits disproportionately and in some un-intended ways from this resentment because of the ubiquity of its brand. Theevidence available through social media research conducted by this projectwould support and argument that there are several hundred Uzbek militantsparticipating in ISIS, but not larger numbers recently suggested by other report-

ing and Central Asian security services.

• Central Asians who support or are interested in ISIL appear to mostly be youngmigrant laborers who have little or no background in Islam as a religion butembrace Islam as an identity that offers solidarity, a sense of belonging and anexplanation for economic hardship and discrimination that they experience.

• Much of the discourse inside especially ISIS sympathizer circles among migrantlaborers in Russia builds not on religion, but resentment – and a resentmentstoked by the uniquely toxic media environment that has developed on Russia-based social networks filled with false information.

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This discussion is off the record.

This event is co-sponsored by the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) at the George Washington University.

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Categories: CERIA Tags: Central Asian extremism fighters Islam jihad Syria

Turkmenistan: Domestic Evolution, Economic Development, and Regional Environment @ Conference Room 505

Tickets

May 18 @ 9:00 AM – 5:30 PM

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]9:00am Introductory Remarks

Marlene Laruelle (CAP, IERES, GWU)

9:15am Session I. Governance Changes in Turkmenistan

Chair: Marlene Laruelle (CAP, IERES, GWU)

Myles Smith (IREX)
Forget political will – Would good governance even be possible in Turkmenistan?

Chris Miller (USAID)
Governance Challenges and Opportunities in Turkmenistan

Discussion

10:45-11:15pm Coffee-break

11:15-12:45pm Session II. Economic Development, Progress and Challenges

Chair: Victoria Clement (Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA)

Theresa Sabonis-Helf (National Defense University)
Casting a Wider Net: Turkmenistan and Regional Electricity

Jan Šír (Charles University, Prague)
Going Private? Denationalization and Privatization in Turkmenistan under Berdymukhammedov

Kenyon Weaver (Dentons LLP)
The Transformation of Commercial Law under President Berdymuhamedov.

12:45-1:30pm Lunch

1:30-3:00pm Session III. Turkmenistan in its Regional Environment

Chair: Myles Smith (IREX)

Nazik Muradova (Central Asia Fellow, GWU)
Revisiting Turkmenistan’s energy exports. Path toward a greater diversity of foreign partners?

Slavomir Horák (Charles University, Prague)
Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan. From personal approach to ordinary authoritarian regimes relations?

Sebastien Peyrouse (Central Asia Program, GWU)
Turkmenistan-Afghanistan: Political Pragmatism, Security Tensions?

3:00-3:15pm Coffee-break

3:15-4:45pm Session IV. Historical and Social Transformations

Chair: Sebastien Peyrouse (Central Asia Program, GWU)

Victoria Clement (Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA)
Intrepid Reformers: Turkmen Jadids

Aynabat Yaylymova (Turkmenistan Health Initiative)
Reproductive Health: How do I say this in Turkmen?

Jahan Taganova (Syracuse University)
Image of Turkmen Girls Online[/vc_column_text][vc_button title=”Please RSVP” target=”_blank” color=”btn-warning” icon=”none” size=”btn-large” href=”http://go.gwu.edu/turkmen” el_class=”align-center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories: The Policy Debate Tags: development domestic economy foreign history policy regional security strategy Turkmenistan