BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Central Asia Program - ECPv6.15.16//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Central Asia Program X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Central Asia Program REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20200308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20201101T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20210314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20211107T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20220313T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20221106T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211119T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211119T110000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20211110T195559Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241015T192657Z UID:195224-1637316000-1637319600@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:President Mirziyoyev's Second Term In Office: What Next For Uzbekistan? DESCRIPTION:As Shavkat Mirziyoev starts his second term as the President of Uzbekistan\, all eyes are on what comes next and what his second term may mean for the country. He was declared winner in a vote that featured no genuine opposition and that Western observers called “not truly competitive.” Similarly\, election eve was marred by registration denials for genuine opposition candidates and the harassment and intimidation of activists and independent journalists. Meanwhile\, his first term in office has been marked with ups and downs\, clear progress in some areas\, but continuity in other sectors. What does his first term tell us about what may be in store for Uzbekistan under his second term in office? What are some signposts to keep our eyes on to determine where he might take the country? \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAlisher Siddique is the Director of RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service. Under his leadership\, the service has become a pioneer in using the latest digital platforms to break the information blockade in one of the world’s most closed societies. Sidikov reported on the Andijon massacre in Uzbekistan in 2005\, and earlier worked for the BBC’s Uzbek service in Tashkent and London. He was named “Journalist of the Year” by Reporters Without Borders-Stockholm in 2005. He holds an M.A. and B.A. in Middle East Politics and Arabic Studies from the University of Oriental Studies in Tashkent. \n\n\n\nDilfuza Kurolova is a Human Rights Lawyer from Uzbekistan and professional mediator on family and labour issues. She is a legal and social development consultant at different organizations\, such as the World Bank\, the ADB\, PeaceNexus Foundation and the International Commission of Jurists\, and was an adjunct professor at Webster University in Tashkent. Dilfuza provides free legal consultations to people since 2019\, is a founder of the Global Shapers Tashkent Hub (2020)\, the youth initiative of the World Economic Forum\, and was admitted as top-10 women in Uzbekistan changing the country in 2021. She holds LLB and LLM degrees from Tashkent state university of law (criminal law\, international public law) and MA degree from the OSCE Academy (politics and security in Central Asia). \n\n\n\nSebastien Peyrouse\, Ph.D.\, is a Research Professor at the Central Asia Program in the Institute for European\, Russian and Eurasian Studies (George Washington University) and a Senior Fellow with the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China relations. His main areas of expertise are political systems in Central Asia\, economic and social issues\, Islam and religious minorities\, and Central Asia’s geopolitical positioning toward China\, India and South Asia. \n\n\n\nModerator\, Marlene Laruelle\, Ph.D.\, is Director\, Institute for European\, Russian\, and Eurasian Studies; Director\, Central Asia Program; Co-Director\, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University. She works on political\, social and cultural changes in the post-Soviet space. Marlene’s research explores the transformations of nationalist and conservative ideologies in Russia\, nationhood construction in Central Asia\, as well as the development of Russia’s Arctic regions. She has been the Principal Investigator of several grants on Russian nationalism\, on Russia’s strategies in the Arctic\, and on Central Asia’s domestic and foreign policies from the US State Department\, the Defense Department\, the National Science Foundation\, Open Society Foundations\, Carnegie Corporation of New York\, the Henry Luce Foundation\, etc. URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/president-mirziyoyevs-second-term-in-office-what-next-for-uzbekistan/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive,Uzbekistan ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/pres-uzbekistan.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211116T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211116T120000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20211108T174059Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241015T192722Z UID:195207-1637060400-1637064000@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Book Launch - Rentier Capitalism and its Discontents: Power\, Morality\, and Resistance in Central Asia DESCRIPTION:Rentier Capitalism and Its Discontents: Power\, Morality and Resistance in Central Asia \n\n\n\nSpeakers: Balihar Sanghera\, Elmira Satybaldieva\, David Montgomery\, and Assel Tutumlu \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis book explains and evaluates today’s economic\, political\, social and ecological crises through the lens of rentier capitalism and countermovements in Central Asia. Over the last three decades the rich and powerful have increased their wealth and political power to the detriment of social and environmental well-being. But their activities have not gone unchecked. Grassroots activism has resisted the harmful and damaging effects of the neoliberal commodification of things. \n\n\n\nProviding a much-needed theorisation of the moral economy and politics of rent\, this book offers in-depth case studies on finance\, real estate and natural resources in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The authors show the mechanisms of rent extraction\, their moral justifications and legitimacy\, and social struggles against them. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBalihar Sanghera is a senior lecturer in sociology at University of Kent’s School of Social Policy\, Sociology and Social Research. His books include Rentier Capitalism and Its Discontents: Power\, Morality and Resistance in Central Asia and Theorising Social Change in Post-Soviet Countries: Critical Approaches. His research interests include social theory\, political economy and ethics. \n\n\n\nElmira Satybaldieva is a scholar in Eurasian politics and development based at the Conflict Analysis Research Centre\, University of Kent. She is the co-author of Rentier Capitalism and Its Discontents: Power\, Morality and Resistance in Central Asia\, and has written on class\, gender and politics in Central Asia. \n\n\n\n David W. Montgomery is a research professor in the Department of Government and Politics and the Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland\, College Park\, and the director of program development for CEDAR–Communities Engaging with Difference and Religion. His books include Central Asia: Contexts for Understanding\, Practicing Islam: Knowledge\, Experience\, and Social Navigation in Kyrgyzstan\, Living with Difference: How to Build Community in a Divided World\, and Everyday Life in the Balkans. \n\n\n\nAssel Tutumlu (former Rustemova) is an Assistant Professor at Near East University in Northern Cyprus. She received her Ph.D. in Global Affairs from Rutgers\, State University of New Jersey. She mainly specializes in studying authoritarian regimes in Central Asia and beyond\, but also writes on democratization\, nation-building and foreign policy issues. Her work appeared in Europe-Asia Studies\, Central Asian Survey\, Journal of Eurasian Studies\, Problems of Post-Communism and edited volumes from Routledge\, Palgrave\, Lexington\, and Nomos Press. Before holding academic positions in Turkey\, Kazakhstan and the United States she worked at the United Nations\, International Foundation for Election Systems\, Kennan Institute of Advanced Russian Studies and the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies.  \n\n\n\nSebastien Peyrouse\, PhD\, is a Research Professor at the Central Asia Program in the Institute for European\, Russian and Eurasian Studies (George Washington University) and a Senior Fellow with the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China relations. His main areas of expertise are political systems in Central Asia\, economic and social issues\, Islam and religious minorities\, and Central Asia’s geopolitical positioning toward China\, India and South Asia. URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/book-launch-rentier-capitalism-and-its-discontents-power-morality-and-resistance-in-central-asia/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/rentier-capitalism-cover-1.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211103T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211103T121500 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20211027T184703Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241015T192756Z UID:194182-1635933600-1635941700@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Soft Power in Central Asia: The Politics of Influence and Seduction DESCRIPTION:Since the breakup of the Eastern bloc\, Central Asia has been analyzed primarily through the prism of hard power and the great powers’ geopolitical and geostrategic games in the region. Yet\, forging long-term relationships with each of the Central Asian states may require less the stick of military or economic coercion than the carrot of convincing them of the win-win essence of engagement. Foreign actors cannot afford to ignore the hearts and minds of the local population\, nor assume the sustainability of relations with Central Asian countries based on the alleged ability of authoritarian regimes to control their populations and implement foreign policies bypassing society. Moreover\, governments and people in Central Asia are not passive objects of the politics of seduction. The region’s governments act as moderators and gatekeepers\, while Central Asians are aware of\, discuss and reflect upon soft power\, and exercise agency accepting or resisting it. \n\n\n\nThis event will examine the soft power’s patterns of attraction and persuasion that help shape the political choices of countries in the region. It will bring together several contributors to an edited volume\, Soft Power in Central Asia\, The Politics of Influence and Seduction\, edited by Kirill Nourzhanov and Sebastien Peyrouse. The panelists will discuss how foreign actors\, geographically close or distant\, powerful or more modest\, engage in soft power projection\, and how recipients in the region respond to it. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nProgram Agenda \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n10:00-10:15: Introduction \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n10:15-11:15: Soft Power Projection in Central Asia: The United States\, Russia\, China and Turkey. \n\n\n\nChair: Karolina Kluczewska (Ghent University) \n\n\n\nPanelists: Vincent Artman (Wayne State University)\, Kirill Nourzhanov (Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies\, Australian National University)\, Murat Yurtbilir (Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies\, Australian National University)\, Sebastien Peyrouse (Central Asia Program\, GWU) \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n11:15-12:15: Between Attraction and Fear. How Recipient Countries Welcome\, Frame\, or Resist Soft Power \n\n\n\nChair: Dilnoza Ubaydullaeva (Australian National University) \n\n\n\nPanelists: Aminat Chokobaeva (Nazarbayev University)\, Reuel R. Hanks (Oklahoma State University)\, Karolina Kluczewska (Ghent University)\, Payam Foroughi (independent scholar). URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/soft-power-in-central-asia-the-politics-of-influence-and-seduction/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/central_downtown_astana_2.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211029T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211029T120000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20211021T135323Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241015T192823Z UID:193704-1635505200-1635508800@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Questioning Sovietness in Post-Soviet Nationbuilding DESCRIPTION:Photo by Dan Lundberg\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this roundtable\, we aim to provide a conceptual intervention in the ongoing debates on the nature of Soviet-ness in nation-building strategies of Central Asian states and regimes. Through our short presentations and discussion\, we want to illustrate the workings of Soviet-ness in the contemporary ideas of ethnicity\, ideology\, class\, and minority relations. The roundtable is a collection of ongoing discussions in the greater group of scholars led by Tutumlu and Kudaibergenova seeking to critically analyse and conceptualize the workings of the nationalizing processes from the top-down to bottom-up approach and with everything in-between still bound with the remaining metamorphosis of Sovietness. Instead of viewing these processes as “legacies” of Sovietness\, we see them as metamorphosis – the fluid process of transformations\, clashes\, contradictions\, processes of simultaneous erasure and reconstruction of the “past” and Soviet experience when it comes to peoples’ understanding of their “national” identity. In our workshop\, we combine talks by Zulfiya Imyarova\, Anar Valiev\, Viktoria Akchurina\, as well as Assel Tutumlu and Diana T. Kudaibergenova. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nZulfiya Imyarova is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of International Exchange Programs at Narxoz University. She received her PhD degree from Al-Farabi State National University in Almaty\, Kazakhstan. Her research focuses on the studies of ethnicity and nation-building using ethnographic methods and archival sources. Her work appeared in Nationalities Papers\, Problems of Post-Communism and edited volumes. \n\n\n\nAnar Valiev is an Associate Professor and a Dean of the School of Public and International Affairs of Azerbaijani Diplomatic Academy. He received his Bachelor’s degree in History from Baku State University (1999) and Master’s degree in History (2001) from the same university. From 2001 to 2003 he studied public policy at School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University in Bloomington\, where he received his second master. In 2007 he successfully defended his dissertation at School of Urban and Public Affairs from University of Louisville\, KY receiving doctorate degree in Urban and Public Affairs. From 2007 to 2008 he was working as Assistant Professor at Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University in Brno\, Czech Republic. In 2008 he joined ADA University and currently he is a Dean of School of Public and International Affairs. His areas of expertise are public policy of post-Soviet republics; democracy and governance; urban development and planning. Dr.Valiev is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and his research works appeared in journals such as Problems of Post Communism; Communist and Post-Communist Studies; Eurasian Geography and Economics; Cultural Geographies; Cities\, Urban Geography\, and others. \n\n\n\nViktoria Akchurina is a Senior Lecturer in OSCE Academy in Bishkek. Her research focuses on state-building in Central Asia and the Middle East\, comparatively. She is an author of a number of academic publications on elite formation (Routledge 2021)\, power and hegemony (Routledge 2020)\, the incomplete state (Palgrave Macmillan 2018)\, security and radicalization (Routledge 2015)\, border and water management in central Eurasia (Lexington 2018). She co-edited a Special Section on ‘Power and Competing Regionalism in a Wider Europe’ in the Journal of Europe-Asia Studies (2018). In her previous capacity as a Researcher at TRENDS Consulting in Abu-Dhabi\, she published a number of policy papers on the Belt and Road Initiative in the Middle East and conducted research on Russian foreign policy in Syria\, among other projects. Previously\, Viktoria worked for EXOP-Consulting in Germany\, International Women’s Media Foundation in Washington D.C.\, and taught at the MA program in Peace and Development at Dauphine University in Paris. Viktoria received her PhD in International Relations from the University of Trento (Italy) and her MA in Social Theory and Global Governance from Jacobs University Bremen (Germany). \n\n\n\nAssel Tutumlu (former Rustemova) is an Assistant Professor at the Near East University in Northern Cyprus. She received her Ph.D. in Global Affairs from Rutgers\, State University of New Jersey. She mainly specializes in studying the nature of politics in the authoritarian regimes of Central Asia and beyond\, but also writes on democratization\, nation-building and foreign policy issues. Her work appeared in Europe-Asia Studies\, Journal of Eurasian Studies\, Problems of Post-Communism\, Central Asian Survey and edited volumes from Routledge\, Sage\, Lexington\, and Nomos Press. Before holding academic positions in Turkey\, Kazakhstan and the United States she worked at the United Nations\, International Foundation for Election Systems\, Kennan Institute of Advanced Russian Studies\, and the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies in the United States. \n\n\n\nDiana T. Kudaibergenova is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Political Sociology at the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge (UK). She is the author of Rewriting the Nation in Modern Kazakh literature. Elites and Narratives (Lexington\, 2017) and Toward Nationalizing Regimes. Conceptualizing Power and Identity in the Post-Soviet Realm (University of Pittsburgh Press\, 2020). Her research focuses on the study of power relations in democratic and non-democratic contexts\, ideology and nationalism. Kudaibergenova’s forthcoming work deals with the persistence of nationalizing regimes and the resistance of the grassroots movements and with the conceptualization of authoritarianism. URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/questioning-sovietness-in-post-soviet-nationbuilding/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/lenin.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211008T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211008T113000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210921T145015Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241015T192842Z UID:192414-1633687200-1633692600@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Book Launch - Central Peripheries: Nationhood in Central Asia DESCRIPTION:Book Launch Discussion \n\n\n\nCentral Peripheries: Nationhood in Central Asia \n\n\n\nwith Author Marlene Laruelle and discussants Diana Kudaibergenova\, Sabina Insebayeva\, and Berikbol Dukeyev. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCentral Peripheries explores post-Soviet Central Asia through the prism of nation-building. It looks at how states in the region have been navigating the construction of a nation in a post-imperial context where Russia remains the dominant power and cultural reference. Exploring state discourses\, academic narratives and different forms of popular nationalist storytelling\, the book depicts the complex construction of the national pantheon in the three decades since independence. The second half of the book focuses on Kazakhstan as the most hybrid national construction and a unique case study of nationhood in Eurasia. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nMarlene Laruelle\, Author \n\n\n\nMarlene Laruelle\, Ph.D.\, is Director\, Institute for European\, Russian\, and Eurasian Studies; Director\, Central Asia Program; Co-Director\, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University. She works on political\, social and cultural changes in the post-Soviet space. Marlene’s research explores the transformations of nationalist and conservative ideologies in Russia\, nationhood construction in Central Asia\, as well as the development of Russia’s Arctic regions. She has been the Principal Investigator of several grants on Russian nationalism\, on Russia’s strategies in the Arctic\, and on Central Asia’s domestic and foreign policies from the US State Department\, the Defense Department\, the National Science Foundation\, Open Society Foundations\, Carnegie Corporation of New York\, the Henry Luce Foundation\, etc. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nDiana T. Kudaibergenova\, Panelist \n\n\n\nDiana T. Kudaibergenova is a Lecturer at the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. Prior to that\, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the GRCF COMPASS project at the Centre of Development Studies (Department of Politics and International Studies) also at the University of Cambridge. She studies different intersections of power\, regimes\, state-building and nationalism. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nSabina Insebayeva\, Panelist \n\n\n\nSabina Insebayeva is an assistant professor of Central Eurasian Studies at the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences\, the University of Tsukuba (Japan). She is concurrently a research associate at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore (NUS)\, where she also was a post-doctoral research fellow. Prior positions include research fellowships with the IERES at the George Washington University (GW) and Fudan University. In addition to these fellowships\, her research has been supported by a number of non-governmental and governmental institutions in the United States\, Japan\, China\, Singapore\, Norway and Germany. Dr. Insebayeva studies issues related to identity politics\, power relations and security\, and is particularly interested in approaches rooted in social theory and historical sociology. She has published peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Europe-Asia Studies (Taylor&Francis)\, Nationalities Paper (Cambridge University Press)\, and International Journal of Refugee Law (Oxford University Press). \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nBerikbol Dukeyev\, Panelist \n\n\n\nBerikbol Dukeyev is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science and International Relations at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies (the Middle East and Central Asia) at the Australian National University. Berikbol’s research explores the politics of memory\, history production\, and media studies in Central Asia. He was the Research Fellow at Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Germany in 2019 and Central Asia Program at George Washington University in 2015-2016. Berikbol has work experience in fields of political analysis and development at the governmental\, private\, and international organizations in Kazakhstan and Australia. URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/book-launch-central-peripheries-nationhood-in-central-asia/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/jpg_rgb_1500h.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211001T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211001T120000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210922T192159Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241015T192906Z UID:192953-1633086000-1633089600@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Looking Back on Central Asia's Perestroika: Political Narratives and Political Mobilization | Оглядываясь на перестройку в Ц DESCRIPTION:*English and Russian interpretation will be provided. Перевод на английский и русский язык будет обеспечен. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLife in the USSR was effectively turned upside down by the package of reforms known as “perestroika” initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985. This was equally true in Central Asia: although some observers have noted that certain reforms came slowly and hesitantly to Central Asia\, there is no doubt that their aggregate impact was transformative\, a source of hope and trepidation there as elsewhere. Younger Central Asians in particular took advantage of the new opportunities for debate\, criticism\, and entrepreneurship\, questioning the certainties of the previous era and staking out political careers and nascent businesses. Some even founded new political parties or movements. This roundtable invites two of the era’s prominent individuals\, Davlat Khudonazarov and Zamira Sydykova\, to reflect on their respective experiences in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Isaac Scarborough\, the author of a forthcoming book on perestroika in Central Asia\, will provide commentary and place their perspectives in dialogue with recent academic work. \n\n\n\nЖизнь в СССР была фактически перевернута с ног на голову пакетом реформ\, известных как «перестройка»\, которые инициировал Михаил Горбачев в 1985 году. Такие же большие изменения ожидали и Центральную Азию: хотя некоторые наблюдатели отмечали\, что некоторые реформы в Средней Азии проводились медленно и нерешительно\, нет сомнений в том\, что их совокупное воздействие было преобразующим и питало надежды и тревоги\, как в регионе\, так и за его пределами. Молодые жители Центральной Азии активно воспользовались новыми возможностями для дискуссий\, критики и предпринимательства\, ставя под сомнение уверенность прошлой эпохи и делая ставки на политическую карьеру и зарождающийся бизнес. Некоторые даже основали новые политические партии или движения. Этот круглый стол приглашает двух выдающихся личностей той эпохи\, Давлата Худоназарова и Замиру Сыдыкову\, рассказать о своем опыте в Таджикистане и Кыргызстане. Исаак Скарборо\, автор готовящейся к выпуску книги о перестройке в Центральной Азии\, предоставит комментарии и поделится своими взглядами в диалоге с недавними академическими исследованиями. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nArtemy M. Kalinovsky is Professor of Russian\, Soviet\, and Post-Soviet Studies at Temple University and the Principal Investigator of the ERC funded project Building a Better Tomorrow: Development Knowledge and Practice in Central Asia and Beyond\, based at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of Laboratory of Socialist Development: Cold War Politics and Decolonization in Soviet Tajikistan (Ithaca: Cornell University Press\, 2018) and A Long Goodbye: The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Cambridge: Harvard University Press\, 2011). He has co-edited a number of volumes on Soviet and Cold War history\, including The End of the Cold War and the Third World (London: Routledge\, 2011)\, with Sergey Radchenko\, and\, most recently\, Alternative Globalizations: Eastern Europe and the Post-Colonial World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press\, 2020)\, with James Mark and Steffi Marung. \n\n\n\nАртемий Калиновский – профессор российских\, советских и постсоветских исследований в Университете Темпл и главный исследователь проекта Построение Лучшего Будущего: Развитие Знаний и Практики в Центральной Азии и за ее Пределами\, который финансируется ERC и базируется в Университете Амстердама. Калиновский автор книг «Лаборатории социалистического развития: Политика холодной войны и деколонизация в советском Таджикистане» (Издательство Корнеллского Университета\, 2018) и «Долгое прощание: Вывод советских войск из Афганистана» (Издательство Университета Гаврарда\, 2011). Он был соредактором ряда томов по истории Советского Союза и холодной войны\, в том числе «Конец холодной войны и третьего мира» (Издательство Ратледж\, 2011) с Сергеем Радченко и\, совсем недавно\, «Альтернативная глобализация: Восточная Европа и постколониальный мир» (Издательство Индианского университета\, 2020) с Джеймсом Марком и Штеффи Марунг. \n\n\n\nAmbassador Zamira Sydykova served as Kyrgyz ambassador to the United States and Canada from 2005 to 2010\, after a career as an opposition journalist\, including imprisonment by the government of then-president Askar Akayev. After the Kyrgyz Revolution of 2010\, Ambassador Sydykova served as a trade advisor\, scholar at the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She was the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Kyrgyzstan’s first independent newspaper Res Publica\, and taught as an associate professor in the Journalism department at Kyrgyz National University. Ambassador Sydykova has received awards from the International Women’s Media Foundation\, Human Rights Watch\, and Amnesty International. \n\n\n\nПосол Замира Сыдыкова работала послом Кыргызстана в Соединенных Штатах и Канаде с 2005 по 2010 год после своей карьеры в качестве оппозиционного журналиста\, которая включила в себя тюремное заключение правительством тогдашнего президента Аскара Акаева. После Кыргызской революции 2010 года посол Сыдыкова работала торговым советником\, а также ученым в Институте Кеннана Международного Центра Ученых имени Вудро Вильсона. Она была основателем и главным редактором первой в Кыргызстане независимой газеты Res Publica и преподавала в качестве доцента на факультете журналистики Кыргызского Национального Университета. Посол Сыдыкова получила награды от Международного Фонда Женских СМИ\, Human Rights Watch и Amnesty International. \n\n\n\nDavlat Khudonazarov is a filmmaker known for feature and documentary films\, a human rights activist\, historian\, and public figure. During perestroika he was elected a People’s Deputy of the USSR and became a member of the Inter-Regional Group of Deputies. In the summer of 1990 he was elected Chairman of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR. In 1990-1991 he was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. During the years of the Civil War in Tajikistan Khudonazarov was actively involved in negotiating a peace agreement. Since 1996 he has lived in Moscow and cooperated with various organizations to protect the rights of refugees from Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Khudonazarov is also the author of books and articles about the presence of Russians in the Pamir in the late 19th and early 20thcenturies. \n\n\n\nДавлат Худоназаров – кинорежиссер\, известный художественными и документальными фильмами\, правозащитник\, историк\, общественный деятель. В период перестройки он был избран народным депутатом СССР и вошел в Межрегиональную депутатскую группу. Летом 1990 года избран председателем Союза кинематографистов СССР. В 1990-1991 гг. был членом ЦК Коммунистической партии Советского Союза. В годы Гражданской Войны в Таджикистане Худоназаров активно участвовал в переговорах по мирному соглашению. С 1996 года он жил в Москве и сотрудничал с различными организациями по защите прав беженцев из Таджикистана и Афганистана. Худоназаров также является автором книг и статей о русских на Памире в конце 19 и начале 20 веков. \n\n\n\nIsaac Scarborough is University Lecturer in Russian Studies in the Institute for History\, Leiden University\, and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Humanities and Social Science\, Liverpool John Moores University. His research focuses on the disintegration of the Soviet Union\, with a forthcoming book\, Moscow’s Heavy Shadow: The Violent Collapse of the USSR\, highlighting the harsh consequences attendant for Tajikistan and elsewhere in the Soviet periphery. \n\n\n\nИсаак Скарборо – преподаватель университета в области русских исследований Института Истории Лейденского Университета и научный сотрудник Школы Гуманитарных и Социальных Наук Ливерпульского Университета имени Джона Мура. В центре его исследований распад Советского Союза. Скарборо готовится к выходу книги «Тяжелая тень Москвы: Насильственный крах СССР»\, в которой подчеркиваются тяжелые последствия\, которые имели место для Таджикистана и других регионов советской периферии. URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/looking-back-on-central-asias-perestroika-political-narratives-and-political-mobilization-oglyadyvayas-na-perestrojku-v-cz/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210922T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210922T110000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210915T152914Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241014T191542Z UID:191863-1632304800-1632308400@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Book Launch - Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Central Asia DESCRIPTION:The Central Asia Program Invites you to the Book Launch Event: \n\n\n\nRoutledge Handbook of Contemporary Central Asia \n\n\n\nSpeakers: Edward Lemon\, Dina Sharipova\, Johan Engvall\, and Galym Zhussipbek \n\n\n\nModerated by: Editors Rico Isaacs and Erica Marat \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nREGISTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nClick here to join Zoom session \n\n\n\nMeeting ID: 997 1102 7912 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Central Asia offers the first comprehensive\, cross-disciplinary overview of key issues in Central Asian studies. The 30 chapters by leading and emerging scholars summarise major findings in the field and highlight long-term trends\, recent observations and future developments in the region. The handbook features case studies of all five Central Asian republics and is organised thematically in seven sections: history\, politics\, geography\, international relations\, political economy\, society and culture\, and religion \n\n\n\nAn essential cross-disciplinary reference work\, the handbook offers an accessible and easy to understand guide to the core issues permeating the region to enable readers to grasp the fundamental challenges\, transformations and themes in contemporary Central Asia. It will be of interest to researchers\, academics and students of the region and those working in the field of Area Studies\, History\, Anthropology\, Politics and International Relations. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers \n\n\n\nRico Isaacs is Associate Professor of Politics in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Lincoln. His research interests lay at the intersection of authoritarianism\, culture and political theory in post-Soviet states with a particular focus on the Central Asian Republics. He is the author of Film and Identity in Kazakhstan (I.B. Tauris 2018) and Party System Formation in Kazakhstan: Between Formal and Informal Politics (Routledge 2011) and is also currently serving as editor of Central Asian Survey.  \n\n\n\nErica Marat is an Associate Professor at the College of International Security Affairs at the National Defence University. Dr. Marat’s research focuses on violence\, mobilization and security institutions in Eurasia\, India\, and Mexico. Her recent book\, The Politics of Police Reform: Society against the State in Post-Soviet Countries (Oxford University Press 2018)\, explores conditions in which police reform projects succeed and why they fail in countries with a recent authoritarian past.   \n\n\n\nEdward Lemon is Research Assistant Professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service\, Texas A&M University\, Washington DC. His research focuses on security\, secularism\, counter-extremism and authoritarianism in Central Asia. He is editor of the book Critical Approaches to Security in Central Asia (Routledge\, 2018) \n\n\n\nDina Sharipova is Assistant Professor of Political Science in the Graduate School of Public Policy in Nur-Sultan\, Republic of Kazakhstan. Her research interests include the issues of identity\, identity politics and policies in Central Asia\, security issues\, as well as formal and informal institutions. She has authored the book State-building in Kazakhstan: Continuity and Transformation of Informal Institutions (2018) and published in Nationalities Papers\, Central Asian Survey\, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics\, and others.  \n\n\n\nJohan Engvall\, PhD\, is a researcher at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI)\, and a non-resident senior fellow with the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program. He is the author of The State as Investment Market: Kyrgyzstan in Comparative Perspective\, published by University of Pittsburgh Press. \n\n\n\nGalym Zhussipbek is an independent researcher based in Almaty. He is also a faculty member at the Department of Social Sciences\, Suleyman Demirel atindagi Universitet in Kaskelen/Almaty where he has courses related to human rights and nationalism. Zhussipbek has a PhD in International Relations (Ankara University\, Faculty of Political Science). In recent years he has been engaged in projects related to the discrimination of human rights based on ethnic and religious grounds (a consultant to the Equal Rights Trust)\, liberalism and Islam\, building inclusive institutions (Ministry of Education of Kazakhstan) and development of human rights in post-Soviet geography.  URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/book-launch-routledge-handbook-of-contemporary-central-asia/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/routledge-handbook-of-contemporary-ca-cover.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210914T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210914T100000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210831T133005Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241014T191553Z UID:191230-1631610000-1631613600@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Book Launch - The Cinema of Soviet Kazakhstan 1925-1991: An Uneasy Legacy DESCRIPTION:The Cinema of Soviet Kazakhstan 1925-1991: An Uneasy Legacy \n\n\n\nFeaturing Peter Rollberg\, Professor of Slavic Languages\, Film Studies and International Affairs \n\n\n\nJoin us on a journey through the history of Kazakh filmmaking\, from Soviet production to national cinema and arthouse phenomenon. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nREGISTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLudmila Pruner\, one of the first American scholars to deal with the cinema of Kazakhstan\, once wrote: “One of the most tragic consequences of the socialist regime had been the catastrophic loss of the republics’ individual cultural heritage\, traditions\, diversity\, imagination and creativity.” The Cinema of Soviet Kazakhstan 1925–1991: An Uneasy Legacy explores how Kazakh filmmakers struggled to develop their distinctive voices under Soviet mentorship\, and how their achievements deserve to be rediscovered. \n\n\n\nThe GW Elliott School of International Affairs Book Launch Series is proud to present a virtual discussion of the book\, co-sponsored by the Central Asia Program. This fully virtual event will feature remarks by Dr. Alyssa Ayres\, Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs\, presentations by the author and by Dr. Beumers- a leading specialist on Kazakh Cinema – and a moderated Q&A. \n\n\n\nAbout the Author \n\n\n\nPeter Rollberg is a Professor of Slavic Languages\, Film Studies and International Affairs at the George Washington University\, and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Research Initiatives at the Elliott School of International Affairs. He has also served as Director of the GWU Honors Program\, of the Film Studies Program\, and of the Institute for European\, Russian\, and Eurasian Studies. His other publications include The A to Z of Russian and Soviet Cinema\, and The Modern Encyclopedia of East Slavic\, Baltic\, and Central Asian Literatures. He holds a Ph.D. in Russian Literature from the University of Leipzig. \n\n\n\nAbout the Dean \n\n\n\nAlyssa Ayres is the Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Her work focuses primarily on India’s role in the world and on U.S. relations with South Asia in the larger Indo-Pacific. Before joining the Elliott School\, she was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations\, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia under the Obama administration. She holds a Ph.D. in South Asian Languages and Literatures from the University of Chicago. \n\n\n\nAbout the Host \n\n\n\nGraham Cornwell is the Assistant Dean for Research at the Elliott School\, where he leads the school research portfolio and grants administration. He has served as a research consultant at the U.S. Institute of Peace Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States\, and is also a proud alumnus of the Elliott School. He earned his Ph.D. in Middle East History from Georgetown University\, where his work was supported by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad. \n\n\n\nAbout the Moderator \n\n\n\nMarlene Laruelle is a Research Professor of International Affairs at the Elliott School and Director of the Institute for European\, Russian\, and Eurasian Studies. Her work focuses on the rise of populist and illiberal movements in post-Soviet Eurasia\, Europe and Central Asia\, and she has held multiple grants from the U.S. State Department\, the Defense Department\, and the National Science Foundation. She holds a Ph.D. in History from INALCO Paris. \n\n\n\nAbout the Panelist \n\n\n\nBirgit Beumers is Professor Emeritus in Film Studies at the University of Aberystwyth (UK). She specializes in Russian culture\, cinema and theatre\, and the cinemas of the former Soviet territories. Her publications include A History of Russian Cinema\, A Companion to Russian Cinema (editor)\, and Cinema in Central Asia: Rewriting Cultural Histories (editor). She is also an editor of the book series KINO (Bloomsbury)\, and of KinoSputniks (intellect)\, as well as of the journals KinoKultura and Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema. URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/book-launch-the-cinema-of-soviet-kazakhstan-1925-1991-an-uneasy-legacy/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive,Kazakhstan ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/9781793641755-_1_.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210823T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210823T120000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210812T150215Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210812T150219Z UID:190697-1629716400-1629720000@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Ground Truth: Local Views About The Taliban's Return DESCRIPTION:An online discussion with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Central Asia Program \n\n\n\nIn the span of just a few days\, the Taliban has reached the borders of Central Asia\, having seized control of large swaths of land in northern Afghanistan. The Taliban’s return and the ongoing escalations have altered the day-to-day lives of locals\, with many on the move in search of shelter and hundreds having crossed into Tajikistan so far. \n\n\n\nAs the Taliban’s offensive continues and Afghan forces and local militia groups prepare to fight back against further escalation\, Tajikistan is setting up a camp capable of hosting up to 100\,000 refugees. Meanwhile\, Central Asian governments have been conducting a massive combat-readiness check and relocating thousands of additional troops and heavy military equipment to the border. In sum\, the recent developments in northern Afghanistan have changed realities on the ground\, with far-reaching potential implications for residents of the border regions. \n\n\n\nPlease join us on August 23 at 11am EST for a discussion about the developments in northern Afghanistan from the local perspective\, including ordinary people’s views of the Taliban’s return and their take on what the future holds for them. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegister\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers \n\n\n\nMalali Bashir is a journalist and video producer with RFE/RL’s Afghan Service\, Radio Free Afghanistan. Bashir\, who is from Kabul\, has covered a range of topics related to Afghanistan\, often with a women’s rights perspective. Along with her work at RFE/RL\, Bashir has written for BBC Pashto\, Foreign Policy\, and The Daily Times\, and she has edited Afghan magazines. Prior to her journalistic work\, Malali was a Fulbright scholar at Brandeis University\, Massachusetts. \n\n\n\nSirojiddin Tolibov is the Managing Editor of RFE/RL’s Tajik Service. Having reported on operations against Islamic militants from the main hot spots in Tajikistan\, Uzbekistan\, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan throughout his journalistic career\, he is an expert on security matters\, Islamic groups\, human rights\, and social and economic issues in Central Asia. Prior to RFE/RL\, Tolibov spent 20 years with the BBC World Service’s Central Asian unit as a reporter\, manager\, news anchor\, and editor. In 2001\, he has announced the Service’s Best Reporter. He has also performed leading roles in award-winning BBC radio dramas. \n\n\n\nMélanie Sadozaï is a PhD candidate in International Relations at the Center for Europe and Eurasian Studies (CREE) at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO/Sorbonne Paris Cité) in Paris\, France\, and a Visiting Scholar at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the George Washington University. Prior to becoming a doctoral student\, Mélanie graduated with a B.A. in Persian linguistics and civilizations from INALCO\, and two M.A. in International Relations and War Studies from Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne. Her research is based on long-time fieldwork and focuses on cross-border activities as resources in the remote areas of Tajikistan and Afghanistan in the Pamirs. Through an empirically oriented methodology\, she challenges the widespread perception of the Southern border of Tajikistan which associates it with images of violence and danger. Since 2018\, Mélanie has presented her research during academic events in France\, Ukraine\, Kirghizstan and the United States. She has namely published in the Journal of Borderlands Studies and the Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies. \n\n\n\nMarlene Laruelle\, Moderator \n\n\n\nMarlene Laruelle\, Ph.D.\, is Director\, Institute for European\, Russian\, and Eurasian Studies; Director\, Central Asia Program; Director\, Illiberalism Studies Program; Co-Director\, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University. Marlene’s research explores the transformations of nationalist and conservative ideologies in Russia\, nationhood construction in Central Asia\, as well as the development of Russia’s Arctic regions. URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/ground-truth-local-views-about-the-talibans-return/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/8153255174_8458ecdcbe_k.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210727T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210727T110000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210721T191112Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210722T134554Z UID:189010-1627380000-1627383600@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Afghanistan\, Central Asia\, and the Resurgence of the Taliban DESCRIPTION:As Talibans are progressing in retaking control of Afghanistan\, Central Asian states and border communities found themselves in a situation of neighboring Taliban-government regions\, with potential implications for their own territory. Join us to discuss the situation and insights from the field with Mélanie Sadozaï\, Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili\, Antonio Giustozzi\, and Marlene Laruelle. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegister\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMélanie Sadozaï is a PhD candidate in International Relations at the Center for Europe and Eurasian Studies (CREE) at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO/Sorbonne Paris Cité) in Paris\, France\, and a Visiting Scholar at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the George Washington University. Prior to becoming a doctoral student\, Mélanie graduated with a B.A. in Persian linguistics and civilizations from INALCO\, and two M.A. in International Relations and War Studies from Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne. Her research is based on long-time fieldwork and focuses on cross-border activities as resources in the remote areas of Tajikistan and Afghanistan in the Pamirs. Through an empirically oriented methodology\, she challenges the widespread perception of the Southern border of Tajikistan which associates it with images of violence and danger. Since 2018\, Mélanie has presented her research during academic events in France\, Ukraine\, Kirghizstan and the United States. She has namely published in the Journal of Borderlands Studies and the Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nJennifer Brick Murtazashvili is Associate Professor of International Affairs and Director of the Center for Governance and Markets at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of the award-winning book\, Informal Order and the State in Afghanistan and her second book\, Land\, the State\, and War: Property Right and Political Order is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press. She has more than twenty years working across the region and has done extensive ethnographic and survey work across both sides of the Afghanistan-Central Asian border. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nDr. Antonio Giustozzi is an independent researcher born in Ravenna\, Italy\, who took his PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is the author of several articles and papers on Afghanistan\, as well as of seven books\, War\, politics and society in Afghanistan\, 1978-1992 (Georgetown University Press)\, Koran\, Kalashnikov and laptop: the Neo-Taliban insurgency\, 2002-7 (Columbia University Press)\, Empires of mud: war and warlords in Afghanistan (Columbia University Press)\, Policing Afghanistan (with M. Ishaqzada\, Columbia University Press\, 2013)\, The army of Afghanistan (Hurst\, 2016)\, the Islamic State in Khorasan (Hurst\, 2018) and Taliban at war (OUP USA\, 2019). He also authored a volume on the role of coercion and violence in state-building\, The Art of Coercion (Columbia University Press\, 2011)\, one on advisory missions (Missionaries of modernity\, Hurst\, 2016) and edited a volume on the Taliban\, Decoding the New Taliban (Columbia University Press\, 2009)\, featuring contributions by specialists from different backgrounds. He is currently senior research fellow at RUSI. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nMarlene Laruelle\, Moderator \n\n\n\nMarlene Laruelle\, Ph.D.\, is Director\, Institute for European\, Russian\, and Eurasian Studies; Director\, Central Asia Program; Director\, Illiberalism Studies Program; Co-Director\, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University. Marlene’s research explores the transformations of nationalist and conservative ideologies in Russia\, nationhood construction in Central Asia\, as well as the development of Russia’s Arctic regions. URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/afghanistan-central-asia-and-the-resurgence-of-the-taliban/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/4614113799_4763f02f5f_c.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210621T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210621T120000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210616T162404Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210616T162928Z UID:178013-1624273200-1624276800@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Marriage Quandaries in Central Asia DESCRIPTION:Register\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe reality of marriage across Central Asia is complicated. Not only does the term “marriage” cover a wide range of practices and achievements\, but many non-marital relationships co-exist too. This tension—the flexibility of marriage in form and function\, and its overlap with non-marriage\, on the one hand\, and its abiding importance and (at times) self-evidentiary nature\, on the other—arguably lies at the heart of marriage-as-practice in Central Asia. Following recent turns in kinship studies and long-standing feminist traditions\, this discussion envisions marriage as a relational practice of legitimization rather than pinning down any particular content that it includes. We argue that by focusing on the act of getting married\, its efficacy\, and the disputes\, questions\, and conflicts that sometime arise as a result—in short\, the quandaries of getting married—we can get at everyday concerns and major societal issues wrapped up in marriage in Central Asia. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJuliette Cleuziou is an assistant professor in anthropology at University Lumière Lyon 2 France. She has been working on migration in Russia since 2008 and on Tajikistan since 2011. She wrote her PhD on marriage\, gender and ritual economy in Tajikistan\, and is now conducting a project on the management of death among Central Asian migrants in Russia. \n\n\n\nJulie McBrien is Associate Professor of Anthropology\, University of Amsterdam; Director of the AISSR Research Program Group Globalizing Cultures; and the Vice-Director of the Amsterdam Research Centre for Gender and Sexuality. She is currently researching marriage and the politics of the future in Kyrgyzstan\, as a part of the ERC Funded Project Building a Better Tomorrow: Development Knowledge and Practice in Central Asia and Beyond\, 1970-2017. She is the author of From Belonging to Belief: Modern Secularisms and the Construction of Religion in Kyrgyzstan (Pittsburgh University Press\, 2017) and author of numerous articles on gender\, religion\, secularism\, and politics in journals like Anthropology Today\, JRAI\, Material Religion and Critique of Anthropology. \n\n\n\nTommaso Trevisani (Dr. phil. in Social Anthropology from the Free University\, Berlin) is Associate Professor at the Department of Asian\, African and Mediterranean Studies\, University of Naples L’Orientale\, where he teaches Societies and Cultures of Central Asia and coordinates the Centro Studi sull’Asia Centrale\, Tibet e Iran (CSACTI). He has conducted extensive fieldwork in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and is author of numerous publications on agrarian and environmental change; class and industrial work; ritual\, marriage and society; state- and nation-building in socialist and post-socialist Central Asia. \n\n\n\nAnna Cieślewska\, PhD is a social anthropologist. As a result of her interest in Central Asian socio-economic development issues and the geopolitics of Central Asia and Caucasus\, as well as in Islam and local traditions in the post-Soviet region\, she has spent the last fifteen years conducting research and development projects in the CIS region\, and the Middle East. Recently she has been living between Warsaw and Tbilisi working on various topics including Islam\, ethnic and national minorities in Georgia\, migration from Central Asia and the Caucasus to Russia and the EU. \n\n\n\nRune Steenberg is an anthropologist specializing in Uyghur and Xinjiang studies. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in Xinjiang in 2010-2016 and since then in the Uyghur diaspora in Europe and Turkey. He has previously worked in other parts of China\, Kyrgyzstan and Indonesia. Rune has researched and published on Uyghur kinship\, cross-border trade\, informality\, economic transformation as well as local intellectual discourses\, ideology\, propaganda\, surveillance and mass incarceration. Rune received his PhD from Freie Universität Berlin in 2014 and has since held research positions at Bonn Universität\, Columbia University\, University of Copenhagen and Palacky University Olomouc where he currently leads a research team on Xinjiang and Uyghur matters. \n\n\n\nSebastien Peyrouse\, Moderator \n\n\n\nSebastien Peyrouse\, PhD\, is a Research Professor at the Central Asia Program in the Institute for European\, Russian and Eurasian Studies (George Washington University) and a Senior Fellow with the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China relations. His main areas of expertise are political systems in Central Asia\, economic and social issues\, Islam and religious minorities\, and Central Asia’s geopolitical positioning toward China\, India and South Asia. URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/marriage-quandaries-in-central-asia-2/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/bride-putting-ring-her-husband-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210617T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210617T120000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210608T210756Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210617T135840Z UID:144223-1623927600-1623931200@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Rising Civic Engagement in Central Asia and Azerbaijan DESCRIPTION:The Central Asia Program is proud to announce our Spring 2021 CAAFP Fellows’ Final Research Presentation. Join us for a brief seminar featuring our scholars from Azerbaijan\, Turkmenistan\, and Kazakhstan as they present their research on the current cultural\, educational\, environmental\, and gender related issues in Central Asia. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\nRegister\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpring 2021 CAAFP Fellows and Their Research Topics\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nViolent Extremism and Youth: How to Build a Productive Dialogue Between Young People and Government \n\n\n\nThe paper analyzes current Kazakhstani policy for preventing violent extremism (PVE) and\, based on the results of field research (a survey and focus groups with young people)\, suggests possible mechanisms and methods for improving PVE policy targeted at youth. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\nAnastassiya Reshetnyak holds a BA and MA in Area Studies from al-Farabi Kazakh National University (Almaty). She is currently a PhD student at L.N. Gumilev Eurasian National University (Nur-Sultan). Her research interests include the prevention of terrorism and violent extremism\, societal security\, and youth policy. She works at KazISS under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan; she is also a part of PaperLab Research Group. Anastassiya has worked with UN institutions (UNDP\, UNODC\, IOM) as a national expert/consultant and participated in USAID projects on PVE. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nEducated-Abroad Youth and the Advancement of Gender Equality in Turkmenistan: A Cog in the Machine or a Game Changer? \n\n\n\nThe study explores the potential of youth educated abroad\, particularly in Belarus and Russia\, to become socially engaged in addressing gender inequality upon their return to Turkmenistan. The issue of gender equality provides an important lens for measuring the civic maturity of this group and its interest in—and commitment to—positive progressive change. The study explores these students’ motivation to get involved in addressing these issues\, investigates their gender perceptions\, and evaluates the extent to which their experiences studying and living abroad have contributed to their understanding of their own social roles and to their interest in social activism. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\nRustam Muhamedov is an independent researcher from Turkmenistan. His research interests include political\, societal and security developments in Turkmenistan and wider Central Asia\, digitalization and cybersecurity\, and youth activism. Rustam has broad and diverse academic and professional experience\, including engagement with the wider OSCE network. Rustam holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from the OSCE Academy in Bishkek (2019) and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations from American University in Bulgaria (2014). \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nInequality Between Students of Rural and Urban Schools of Kazakhstan: Reasons and Prospects for Overcoming it \n\n\n\nThis research aims to analyze factors leading to inequality between students in rural and urban schools\, as well as to find a solution to the on-the-ground issue. The empirical part of the study is based on a mass online survey whose respondents included the heads and teachers of rural and urban secondary schools\, as well as semi-structured interviews with representatives of the education sector: researchers\, experts\, and managers of secondary education. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\nZhaslan Nurbayev is a PhD / Candidate of Sciences in History\, Associate Professor of the Department of Regional Studies of the L.N. Gumilev Eurasian National University. In 2014-2015\, he completed an internship under the Bolashak Scholarship program\, majoring in “Political Problems of International Relations and Global Development” at the George Washington University. Zhaslan is a graduate of the Soros Foundation Kazakhstan Public Policy Initiative. In 2019\, he took part in the Central Asian School of Analysts Cabar.Asia\, implemented by IWPR together with the OSCE Academy. His research interests include the history of religions\, the social policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan\, and reforms in the field of education. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nOwning and Disowning the Female Body: Mediating Gender\, Power and Emerging Markets \n\n\n\nAida explores contemporary female representation and its public perception in Kazakhstan. Through the case study of a particular social media influencer\, she demonstrates the transformation of body practices and female sexuality from the pre-Soviet period to the present. Her research hypothesis suggests that female sexuality in Kazakhstan is located in the borderland between several contradicting public domains (including media\, culture\, and policy) and creates significant struggles for women in Kazakhstan. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\nAida Naizabekova is a young researcher interested in gender\, media\, and public policy. She previously interned at leading Australian communication agencies and is currently a Public Relations Specialist for a leading IT company developing socially significant startups for positive social impact in Kazakhstan. She holds a MA in Strategic Public Relations from the University of Sydney\, Australia\, and a BH in Foreign Philology from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nTransition to Sustainability in Azerbaijan: Policy Review and Analysis \n\n\n\nThe policy paper explores Azerbaijan’s sustainability policies (2010-2020) by synthesizing public opinion data on environmental matters and economic growth and reviewing sustainable development policies. The brief takes a systems thinking approach to existing policy gaps and policy recommendations\, analyzing and designing holistic solutions to environmental challenges and economic development and integrating local knowledge and practices in order to achieve community-level sustainability frames. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\nIlaha Abasli’s research at GWU explores ways of integrating local (grassroots) experience and knowledge into sustainability and development policies in the post-Soviet context (specifically Azerbaijan). She is a PhD researcher at Institute of Social Studies\, Erasmus Rotterdam University. Ilaha holds a Master’s degree in International Development and Emerging Economies from King’s College London. She is also engaged in international development and sustainability consultancy work with the FAO (UN)\, the GIZ\, and local NGOs. Besides her fieldwork and research\, Ilaha has taught “Economic Development Models” to graduate students at Azerbaijan State University of Economics. URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/rising-civic-engagement-in-central-asia-and-azerbaijan/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/caafp-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210610T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210610T113000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210525T183912Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210525T183917Z UID:80830-1623319200-1623324600@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:China's Vaccine Diplomacy In Central Asia: What Next? DESCRIPTION:RSVP\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAs COVID-19 continues to rage throughout Central Asia\, China has been sending millions of doses of vaccines\, mostly free of cost\, to the region\, thus expanding its ever-growing footprint there. Alongside vaccine diplomacy\, Beijing has also been very active in solidifying its place as the leading player providing a lifeline to the region’s struggling economy\, transitioning BRI from major infrastructure deals to forms that meet local demand as well as China’s domestic needs. This shift was apparent during this month’s summit with the Central Asian states\, where Beijing set up numerous initiatives that are far less flashy than the infrastructure deals we have become accustomed to seeing. China’s intention is not only to win plaudits for fulfilling short-term vaccine needs in the region\, but also to cement its influence and advance its interests in Central Asia in the long term. Please join us on June 10 between 10 and 11:30am EST for a discussion of what comes next in China’s vaccine diplomacy in Central Asia. \n\n\n\nInformation about Speakers \n\n\n\nFeature Photo: Marco Verch via Flickr URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/chinas-vaccine-diplomacy-in-central-asia-what-next/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/51058592938_d4f1225461_k.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210608T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210608T110000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210602T151749Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210602T151755Z UID:109406-1623146400-1623150000@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Remembering Kazakhstan's Great Famine of the 1930s DESCRIPTION:May 31 marks the Remembrance Day of the Victims of Political Repression and Famine in Kazakhstan. The great famine of 1931–1933\, also known as Asharshylyk\, resulted from forced collectivization and sedentarization undertaken by the Soviet regime. According to some sources\, more than 1.5 million people\, approximately one-third of the Kazakh population\, perished. Several hundred thousand survivors fled Kazakhstan to escape the famine. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev\, in his article “Independence: A Most Precious Thing\,” pointed out that the mass famine in Kazakhstan has not been comprehensively studied. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegister\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers \n\n\n\nYerzhan Ashikbayev\, Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the United States \n\n\n\nPrior to his appointment as the Ambassador to the United States\, Mr. Yerzhan Ashikbayev has served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan (2013-2021). Before becoming Deputy Minister\, he held the position of Deputy Head of the Prime Minister’s Office – Official Representative of the Government of Kazakhstan since 2012. In 2012-2013\, Mr. Yerzhan Ashikbayev previously served as Chief of the Foreign Policy Centre of the Presidential Administration of Kazakhstan. He speaks Russian\, English\, Turkish and French. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nSarah Cameron\, Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland\, College Park \n\n\n\nSarah Cameron’s research interests include genocide and crimes against humanity\, environmental history\, and the societies and cultures of Central Asia. She is the author of The Hungry Steppe: Famine\, Violence\, and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan (Cornell University Press\, 2018)\, which examines the causes and consequences of one of the most heinous crimes of the Stalinist regime\, the Kazakh famine of 1930-33. In the United States\, the book won four book awards and two honorable mentions. It also provoked intense discussion in Kazakhstan\, where the famine remains a sensitive topic in part due to the country’s close relationship with Russia. Russian and Kazakh translations have been released\, and the book was the top selling history title in Kazakhstan for 2020. At present\, Prof. Cameron is at work on a new book-length project examining the transformation of the Aral Sea in Central Asia over the course of the twentieth century. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nPeter Rollberg\, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Research Initiatives\, Elliott School of International Affairs\, GWU \n\n\n\nDr. Rollberg earned his Ph.D. in 1988 at the University of Leipzig\, Germany. His main field of expertise is Russian literature and film. His publications include articles in Russian\, English\, and German on Bogdanov\, Bulgakov\, Nabokov\, Grossman\, Makanin\, Kim\, and Russian cinema\, as well as translations of Russian literature. He recently released The Cinema of Soviet Kazakhstan 1925–1991: An Uneasy Legacy (Lexington\, 2021). Together with Dagmar Kassek\, he edited five volumes of essays on literary theory and Slavic studies. Professor Rollberg won the Trachtenberg Teaching Award in 2001 and a Bender Teaching Prize in 1999. From 1999 to 2001\, he was Chair of the German and Slavic Department\, from 2001 to 2003\, he served as Director of the University Honors Program\, and from 1997 to 2010\, he directed GW’s Film Studies Program. He was Chair of the Department of Romance\, German\, and Slavic Languages and Literatures from 2006 to 2009. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nDosym Satpayev\, Director of Kazakhstan Risk Assessment Group and a member of the presidium of the Kazakhstan Council on International Relations \n\n\n\nDosym Satpayev\, Ph.D. Since 2002\, the founding Director of the non-governmental consulting organization “Kazakhstan-Risks Assessment Group” and a member of the Presidium of “Kazakhstan Council on International Relations”. Founder of the private cultural and educational fund and literary project “Sóz”. Co-founder of the literary contest “Altyn Kalam”. Last year Dosym Satpayev’s Foundation has published Sarah Cameron’s book on the famine and repressions of the 1930s\, The Hungry Steppe: Famine\, Violence\, and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan in Kazakh. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nMarlene Laruelle\, Moderator \n\n\n\nMarlene Laruelle\, Ph.D.\, is Director\, Institute for European\, Russian\, and Eurasian Studies; Director\, Central Asia Program; Director\, Illiberalism Studies Program; Co-Director\, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University. Marlene’s research explores the transformations of nationalist and conservative ideologies in Russia\, nationhood construction in Central Asia\, as well as the development of Russia’s Arctic regions. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nPhoto: The monument to famine victims in Almaty. Photo from Azattyq.org URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/remembering-kazakhstans-great-famine-of-the-1930s/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive,Kazakhstan ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/8bba9bb2-a8c5-46fd-b6cf-76884bc5a317.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210527T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210527T103000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210512T155544Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241014T191612Z UID:28060-1622106000-1622111400@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Trends and Challenges in Addressing Human Trafficking in Central Asia: Civil Society and Survivor Perspectives DESCRIPTION:Тенденции и Проблемы в Борьбе с Торговлей Людьми в Центральной Азии: Взгляд Гражданского Общества и Потерпевших \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\nRegister/Регистрация\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCentral Asia is a source\, and to a lesser extent a transit and destination point\, of victims trafficked for the purposes of both sexual and labor exploitation. Cases of victims forced into prostitution in the Middle East or Asia or forced to work in construction or various industries in Russia or Ukraine are underreported and generally have not received the same international attention as has domestic trafficking for the cotton harvest. While all five countries have – to varying degrees – taken important steps to introduce new laws and policies against trafficking in human beings\, there are still significant shortcomings\, including in the identification of victims\, investigation techniques\, prosecution of traffickers and assistance to victims. Effectively countering human trafficking is further challenged by the distrust of victims towards law enforcement and reluctance to ask for assistance. Victims are more likely to turn to non-governmental organizations rather than police. This event will discuss the current human trafficking trends in Central Asia and focus on the challenges experienced by civil society in providing assistance and promoting the application of a human rights based\, victim-centered and trauma-informed approach in victim identification and in the provision of protection and assistance to victims in their respective country.  \n\n\n\n*English and Russian interpretation will be provided. Перевод на английский и русский язык будет обеспечен. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPROGRAM OVERVIEW/ПРОГРАММА \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOpening Remarks by Tatiana Kotlyarenko\, OSCE/ODIHR Adviser on Anti-Trafficking Issues \n\n\n\nSpeakersKhadija Abysheva\, Director of Sana Sezim (Kazakhstan)Nodira Karimova\, Director of Istiqbolli Avlod (Uzbekistan)Sanoat Akhtamovna Solieva\, Director of Femida (Tajikistan)Mirlan Kydyrmyshev\, Coordinator of Kovcheg (Kyrgyzstan)Vera Gracheva\, President of Alternative (Russian Federation)Marina Gorbunova\, Member of OSCE/ODIHR InternationalSurvivors of Trafficking Advisory Council (Uzbekistan)Moderator: Sebastien Peyrouse\, Central Asia Program\, GWU \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nВступительное слово Татьяны Котляренко\, Советника ОБСЕ/БДИПЧ по вопросам борьбы с торговлей людьми \n\n\n\nСпикерыХадиджа Абышева\, Директор ОО «Сана Сезim» (Казахстан)Нодира Каримова\, Директор центра «Istiqbolli Avlod»(Узбекистан)Саноат Ахтамовна Солиева\, Директор ОО «Фемида»(Таджикистан)Мирлан Кыдырмышев\, Координатор общественного фонда«Ковчег» (Кыргызстан)Вера Грачева\, Президент компании «Альтернатива»(Российская Федерация)Марина Горбунова\, член Международного Консультативного Совета ОБСЕ / БДИПЧ для лиц\, пострадавших от торговли людьми (Узбекистан)Модератор: Себастьян Пейруз\, Программа по Центральной Азии\, Университет Джорджа Вашингтона URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/trends-and-challenges-in-addressing-human-trafficking-in-central-asia-civil-society-and-survivor-perspectives/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/civilsociety.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210505T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210505T120000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210423T151008Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241014T191710Z UID:19852-1620212400-1620216000@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Representing Cultural Diversity in Russia. The Eurovision contest and Manizha's "Russian Woman" Performance DESCRIPTION:Representing Cultural Diversity in Russia. The Eurovision contest and Manizha’s “Russian Woman” Performance \n\n\n\nwith Mark Simon \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPhoto: MANIZHA on Instagram \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\nRSVP\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe nomination of Manizha Sangin\, a Russian singer of Tajik origin\, for the EurovisionSong Contest seems to have come as a surprise to everyone. On the one hand\, this concerns theconservative part of Russian society\, which various political forces are trying to mobilize\,condemning Manizha for insulting the image of a Russian woman. On the other hand\, this eventcontributed to the solidarity of new social and cultural agents advocating the value of diversityand freedom of self-identification in Russia. \n\n\n\nIn his presentation\, the speaker will focus on the following questions. Why was theperformance of the “Russian Woman” perceived by a significant part of the Russian public as aviolation of the canon of representing “Russianness”? Whom does Manizha herself seek torepresent in her public activities? Can it be argued that the singer’s stage image meets thedemand for public visibility emanating from the migrant communities in Russia? What is thenew discourse of diversity in Russia\, and what social actors are transmitting this discourse intothe public sphere? \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers \n\n\n\n\n\n\nMark Simon is a leading research fellow at the Centre for Political Theory and Applied Political Science of the Russian Academy of National Economy (RANEPA) and an assistant professor at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences (MSSES). In recent years\, he has been studying the artistic practices of migrants in European countries and in Russia. He haswritten such articles as “The Oeuvre of Migrants as a Problem of the Sociology of Culture: Newcomers from Tajikistan in Russia” [Neprikosnovenniy zapas 119(3)\, co-authored by Vladimir Malakhov and Saodat Olimova]\, “Staging Urban Diversity: Migrants on Theatrical Stages in Berlin and Moscow” [Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Research 12(1)]\, “Soviet in Form\, National in Content: Central Asian Migrants in the Cultural Infrastructure of Moscow” [The Journal of Social Policy Studies 18(4)]. \n \nMarlene Laruelle\, Moderator\nMarlene Laruelle\, Ph.D.\, is Director\, Institute for European\, Russian\, and Eurasian Studies; Director\, Central Asia Program; Co-Director\, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University. She works on political\, social and cultural changes in the post-Soviet space. Marlene’s research explores the transformations of nationalist and conservative ideologies in Russia\, nationhood construction in Central Asia\, as well as the development of Russia’s Arctic regions. She has been the Principal Investigator of several grants on Russian nationalism\, on Russia’s strategies in the Arctic\, and on Central Asia’s domestic and foreign policies from the US State Department\, the Defense Department\, the National Science Foundation\, Open Society Foundations\, Carnegie Corporation of New York\, the Henry Luce Foundation\, etc. URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/representing-cultural-diversity-in-russia-the-eurovision-contest-and-manizhas-russian-woman-performance/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Manizha-Sangin.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210420T103000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210420T113000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210414T160159Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241014T191729Z UID:19980-1618914600-1618918200@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:The Bukharan Crisis: A Connected History of 18th - Century Central Asia DESCRIPTION:The Bukharan Crisis: A Connected History of 18th – Century Central Asia with author Scott Levi\, Professor Christopher P. Atwood\, and moderator Marlene Laruelle \n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\nRSVP\n\n\n\n\nIn the first half of the eighteenth century\, Central Asia’s Bukharan Khanate descended into a crisis from which it would not recover. Bukharans suffered failed harvests and famine\, a severe fiscal downturn\, invasions from the north and the south\, rebellion\, and then revolution. To date\, efforts to identify the cause of this crisis have focused on the assumption that the region became isolated from early modern globalizing trends. The Bukharan Crisis exposes that explanation as a flawed relic of early Orientalist scholarship on the region. \n\n\n\nIn its place\, Scott Levi identifies multiple causal factors that underpinned the Bukharan crisis. Some of these were interrelated and some independent\, some unfolded over long periods while others shocked the region more abruptly\, but they all converged in the early eighteenth century to the detriment of the Bukharan Khanate and those dependent upon it. Levi applies an integrative framework of analysis that repositions Central Asia in recent scholarship on multiple themes in early modern Eurasian and world history. \n\n\n\nSpeakers \n\n\n\n\n\n\nScott Levi\, Author \nScott Levi is Professor of Central Asian History at the Ohio State University\, where he serves as chair of the Department of History and interim chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. He works mainly on the social and economic history of early modern Central Asia\, and his work aims to place the region in a broader\, world historical context. He has published a number of articles\, chapters\, and books\, the most recent of which are The Rise and Fall of Khoqand\, 1709–1876: Central Asia in the Global Age (Pittsburgh\, 2017) and The Bukharan Crisis: A Connected History of 18th-Century Central Asia (Pittsburgh\, 2020). He currently serves as editor-in-chief for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian Commercial History. \nChristopher P. Atwood\, Discussant \nChristopher P. Atwood is Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania\, where he teaches the history of Mongolia and the Inner Asian borderlands of China. He received his Ph.D. from Indiana University’s Central Eurasian Studies Department\, where he worked with György Kara\, Lynn Struve\, Elliot Sperling\, and Jeff Wasserstrom. Before coming to Penn\, he taught for two decades at Indiana University\, serving as department chair and interim director of the Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region. After getting by A.B. from Harvard University (1986)\, where he was introduced to Mongolian and Chinese studies by Joseph Fletcher and Francis W. Cleaves\, he spent two years in Inner Mongolia\, traveling and taking classes in the Mongolian language and literature department at Höhhot’s Inner Mongolia Normal University. \nMarlene Laruelle\, Moderator \nMarlene Laruelle\, Ph.D.\, is Director\, Institute for European\, Russian\, and Eurasian Studies; Director\, Central Asia Program; Director of Illiberalism Studies Program; Co-Director\, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University. She works on political\, social and cultural changes in the post-Soviet space. Marlene’s research explores the transformations of nationalist and conservative ideologies in Russia\, nationhood construction in Central Asia\, as well as the development of Russia’s Arctic regions. URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/the-bukharan-crisis-a-connected-history-of-18th-century-central-asia/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Bukharan-Crisis-Cover.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210416T103000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210416T113000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210412T162003Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241014T191739Z UID:19899-1618569000-1618572600@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Память из пламени Афганистана DESCRIPTION:Память из пламени Афганистана \n\n\n\nс Ботагоз Ракишевой\, Эльмирой Ногойбаевой и Марлен Ларуэль \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nРегистрация\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nПроект «Память из пламени Афганистана» был инициирован Марлен Ларуэль (директор Института исследований Европы\, России и Евразии (IERES)\, директор Программы по изучению Центральной Азии\, со-руководитель программы PONARS-Eurasia\, профессор –исследователь Международных отношений в Университете Джорджа Вашингтона) и Ботагоз Ракишевой (Исследовательский институт «Общественное мнение»\, Казахстан) в 2012 году. Основной задачей проекта был сбор информации об афганской войне от её непосредственных участников для сохранения исторической памяти об одной из трагических страниц истории. На первом этапе Проекта были проведены интервью (Oral history) с воинами-интернационалистами Афганской войны 1979-1989 годов из Казахстана\, Таджикистана и Узбекистана и снят документальный фильм. Всего было проведено 20 интервью в Узбекистане\, 31 интервью в Таджикистане\, 21 интервью в Казахстане. По итогам проекта были подготовлены три тома\, которые были опубликованы казахстанским институтом стратегических исследований (КИСИ) при Президенте Республики Казахстан. Авторский коллектив благодарит КИСИ за возможность публикации книг. \n\n\n\nВ 2020 году по инициативе руководителя Аналитического центра «Полис Азия» и проекта «Эсимде» (Кыргызстан) Эльмиры Ногойбаевой проект был проведен в Кыргызстане\, итогом которого стали 4-ый том книги «Память из пламени Афганистана» с интервью с воинами –интернационалистами\, документальный фильм «Человек на войне» и выставка документальной фотографии из архивов кыргызстанцев\, служивших в Афганистане. Над выставкой работали Наталья Андрианова\, Зарема Колкомбаева. Фильм Назикбека Кыдырмышева. В Кыргызстане было взято 21 интервью у ветеранов афганской войны 1979–1989 годов\, у солдат и офицеров из различных родов воинских подразделений. Интервью проводились Руководителем Проекта Эльмирой Ногойбаевой и Назикбеком Кыдырмышевым. Авторы благодарят Институт «Открытое Общество»\, OSI (Open Society Foundation) за возможность публикации книги.  \n\n\n\nКниги размещены на сайтах:Казахстанский институт стратегических исследований при Президенте Республики Казахстан: http://kisi.kz/index.php/ru/2016-godДискуссионная площадка «Эсимде»: http://esimde.org/archives/3130Исследовательский институт «Общественное мнение»: https://opinions.kz/ru/knigi \n\n\n\nДокументальные фильмы размещены на сайтах:«Память из пламени Афганистана» (Казахстан): https://opinions.kz/ru/issledovaniya/filmy«Человек на войне» (Кыргызстан): http://afghan.esimde.org/archives/6646 \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nУчастники Дискуссии \n\n\n\n\n\n\nБотагоз Ракишева\, кандидат социологических наук\, директор Исследовательского института «Общественное мнение»\, Казахстан (https://opinions.kz). Ботагоз является руководителем проекта World Values Survey-7 в Казахстане\, Национальным представителем WAPOR в Казахстане\, членом ESOMAR\, ESCAS\, Научно-экспертного совета Ассамблеи народа Казахстана. С 2020 года является лектором Академии государственного управления при Президенте Республики Казахстан. Раннее работала в Казахстанском институте стратегических исследований при Президенте Республики Казахстан\, Институте сравнительных социальных исследований ЦЕССИ-Казахстан. Научные интересы: методология социологических исследований\, сравнительные межстрановые опросы\, казахская диаспора\, миграция\, социально-политические процессы в Центральной Азии\, молодежь Центральной Азии\, Oral history.  \n \nЭльмира Ногойбаева\, руководитель Аналитического центра «Полис Азия» (Кыргызстан) с 2007 года. Исследователь социально-политических процессов в Центральной Азии. Прежде работала заведующей отделом и редактором аналитического журнала «Ориентир» в Международном институте стратегических исследований при президенте КР. В 2010 году со своей командой исследовала межэтнический конфликт между кыргызами и узбеками\, в том числе “Analysis of the situation in the conflict southern regions of Kyrgyzstan” – ICAF. Основала Академию гражданского просвещения\, которая вошла в Сеть политических исследований Совета Европы (Страсбург). В 2017 году со своими единомышленниками основала исследовательскую площадку «Эсимде» (Я помню)\, основанную на принципах и методах memory studies memory activity в Кыргызстане. \n \nМарлен Ларуэль\, Модератор\nМарлен Ларуэль\, Ph.D\, директор Института исследований Европы\, России и Евразии (IERES)\, директор Программы по изучению Центральной Азии\, со-руководитель программы PONARS-Eurasia\, профессор – исследователь Международных отношений в Университете Джорджа Вашингтона. Она занимается политическими\, социальными и культурными изменениями на постсоветском пространстве\, вопросами идеологии и национальной идентичности в России и Центральной Азии\, а также развитием российской Арктики. Марлен Ларуэль была главным исследователем нескольких грантов по российскому национализму\, по стратегиям России в Арктике\, а также по внутренней и внешней политике Центральной Азии от Государственного департамента США\, Министерства обороны\, Национального научного фонда\, Фонда Открытое Общество\, Корпорации Карнеги в Нью-Йорке\, Фонд Генри Люса и др. URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/pamyat-iz-plameni-afganistana/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Afghan-Event-4-16-21.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210409T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210409T100000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210331T150244Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241014T192124Z UID:19774-1617958800-1617962400@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:The Central Asian Revolt of 1916: A Collapsing Empire in the Age of War and Revolution DESCRIPTION:The Central Asian Revolt of 1916:A Collapsing Empire in the Age of War and Revolutionwith editors Aminat Chokobaeva\, Cloé Drieu\, and Alexander Morrison and Moderator Marlene Laruelle \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\nRSVP\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nThe 1916 Revolt was a key event in the history of Central Asia\, and of the Russian Empire in the First World War. This volume is the first comprehensive re-assessment of its causes\, course and consequences in English for over sixty years. It draws together a new generation of leading historians from North America\, Japan\, Europe\, Russia and Central Asia\, working with Russian archival sources\, oral narratives\, poetry and song in Kazakh and Kyrgyz. These illuminate in unprecedented detail the origins and causes of the revolt\, and the immense human suffering which it entailed. They also situate the revolt in a global perspective as part of a chain of rebellions and disturbances that shook the world’s empires\, as they crumbled under the pressures of total war. \n\n\n\nSpeakers \n\n\n\n\n\n\n \nAminat Chokobaeva\, Editor\n \nAminat is a postdoctoral scholar in Eurasian Studies at Nazarbayev University\, Kazakhstan. A native of Kyrgyzstan\, she completed her PhD at the Australian National University in 2017. Her interests include the uprising of 1916 in nomadic Central Asia as well as the broader issues of state-building and governance in the region in the first two decades of Soviet rule. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n​Cloé Drieu\, Editor\n \nCloé Drieu is a French historian and research fellow at CNRS in CETOBaC (Centre for Turkish\, Ottoman\, Balkan and Central Asia Studies). She specializes in the history of Central Asia during the interwar period\, which she studied through Uzbek cinema. Her book on the subject\, Cinema\, Nation\, and Empire in Uzbekistan\, 1919-1937 (2019) was first published in French (2013). She currently works on the impact of WWI in Central Asia. With colleagues\, she leads seminars at EHESS in Paris (School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences) on WWI\, colonial history and combatant experiences. Since 2019\, she has been coordinating a comparative project on “Mass Violence on the Shatterzones: Caucasus and Central Asia beyond the Great War (1912-1924)”.\n\n \n \n                                                           \n \n \n​Alexander Morrison\, Editor\n \nAlexander Morrison is Fellow and Tutor in History at New College\, Oxford\, and was formerly Professor of History at Nazarbayev University\, Astana and Lecturer in Imperial History at the University of Liverpool. He is the author of The Russian Conquest of Central Asia. A Study in Imperial Expansion 1814 – 1914 (Cambridge\, 2020) and Russian Rule in Samarkand 1868 – 1910. A Comparison with British India (Oxford\, 2008)\, and co-editor (with Aminat Chokobaeva and Cloé Drieu) of The Central Asian Revolt of 1916. A Collapsing Empire in the Age of War and Revolution (Manchester\, 2019).\n\n \n \n \n \n \nMarlene Laruelle\, Moderator\n \nMarlene Laruelle\, Ph.D.\, is Director\, Institute for European\, Russian\, and Eurasian Studies; Director\, Central Asia Program; Co-Director\, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University. She works on political\, social and cultural changes in the post-Soviet space. Marlene’s research explores the transformations of nationalist and conservative ideologies in Russia\, nationhood construction in Central Asia\, as well as the development of Russia’s Arctic regions. She has been the Principal Investigator of several grants on Russian nationalism\, on Russia’s strategies in the Arctic\, and on Central Asia’s domestic and foreign policies from the US State Department\, the Defense Department\, the National Science Foundation\, Open Society Foundations\, Carnegie Corporation of New York\, the Henry Luce Foundation\, etc. URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/the-central-asian-revolt-of-1916-a-collapsing-empire-in-the-age-of-war-and-revolution/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/the-central-asian-revolt-of-1916.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210407T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210407T093000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210331T154526Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241014T192135Z UID:19799-1617782400-1617787800@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:US EXIM Program on China and Transformational Exports: Boosting American Competitiveness in Central Asia and Globally DESCRIPTION:Register\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe American-Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce (AUCC) and the Central Asia Program invite you for a virtual discussion ofUS EXIM Program on China and Transformational Exports: Boosting American Competitiveness in Central Asia and Globally \n\n\n\nAs per the EXIM’s historic seven-year reauthorization (P.L. 116-94)\, signed into law December 20\, 2019\, a new Program on China and Transformational Exports was established to “…support the extension of loans\, guarantees\, and insurance\, at rates and on terms and other conditions\, to the extent practicable\, that are fully competitive with rates\, terms\, and other conditions established by the People’s Republic of China or by other covered countries (as designated by the Secretary of the Treasury). The law charges EXIM with a goal of reserving not less than 20 percent of the agency’s total financing authority (i.e.\, $27 billion out of a total of $135 billion) for support made pursuant to the program.” \n\n\n\nThe discussion will review the program’s two critical aims: \n\n\n\nTo directly neutralize export subsidies for competing goods and services financed by official export credit\, tied aid\, or blended financing provided by China or by other covered countries.To advance the comparative leadership of the United States with respect to China\, or support United States innovation\, employment\, and technological standards\, through direct exports in industries of significant importance to the United States.\n\n\n\nProgram Agenda \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGreetings from Partner-OrganizationsMarlene Laruelle\, Director\, Institute for European\, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES)Director\, Central Asia Program\, The George Washington University  \n\n\n\nDusan Marinkovic\, Sr. International Trade Specialist\, U.S. Commercial Service – No. VA & Washington\, DC\, U.S. Department of Commerce\, International Trade Administration  \n\n\n\nWelcome RemarksFlin Hyre\, Government Affairs\, CNH Industrial  \n\n\n\nOfficial RemarksMatthew Edwards\, Director\, Office of Russia\, Ukraine & Eurasia\, Global Markets Unit\,U.S. Department of Commerce \n\n\n\n PresentationTravis M. Thul\, White House Fellow\, Export-Import Bank of the United States  \n\n\n\nCommentaryCharles Barnett\, Vice President\, Program on China and Transformational Exports\, Export-Import Bank of the United States \n\n\n\nAndrew Rollo\, Vice President\, Program on China and Transformational Exports\, Export-Import Bank of the United States \n\n\n\n ModeratorClaude Fontheim\, CEO of Fontheim International\, LLC\, and Chairman of civil society organizations GlobalWorks Foundation and GoodWeave International \n\n\n\n\nView Full Program URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/us-exim-program-on-china-and-transformational-exports-boosting-american-competitiveness-in-central-asia-and-globally/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/US-Exim-Program-Event-Sponsors-Logos.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210329T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210329T110000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210323T143051Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210326T181742Z UID:19642-1617012000-1617015600@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:The State of Civil Society in Central Asia: Kazakhstan | Состояние Гражданского Общества в Центральной Азии: Казахстан DESCRIPTION:Feature Photo Credit: Simon Sun at Unsplash \n\n\n\n\nRegister | Регистрация\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration is required for this event | Для участия в этом мероприятии требуется регистрация \n\n\n\nThe George Washington University Central Asia Program invites you to the first of four seminars in our Civil Society in Central Asia series. These sessions will be led by Central Asia civil society experts with a goal of not only informing their audiences of current developments in Central Asia\, but also hosting a discussion about potential courses of action for Central Asian civil society. We will be joined by experts Colin Knox\, Dauren Aben and Maksym Sytnikov who will speak about the civil society landscape in Kazakhstan. The session will address broader developmental trends and civil society challenges in Kazakhstan\, recent developments and legislative changes and Kazakhstani civil society’s expectations of Western supporters. A Q&A session will follow the panelist presentations. Panelist presentations will be made in English and simultaneous translation into Russian will be available. \n\n\n\n*Simultaneous interpreting in Russian will be available for this event. To access the Russian translation\, click a globe sign in your respective toolbar once you receive a notification from the host that the interpretation is available. \n\n\n\nПрограмма Университета Джорджа Вашингтона по Центральной Азии приглашает вас на первый из четырех семинаров нашей серии «Гражданское общество в Центральной Азии». Семинары будут проводиться экспертами гражданского общества по региону с целью не только информировать аудиторию о текущих событиях в Центральной Азии\, но и провести обсуждение возможных направлений и действий для гражданского общества в данном регионе. \n\n\n\nК нам присоединятся эксперты Колин Нокс\, Даурен Абен и Максим Сытников\, которые расскажут о состоянии гражданского общества в Казахстане. На этом семинаре будут рассмотрены тенденции развития и проблемы гражданского общества в Казахстане\, последние события и законодательные изменения\, а также ожидания гражданского общества Казахстана в отношении западных сторонников. После своих презентаций\, участники ответят на вопросы аудитории. Презентации и дискуссии будут проводиться на английском языке с синхронным переводом на русский язык. \n\n\n\n*На мероприятии будет доступен синхронный перевод на русский язык. После уведомления от модератора о начале перевода\, вы можете подключиться к русскому переводу\, нажав на иконку в виде земного шара на соответствующей панели инструментов. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWELCOMING REMARKS\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n​Sebastien Peyrouse\, Research Professor\, Central Asia Program\, IERES\, Elliott School of International Affairs\, George Washington UniversitySebastien Peyrouse\, PhD\, is a Research Professor at the Central Asia Program in the Institute for European\, Russian and Eurasian Studies (George Washington University) and a Senior Fellow with the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China relations. His main areas of expertise are political systems in Central Asia\, economic and social issues\, Islam and religious minorities\, and Central Asia’s geopolitical positioning toward China\, India and South Asia.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLisa Coll\, President\, Eurasia Foundation Lisa Coll is president of Eurasia Foundation. Prior to this role\, she was vice president of EF’s Washington\, DC office\, where she was responsible for overseeing EF’s program portfolio and helping EF achieve its strategic goals. She has over 20 years of international development experience in the democracy and governance sector. Since 2001\, Coll has played a key role at Eurasia Foundation\, including guiding the localization of EF’s regional offices between 2004 and 2010 and spearheading the development of the Capacity Mapping Assessment tool\, an organizational assessment method custom-built for EF’s partner foundations. She sits on the board of Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia. From 1999-2001\, Coll served as EF’s Central Asia director\, based in Tashkent\, overseeing a small grants program in Tajikistan\, Turkmenistan\, and Uzbekistan. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPANELISTS\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nColin Knox\, Professor & Vice Dean for Academic Affairs\, Nazarbayev UniversityColin Knox is a Professor and Vice Dean of Academic Affairs in the Graduate School of Public Policy\, Nazarbayev University\, Kazakhstan and Emeritus Professor of Comparative Public Policy at Ulster University in the UK. His research interests include: public sector reform (local and international); local government; and\, the evaluation of public policy. He has worked on public sector reform in many developing countries including: Kazakhstan\, Bangladesh\, China\, Georgia\, Russia\, and Latvia. Knox is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and Fellow of the Higher Teaching Academy (FHEA). \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n​Dauren Aben\, Senior Research Fellow\, Eurasian Research Institute\, International Kazakh-Turkish UniversityDauren Aben is an independent researcher based in Almaty\, Kazakhstan. He previously worked at the Eurasian Research Institute\, Nazarbayev University\, and the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies. A graduate of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey\, Dauren also headed the Almaty office of the Institute’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMaksym Sytnikov\, Advocacy Officer and Analyst\, Open Dialogue FoundationMaksym Sytnikov is a political scientist and graduate of the University of Warsaw. He is a member of the human rights monitoring mission of the Italian Federation for Human Rights in Kazakhstan. Sytnikoy has worked at the Open Dialogue Foundation since 2018. Maksym Sytnikov is also one of coordinators of a global campaign #regimeservants\, which advocates for personal sanctions against perpetrators of human rights violations in Kazakhstan. URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/the-state-of-civil-society-in-central-asia-kazakhstan/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/simon-sun-dZdnoZbUk2w-unsplash-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210325T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210325T113000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210312T152303Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210322T201546Z UID:19301-1616666400-1616671800@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Double Book Launch - March 25\, 2021: Chinese Foreign Policy toward Central Asia and the Silk Roads DESCRIPTION:Chinese Foreign Policy toward Central Asia and the Silk Roadswith Authors Daniel S. Markey & Tim Winter\, Discussant Rodger Baker\, Moderator Sebastien Peyrouse\, and Chair Marlene Laruelle \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRSVP\n\n\n\n\nPresident Xi Jinping has initiated major economic development programs within China and beyond its borders\, including through the controversial Belt and Road Initiative which is forging worldwide connections in infrastructure\, trade\, energy\, finance\, culture and tourism. This places China at the center of a geography of overland and maritime connectivity stretching across more than sixty countries and incorporating almost two-thirds of the world’s population. However\, despite China’s wide ambition\, its engagement abroad and the Belt and Road Initiative will be shaped and redefined as they confront the ground realities of local and regional politics outside China. Essentially\, what does it mean to revive the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century? What are the implications for U.S.-China competition and cooperation in the region? David Markey and Tim Winter will address these important questions based on two monographs they recently published. \n\n\n \nSpeakers\n \nDaniel Markey\, Author\, China’s Western Horizon: Beijing and the New Geopolitics of Eurasia \n\nDaniel Markey\, PhD\, is a senior research professor and academic director at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Global Policy Program and a Senior Fellow with the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute. His latest book\, China’s Western Horizon: Beijing and the New Geopolitics of Eurasia\, was published by Oxford University Press in March 2020. As a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations from 2007 to 2015 he wrote No Exit from Pakistan: America’s Tortured Relationship with Islamabad. From 2003 to 2007\, Dr. Markey served on the Policy Planning Staff at the US Department of State. \n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \nTim Winter\, Author\, Geocultural Power: China’s Quest to Revive the Silk Roads for the Twenty-First Century \n\nTim Winter is an Australian Research Council Professorial Future Fellow at the University of Western Australia\, and Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He pursues an interdisciplinary approach to understand how the past and present are mutually constituted. Tim is author of Geocultural Power: China’s Quest to Revive the Silk Roads for the Twenty First Century (University of Chicago Press 2019) and The Silk Road: geocultural pasts\, geostrategic futures (Oxford University Press\, 2022). See silkroadfutures.net\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \nRodger Baker\, Discussant \nRodger Baker is Senior Vice President for Strategic Analysis for Stratfor. He has spent more than two decades with Stratfor focused on the Indo-Pacific region\, with special attention to China and the Korean Peninsula. He addresses the strategic dynamics of an evolving world system\, looking at great power competition\, the role of middle powers\, and the impacts of technological\, environmental\, and demographic changes on geopolitical relationships. His core emphasis is the multidisciplinary approach to geopolitics and the evolution of international relations to develop mid-and long-term forecasts to assist companies\, governments\, and other globally engaged organizations make informed decisions. Mr. Baker is a Senior Fellow at the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations\, a Steering Fellow for the Mackinder Forum\, and teaches a certificate program in Geopolitical Analysis at Florida Atlantic University.\n\n\n \n\n\n​Sebastien Peyrouse\, Moderator\n \nSebastien Peyrouse\, PhD\, is a Research Professor at the Central Asia Program in the Institute for European\, Russian and Eurasian Studies (George Washington University) and a Senior Fellow with the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China relations. His main areas of expertise are political systems in Central Asia\, economic and social issues\, Islam and religious minorities\, and Central Asia’s geopolitical positioning toward China\, India and South Asia. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n \nMarlene Laruelle\, Chair\n \nMarlene Laruelle\, Ph.D.\, is Director\, Institute for European\, Russian\, and Eurasian Studies; Director\, Central Asia Program; Co-Director\, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University. She works on political\, social and cultural changes in the post-Soviet space. Marlene’s research explores the transformations of nationalist and conservative ideologies in Russia\, nationhood construction in Central Asia\, as well as the development of Russia’s Arctic regions. She has been the Principal Investigator of several grants on Russian nationalism\, on Russia’s strategies in the Arctic\, and on Central Asia’s domestic and foreign policies from the US State Department\, the Defense Department\, the National Science Foundation\, Open Society Foundations\, Carnegie Corporation of New York\, the Henry Luce Foundation\, etc.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRSVP URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/double-book-launch-march-25-2021-chinese-foreign-policy-toward-central-asia-and-the-silk-roads/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Chinas-Western-Horizon-Cover-Markey-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210315T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210315T130000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210303T173223Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210303T173228Z UID:19266-1615809600-1615813200@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Book Launch: March 15 - Pipe Dreams: Water and Empire in Central Asia's Aral Sea Basin DESCRIPTION:Pipe Dreams:Water and Empire in Central Asia’s Aral Sea Basinwith Author Maya K. Peterson\, Discussant ​Artemy M. Kalinovsky\, and Moderator Marlene Laruelle \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\nRSVP\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nPipe Dreams explores the ways in which both the tsarist and Soviet regimes used fantasies of bringing the deserts to life as a means of claiming legitimacy in Central Asia\, a process that ultimately led to the drying up of Central Asia’s Aral Sea. Maya Peterson argues that the disappearance of the Aral Sea\, considered one of the worst environmental catastrophes of the late twentieth century\, is deeply rooted in the dreams of the irrigation age of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries\, a time when not only Russians and Bolsheviks\, but engineers\, scientists\, politicians and entrepreneurs around the world united in the belief that universal scientific knowledge\, together with modern technologies\, could be used to transform large areas of the planet from ‘wasteland’ into productive land. The implications of this broader understanding of the Aral Sea disaster – the transnational aspects of which have often been overlooked in narratives focused on the hubris and folly of communist gigantomania and Soviet disregard for the environment – serve as a reminder that wise water management remains one of our greatest challenges today.   \n\n\n \nSpeakers\n \nMaya Peterson\, Author\n \nMaya K. Peterson is an Associate Professor of History at the University of California\, Santa Cruz. Her research interests include Russian and Central Asian history\, as well as the history of the environment\, science\, technology\, and medicine. Her first monograph\, Pipe Dreams: Water and Empire in Central Asia’s Aral Sea Basin\, published as part of the Cambridge University Press series Studies in Environment and History in 2019\, was a finalist for the Central Eurasian Studies Society’s 2020 Book Prize in History and the Humanities. She is currently working on a transnational history of kumys (fermented mare’s milk) as a therapeutic substance from the nineteenth century through the present.\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \nArtemy Kalinovsky\, Discussant\n \nArtemy M. Kalinovsky is Professor of Russian\, Soviet\, and Post-Soviet Studies at Temple University and the Principal Investigator of the ERC funded project Building a Better Tomorrow: Development Knowledge and Practice in Central Asia and Beyond\, based at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of Laboratory of Socialist Development: Cold War Politics and Decolonization in Soviet Tajikistan (Ithaca: Cornell University Press\, 2018) and A Long Goodbye: The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Cambridge: Harvard University Press\, 2011). He has co-edited a number of volumes on Soviet and Cold War history\, including The End of the Cold War and the Third World (London: Routledge\, 2011)\, with Sergey Radchenko\, and\, most recently\, Alternative Globalizations: Eastern Europe and the Post-Colonial World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press\, 2020)\, with James Mark and Steffi Marung.\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \nMarlene Laruelle\, Moderator\n \nMarlene Laruelle\, Ph.D.\, is Director\, Institute for European\, Russian\, and Eurasian Studies; Director\, Central Asia Program; Co-Director\, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University. She works on political\, social and cultural changes in the post-Soviet space. Marlene’s research explores the transformations of nationalist and conservative ideologies in Russia\, nationhood construction in Central Asia\, as well as the development of Russia’s Arctic regions. She has been the Principal Investigator of several grants on Russian nationalism\, on Russia’s strategies in the Arctic\, and on Central Asia’s domestic and foreign policies from the US State Department\, the Defense Department\, the National Science Foundation\, Open Society Foundations\, Carnegie Corporation of New York\, the Henry Luce Foundation\, etc.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRSVP URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/book-launch-march-15-pipe-dreams-water-and-empire-in-central-asias-aral-sea-basin/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Pipe-Dreams_cover-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210310T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210310T120000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210226T163306Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241014T192145Z UID:19284-1615374000-1615377600@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Book Launch: March 10\, 2021 - Toward Nationalizing Regimes: Conceptualizing Power and Identity in the Post-Soviet Realm DESCRIPTION:Toward Nationalizing Regimes: Conceptualizing Power and Identity in the Post-Soviet Realmwith Author Diana T. Kudaibergenova\, Discussants ​Asel Doolotkeldieva and Maryia Rohava\, and Moderator Marlene Laruelle \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\nRSVP\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe collapse of the Soviet Union famously opened new venues for the theories of nationalism and the study of processes and actors involved in these new nation-building processes. In this comparative study\, Kudaibergenova takes the new states and nations of Eurasia that emerged in 1991\, Latvia and Kazakhstan\, and seeks to better understand the phenomenon of post-Soviet states tapping into nationalism to build legitimacy. What explains this difference in approaching nation-building after the collapse of the Soviet Union? What can a study of two very different trajectories of development tell us about the nature of power\, state and nationalizing regimes of the ‘new’ states of Eurasia? Toward Nationalizing Regimes finds surprising similarities in two such apparently different countries—one “western” and democratic\, the other “eastern” and dictatorial. \n\n\n  \nSpeakers\n\n  \nDiana T. Kudaibergenova\, Author\n  \n \nDiana T. Kudaibergenova is a Lecturer at the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. Prior to that\, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the GRCF COMPASS project at the Centre of Development Studies (Department of Politics and International Studies) also at the University of Cambridge. She studies different intersections of power\, regimes\, state-building and nationalism. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAsel Doolotkeldieva\, Discussant\n \nAsel Doolotkeldieva is a Senior Lecturer at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek. She earned her PhD from the University of Exeter (UK) in Politics and her Masters’ degree from Sciences Po Paris. Previously\, she was a Visiting Fellow at College Mondial\, FMSH (Paris\, France). Her academic interests include social mobilizations\, regime transition and democratization\, postsocialism\, and political economy of resource extraction in Central Asia. \n\n\n\n\n\n  \n\nMaryia Rohava\, Discussant\n \nMaryia Rohava is a researcher at the University of Oslo in the field of East European and Russian area studies. She was a visiting research fellow at the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS) in Berlin. She was awarded a ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius grant “Trajectories of Change” and a Civil Society Award for her fieldwork in Belarus from the Open Society Foundations. Her research interests include identity politics in post-Soviet countries and comparative studies on authoritarian regimes. She published her research in East European Politics and Society and Nations and Nationalism.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n  \nMarlene Laruelle\, Moderator\n \nMarlene Laruelle\, Ph.D.\, is Director\, Institute for European\, Russian\, and Eurasian Studies; Director\, Central Asia Program; Co-Director\, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University. She works on political\, social and cultural changes in the post-Soviet space. Marlene’s research explores the transformations of nationalist and conservative ideologies in Russia\, nationhood construction in Central Asia\, as well as the development of Russia’s Arctic regions. She has been the Principal Investigator of several grants on Russian nationalism\, on Russia’s strategies in the Arctic\, and on Central Asia’s domestic and foreign policies from the US State Department\, the Defense Department\, the National Science Foundation\, Open Society Foundations\, Carnegie Corporation of New York\, the Henry Luce Foundation\, etc.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRSVP URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/book-launch-march-10-2021-toward-nationalizing-regimes-conceptualizing-power-and-identity-in-the-post-soviet-realm/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/book-cover.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210305T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210305T100000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210217T165137Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210218T165928Z UID:19180-1614934800-1614938400@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Book Launch: March 5 - Slow Anti-Americanism: The Social Movements and Symbolic Politics in Central Asia DESCRIPTION:Slow Anti-Americanism:The Social Movements and Symbolic Politics in Central Asiawith author Edward Schatz\, discussant ​Emil Nasritdinov\, and moderator Marlene Laruelle \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\nRSVP\n\n\n\n\n\nNegative views of the United States abound\, but we know too little about how such views affect politics. Drawing on careful research on post-Soviet Central Asia\, Edward Schatz argues that anti-Americanism is best seen not as a rising tide that swamps or as a conflagration that overwhelms. Rather\, “America” is a symbolic resource that resides quietly in the mundane but always has potential value for social and political mobilizers. Using a wide range of evidence and a novel analytic framework\, Schatz considers how Islamist movements\, human rights activists\, and labor mobilizers across Central Asia avail themselves of this fact\, thus changing their ability to pursue their respective agendas. By refocusing our analytic gaze away from high politics\, he affords us a clearer view of the slower-moving\, partially occluded\, and socially embedded processes that ground how “America” becomes political. \n\n\n\nIn turn\, we gain a nuanced appreciation of the downstream effects of US foreign policy choices and a sober sense of the challenges posed by the politics of traveling images. By highlighting the role played by symbols\, Schatz lays bare how changing public attitudes shift social relations in politically significant ways\, considering how changing symbolic depictions of the United States recombine the raw material available for social mobilizers. Just like sediment traveling along waterways before reaching its final destination\, the raw material that constitutes symbolic America can travel among various social groups and can settle into place to form the basis of new social meanings. Symbolic America\, Schatz shows us\, matters for politics in Central Asia and beyond. \n\n\n \nSpeakers\nEdward Schatz\, Author \nEdward Schatz is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. He recently published Slow Anti-Americanism: Social Movements and Symbolic Politics in Central Asia with Stanford University Press. His previous books include Paradox of Power: The Logics of State Weakness in Eurasia (2017) and Political Ethnography: What Immersion Contributes to the Study of Power (2009). Professor Schatz is currently working with Professor Rachel Silvey on a SSHRC-funded project about the downstream effects of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. \n\n\n\n\n \n\nEmil Nasritdinov\, Discussant \nEmil Nasritdinov is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator with the Anthropology\, Urbanism and International Development program at the American University of Central Asia\, Kyrgyzstan. He holds a PhD in Urban Planning from the University of Melbourne\, Australia. His main research and teaching expertise areas include migration\, religion and urbanism.  \n\n\n\n\n \n\nMarlene Laruelle\, Moderator \nMarlene Laruelle\, Ph.D.\, is Director\, Institute for European\, Russian\, and Eurasian Studies; Director\, Central Asia Program; Co-Director\, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University. She works on political\, social and cultural changes in the post-Soviet space. Marlene’s research explores the transformations of nationalist and conservative ideologies in Russia\, nationhood construction in Central Asia\, as well as the development of Russia’s Arctic regions. She has been the Principal Investigator of several grants on Russian nationalism\, on Russia’s strategies in the Arctic\, and on Central Asia’s domestic and foreign policies from the US State Department\, the Defense Department\, the National Science Foundation\, Open Society Foundations\, Carnegie Corporation of New York\, the Henry Luce Foundation\, etc. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRSVP URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/book-launch-march-5-slow-anti-americanism-the-social-movements-and-symbolic-politics-in-central-asia/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Slow-A-A-Cover-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210210T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210210T110000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210203T190426Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210203T210021Z UID:19045-1612951200-1612954800@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:30th Anniversary of US-Kazakh Diplomatic Relations DESCRIPTION:RSVP\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Central Asia Program and the Embassy of Kazakhstan invite you to a virtual discussion to mark the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the US and Kazakhstan.On December 16\, 2021\, Kazakhstan will celebrate 30 years of independence. Back in the 1990s\, the country voluntarily renounced the fourth-largest nuclear arsenal in the world and closed the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing site. Over the years\, Kazakhstan’s partnership with the United States has created solid foundations for the development of trade and economic relations as well as for cooperation in the political and security spheres. The Central Asia Program (CAP) and the Embassy of Kazakhstan to the United States have invited speakers who have been personally involved in strengthening U.S.-Kazakhstan ties to share their memories of the not-so-distant past and to draw out lessons from their experiences for the next generation of diplomats\, experts\, and students.Please join us for a discussion moderated by Ambassador John Herbst\, Director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. Speakers include the Honorable Andrew “Andy” Weber\, President Obama’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear\, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs; Ambassador Bolat Nurgaliyev\, Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the United States between 1996 and 2000; and Ambassador John Ordway\, U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan between 2004 and 2008. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nProgram Overview (EST)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n10:00 AM – Introductory Remarks\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMelinda Haring is the deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. Previously\, she was the editor of the Atlantic Council’s most popular publication\, the UkraineAlert blog. She is the author of the report Reforming the Democracy Bureaucracy\, coauthor of Ukraine’s Internally Displaced Persons Hold a Key to Peace (Atlantic Council\, 2017)\, and a contributor to Does Democracy Matter? (Rowman & Littlefield\, 2017). Haring has worked for Eurasia Foundation\, Freedom House\, and the National Democratic Institute\, where she managed democracy assistance programs in Azerbaijan\, Georgia\, and Russia. A graduate of Georgetown University\, she holds an MA in Government with a certificate in Russian\, Eurasian\, and East European Studies. Haring is the vice-chair of the board of East Europe Foundation in Kyiv\, Ukraine\, a member of the supervisory board of Right to Protection in Kyiv\, Ukraine\, and a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAmbassador John Herbst served for thirty-one years as a foreign service officer in the US Department of State\, retiring at the rank of career-minister. He was US Ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006\, prior to that\, he was Ambassador to Uzbekistan (2000-2003). In his last four years at the State Department\, he served as the Coordinator for reconstruction and stabilization\, leading the US government’s civilian capacity in societies in transition from conflict or civil strife\, and to provide support to countries at risk of instability. Ambassador Herbst previously served as US consul general in Jerusalem; principal deputy to the Ambassador-at-Large for the Newly Independent States; the director of the office of independent states and commonwealth affairs; director of regional affairs in the Near East Bureau; and at the embassies in Tel Aviv\, Moscow\, and Saudi Arabia. He most recently served as director of the center for complex operations at National Defense University. He has received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award\, the Secretary of State’s Career Achievement Award\, and the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award. Currently\, Ambassador Herbst is Director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n10:10 AM – Welcoming Remarks\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAmbassador Erzhan Kazykhanov is one of Kazakhstan’s most experienced diplomats. Born in 1964\, in Almaty\, he earned his bachelor’s degree in Oriental studies from the Saint Petersburg State University in 1987. Ambassador Kazykhanov holds PhD in History from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. Prior to his appointment as the Ambassador to the U.S.\, Mr. Erzhan Kazykhanov has served as Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Before becoming Ambassador to the UK\, he held the position of Assistant to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan. He previously served as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan\, as well as the Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Austria\, Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the International Organizations in Vienna and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. He is the author of numerous articles on Kazakhstan’s foreign policy\, economic diplomacy\, multilateralism\, and the role of the United Nations. He speaks Russian\, English and Arabic\, and is the recipient of several State awards and recognitions. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n10:15 AM – Keynote Speakers\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAmbassador John Ordway was born in 1950\, in California. He completed 33 years of public service in the Foreign Service as U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan (from August 30\, 2004 to October 7\, 2008). Mr. Ordway’s distinguished career with the Foreign Service began in 1975. He has an extensive background in Soviet and Russian affairs\, as well as experience in European security affairs\, conflict resolution\, and peacekeeping operations. Prior to becoming a Senior Foreign Service officer\, Mr. Ordway served abroad at the U.S. Embassies in Prague (1978–1981)\, Moscow (1985–87)\, and in Brussels at the U.S. Mission to NATO (1993–1995). He was in Moscow from 1996 to 2001\, serving the last two years as Deputy Chief of Mission. Was also Ambassador to Armenia (from November 2001 to August 2004). During his career Mr. Ordway oversaw complex and diverse policymaking and operational teams at large\, medium and small embassies. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAmbassador Bolat Nurgaliyev was born in 1951 in the Akmola region of Kazakhstan. In 1980 he was hired by the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Then he was posted to the Soviet Embassies in Pakistan (1981–1985) and India (1990–1992). In 1992\, Mr.Nurgaliyev joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan\, held the positions of Head of the Department of International Security and Arms Control\, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Nurgaliyev was Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the United States (1996-2000)\, concurrently in Canada and Mexico; to the Republic of Korea (2001-2003); Japan (2004-2006); the State of Israel (2012-20014) with concurrence to the Republic of Cyprus. From 2007 to 2009\, he was Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. In 2010\, during the chairmanship of Kazakhstan in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)\, he was Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on protracted conflicts. From 2015 to 2018\, he worked as an adviser to the Chairman of the Board of JSC “National Company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy”. Since December 2019 – Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Foreign Policy Studies. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Honorable Andrew “Andy” Weber has dedicated his professional life to countering nuclear\, chemical\, and biological threats and to strengthening global health security. Mr. Weber’s 30 years of US government service included 5\,5 years as President Obama’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear\, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs. He was a driving force behind Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction efforts to remove weapons-grade uranium from Kazakhstan and Georgia and nuclear-capable MiG-29 aircraft from Moldova\, to reduce biological weapons threats\, and to destroy Libyan and Syrian chemical weapons stockpiles. In addition\, he coordinated US leadership of the international Ebola response for the Department of State. Prior to joining the Pentagon as Advisor for Threat Reduction Policy in December 1996\, Mr. Weber was posted abroad as a US Foreign Service Officer in Saudi Arabia\, Germany\, Kazakhstan\, and Hong Kong. He serves on the Board of the Arms Control Association and the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies International Advisory Council. He taught a course on Force and Diplomacy at the Georgetown University Graduate School of Foreign Service for 7 years\, and was a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Mr. Weber is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Senior Fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n10:45 AM – Q&A URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/30th-anniversary-of-us-kazakh-diplomatic-relations/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/30-Years-Together.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210202T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210202T110000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210122T153902Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210203T163113Z UID:18852-1612260000-1612263600@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Trapped in the System: Experiences of Uyghur Detention in Xinjiang DESCRIPTION:RSVP\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMore than a million — some say 3 million — Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities have been arbitrarily detained and imprisoned in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region since 2016. China has justified its crackdown by claiming it is part of a counter-terrorism campaign aimed at rooting out “extremism.” However\, human rights groups and international observers refer to these detention centers as concentration camps with plenty of evidence of systemic torture and human rights violations. While outlets like Radio Free Asia (RFA) have played a pivotal role in exposing Beijing’s sweeping detentions and the creation of a high-tech surveillance state in the Uyghur homeland\, documenting the process by which Chinese authorities target\, interrogate\, and detain Uyghurs and other minorities has been murky. Recently\, RFA’s research department carried out a series of in-depth interviews with survivors from these camps who were caught in the gears of China’s criminal system. These rich firsthand accounts from the inside provide not just a detailed scene of the brutal en masse interrogations\, incarcerations\, classifications\, and means of torture\, but heartwrenchingly vivid pictures of the human beings caught in its gears.Please join George Washington University on Tuesday\, February 2\, 2021 at 10 am US ET as Dr. Sean Roberts\, Associate Professor of International Affairs and Director of the International Development Studies Program at GW’s Elliott School of International Affairs\, in collaboration with the Central Asian Program (CAP)\, hosts a discussion with Radio Free Asia about its forthcoming report. Speakers will include Betsy Henderson\, Chief Strategy Officer and head of RFA’s audience research program; Alim Seytoff\, Director of RFA’s Uyghur Service; and Human Rights Watch’s Maya Wang\, China Senior Researcher. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSean Roberts is an anthropologist with regional expertise in Central Asia\, where he also has also done extensive applied development work on issues related to civil society\, governance\, and human rights. Much of his academic work has focused on the Uyghur people in the People’s Republic of China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region\, as well as in Central Asia and Turkey. His first book\, The War on the Uyghurs: China’s Internal Campaign against a Muslim Minority (Princeton University Press\, September 2020) draws on his field research and in-depth interviews with Uyghurs. Roberts also writes on issues related to politics and development in the broader Central Asian region. He frequently comments for media outlets on current events both in Central Asia and in the Uyghur region of China. Roberts earned his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. @RobertsReport \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBetsy Henderson is Radio Free Asia’s Chief Strategy Officer. Henderson was RFA’s founding Director of Audience Research\, establishing RFA’s capacity to monitor its impact and gather audience feedback in Asia’s most repressive societies. In addition to conducting representative surveys and qualitative studies\, Ms. Henderson developed unprecedented research programs for North Korea and China’s Tibetan and Uyghur regions. Since 2003\, Henderson has overseen RFA’s journalism training and program evaluation\, and now also is responsible for digital analytics\, internal goal setting\, impact reporting\, and performance tracking. A former Associated Press reporter\, Ms. Henderson lived and worked in southern China and in Taiwan and speaks Mandarin fluently. Her graduate studies at Columbia and University of Michigan focused on journalism\, Chinese politics\, and research methodology.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAlim Seytoff is the Director of Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur Service. During his tenure\, which began in early 2017\, RFA Uyghur broke the story of the mass arbitrary detentions of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region — and has remained on the forefront of covering this human rights crisis since. Prior to RFA\, Alim served as the Executive Director for the Uyghur Human Rights Project and was President of the Uyghur American Association. He has appeared on BBC\, CNN and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times\, speaking about Uyghur related issues. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and has briefed U.S officials on the subject. Alim holds a BA in Chinese Studies from Xinjiang University and a BA in Broadcast Journalism from Southern Adventist University. He has a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the Robertson School of Government at Regent University. Alim received his Juris Doctor degree from Regent University School of Law in 2006. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMaya Wang is the senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch. Wang has researched and written extensively on the use of torture\, arbitrary detention\, human rights defenders\, civil society\, disability rights\, and women’s rights in China. She is also an expert on human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. In recent years\, her original research on China’s use of technology for mass surveillance\, including the use of biometrics\, artificial intelligence and big data\, has helped galvanize international attention on these developments in China and globally. Wang has published on major international media outlets\, including the Wall Street Journal\, the Washington Post\, ChinaFile\, the Diplomat\, the Guardian\, and has been frequently quoted by international media including the New York Times\, Reuters\, Bloomberg News\, and the Associated Press.  \n\n\n\nPrior to joining Human Rights Watch\, Wang worked for a non-governmental organization focused on human rights defenders in China. Wang is also a member of Digital Freedom Forum organized by the US-based think tank\, Center for a New American Security\, and recognized as one of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics™ by strategic research advisory firm Lighthouse3. \n\n\n\nMain Photo: Illustrated by Yette Su. URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/trapped-in-the-system-experiences-of-uyghur-detention-in-xinjiang%ef%bb%bf/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Hi-Res.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210128T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210128T110000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210121T161709Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210127T145301Z UID:18806-1611828000-1611831600@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and Radicalization that Lead to Terrorism in Central Asia - Reflections on Challenges and Opportunities DESCRIPTION:RSVP\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe multifaceted nature of violent extremism and terrorism in all its forms suggests that conditions conducive to violent extremism and terrorism are similarly diverse. Some of the cardinal root causes tend to be ideological\, political\, economic\, or religious in nature; but also coupled with confounding causes linked to issues like mental health or education\, to mention just a few.Several thousand citizens from Central Asia are known to have joined the self-proclaimed “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/Daesh)” as Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTFs). Many of them and their families have been repatriated to their countries of origin by their respective Governments as part of Government-led repatriation programs\, a move widely praised in the region but also in the international arena. This opens up questions about the degree of multiagency preparedness among state and non-state actors with regard to reintegration and rehabilitation aspects\, as well as the potential prosecution of FTFs in line with the international human rights law\, including international humanitarian law and refugee law as prerequisites for the protection of the lives\, health and dignity of persons.Please join the Central Asia Program for an opportunity for a frank exchange of ideas on the theme of prevention and countering violent extremism in Central Asia\, including on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for domestic actors but also the international community as a key partner in the region with Fejzo Numanaj. \n\n\n\nFeatured image by Mr. Rustam Vagapov. The Madrasa of Sher-Dor in Samarkand. Courtesy of History of Central Asia and Khorasan\, Twitter @BiruniKhorasan. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFejzo Numanaj\, a former practitioner with multilateral organizations in the region. \n\n\n\nFejzo Numanaj currently works in Vienna\, Austria\, at the Secretariat of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as the Deputy Head of the Action against Terrorism Unit\, Transnational Threats Department. He has held several senior functions with the OSCE in Central Asia\, Eastern and South-eastern Europe\, delivering in the areas of democratization\, preventing and countering violent extremism and radicalization to violence and terrorism\, arms control\, and border management and security.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSebastien Peyrouse\, Moderator \n\n\n\nSebastien Peyrouse\, PhD\, is a research professor at the Central Asia Program in the Institute for European\, Russian and Eurasian Studies (George Washington University). His main areas of expertise are political systems in Central Asia\, economic and social issues\, Islam and religious minorities\, and Central Asia’s geopolitical positioning toward China\, India and South Asia.  URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/preventing-and-countering-violent-extremism-and-radicalization-that-lead-to-terrorism-in-central-asia-reflections-on-challenges-and-opportunities/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Samarkand-Madrasa.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210126T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210126T110000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210107T162240Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210122T145019Z UID:18753-1611655200-1611658800@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Book Launch: January 26 - Land of Strangers - The Civilizing Project in Qing Central Asia DESCRIPTION:Land of Strangers:The Civilizing Project in Qing Central Asiawith author Eric Schluessel\, discussant ​Rian Thum\, and moderator Marlene Laruelle \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\nRSVP\n\n\n\n\n\nAt the close of the nineteenth century\, near the end of the Qing empire\, Confucian revivalists from central China gained control of the Muslim-majority region of Xinjiang\, or East Turkestan. There they undertook a program to transform Turkic-speaking Muslims into Chinese-speaking Confucians\, seeking to bind this population and their homeland to the Chinese cultural and political realm. Instead of assimilation\, divisions between communities only deepened\, resulting in a profound estrangement that continues to this day.In Land of Strangers\, Eric Schluessel explores this encounter between Chinese power and a Muslim society through the struggles of ordinary people in the oasis of Turpan. He follows the stories of families divided by war\, women desperate to survive\, children unsure where they belong\, and many others to reveal the human consequences of a bloody conflict and the more insidious violence of reconstruction. Schluessel traces the emergence of new struggles around essential questions of identity\, showing how religious and linguistic differences converged into ethnic labels. Reading across local archives and manuscript accounts in the Chinese and Chaghatay languages\, he recasts the attempted transformation of Xinjiang as a distinctly Chinese form of colonialism. At a time when understanding the roots of the modern relationship between Uyghurs and China has taken on new urgency\, Land of Strangers illuminates a crucial moment of social and cultural change in this dark period of Xinjiang’s past.As part of the Sigur Center’s New Books in Asian Studies series\, which supports authors and local DC bookstores with a monthly giveaway: Follow these steps to be eligible to win a hardcover copy ($140 value!) of Land of Strangers. 1. Attend with the name you registered as 2. Subscribe to the Sigur Center’s General Interest newsletter and follow the Sigur Center on Facebook. 3. Subscribe to the Central Asia Program’s newsletter and follow CAP on Facebook. The Sigur Center will randomly select a winner during the event\, purchase the book from a local DC bookstore\, and pay for shipping. The contest is only open to those with a U.S. mailing address.Click here to learn more about ESIA Book Launch Series and subscribe to their mailing list to receive updates on future book launches. \n\n\n  \nSpeakers\nEric Schluessel\, Author\n  \nEric Schluessel\, PhD.\, is an Assistant Professor of History at George Washington University. He is a social historian of China and Central Asia\, and his work focuses on Xinjiang (East Turkestan) in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Schluessel’s current project\, Exiled Gods\, delves into Han Chinese settler culture and religion to illuminate the history of a diasporic community of demobilized soldiers and their descendants that spanned the Qing empire. Thanks to grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies\, Schluessel is also completing a translation and critical edition of the Tārīkh-i Ḥamīdī of Mullah Mūsa Sayrāmī\, which is an important Chaghatay-language chronicle of nineteenth-century Xinjiang. Ongoing research builds off of this and other manuscript\, documentary\, and memoir sources to reconstruct an economic history of Xinjiang from below. Schluessel previously taught at the University of Montana in Missoula and spent the 2018–2019 academic year as a Mellow Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, NJ. \n\n\n\n\n \n\nRian Thum\, Discussant\n  \nRian Thum\, PhD.\, is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester. His research and teaching are generally concerned with the overlap of China and the Muslim World. His current book project\, Islamic China\, is a re-examination of Chinese Islam that takes full account of the numerous Persian and Arabic sources that Chinese Muslims have used and written. It re-evaluates Chinese-language Islamic traditions in light of their multilingual contexts and uncovers the role of Persianate Islamic networks in binding China and India together over the last 400 years. More generally\, his research interests include historical anthropology\, mobility\, orality and writing\, historiography\, the history of money\, and the place of non-Han peoples in China. \n\n\n\n\n \n\nMarlene Laruelle\, Moderator\n  \nMarlene Laruelle\, Ph.D.\, is Director\, Institute for European\, Russian\, and Eurasian Studies; Director\, Central Asia Program; Co-Director\, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University. She works on political\, social and cultural changes in the post-Soviet space. Marlene’s research explores the transformations of nationalist and conservative ideologies in Russia\, nationhood construction in Central Asia\, as well as the development of Russia’s Arctic regions. She has been the Principal Investigator of several grants on Russian nationalism\, on Russia’s strategies in the Arctic\, and on Central Asia’s domestic and foreign policies from the US State Department\, the Defense Department\, the National Science Foundation\, Open Society Foundations\, Carnegie Corporation of New York\, the Henry Luce Foundation\, etc. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRSVP URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/book-launch-january-26-land-of-strangers-the-civilizing-project-in-qing-central-asia/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Land-of-Strangers-cover-1-1-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210112T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210112T110000 DTSTAMP:20260925T093832 CREATED:20210105T170004Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210108T172333Z UID:18731-1610445600-1610449200@centralasiaprogram.org SUMMARY:Kazakhstan's Parliamentary Elections: What Next? DESCRIPTION:Kazakhstan will hold parliamentary and local elections on the 10th January. There is little intrigue as to the results given that opposition parties were not allowed to participate. New regulations that restrict election observers have further enhanced state control over the voting process. These developments disappointed many Kazakhstani citizens\, who previously had hoped President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s promises of political reform would prove more forthcoming.  Please join the Central Asia Program\, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace\, the Davis Center at Harvard University\, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs for a discussion on the elections\, immediate reactions inside and outside the country on the results\, and also the implications for the immediate and future development of Kazakhstan.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers \n\n\n\n\n\n\nNargis Kassenova is a Senior Fellow at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies of Harvard University\, and Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations and Regional Studies of KIMEP University. Her areas of research include Central Asian politics and security\, Eurasian geopolitics\, Kazakhstan’s foreign policy\, religion and politics in Central Asia\, and history of state-building in Central Asia.\n\n\n\n\n\nYevgeniy Zhovtis is a prominent human rights lawyer and the current director of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law\, as well as a member of the OSCE/ODIHR Panel of Experts on Freedom of Assembly and the board of the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute. Zhovtis has been the recipient of numerous human rights awards\, including the EU and U.S. Democracy and Civil Society Award in 1999\, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Human Rights Award in 2007\, and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee Andrey Sakharov Freedom Award in 2010. \n\n\n\n\n\nTorokul Doorov has been the Director of RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service since July 2014. He started his career with RFE/RL as a Moscow-based correspondent in 2002. Later he worked as the Kyrgyz Service’s Azattyk Plus youth program editor for several years in Bishkek. Born in the Batken region of Kyrgyzstan\, he graduated from the Journalism Faculty of Moscow State University.\n \n\n\n\n\n\nMarlene Laruelle\, Ph.D.\, is Director and Research Professor at the Institute for European\, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES)\, GW. Dr. Laruelle is also a Co-Director of PONARS (Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia) and Director of GW’s Central Asia Program. Her research explores the transformations of nationalist and conservative ideologies in Russia and nationhood construction in Central Asia\, as well as the development of Russia’s Arctic regions. Two of her books will be out in late 2020: Is Russia Fascist? Unraveling Propaganda East and West (Cornell University Press) and Memory Politics and the Russian Civil War. Red versus Whites (Bloomsbury). \n \n\n\n\n\nRSVP URL:https://centralasiaprogram.org/event/kazakhstans-parliamentary-elections-what-next%ef%bb%bf/ CATEGORIES:Events Archive ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://centralasiaprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/international-2693236_1280.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR