Untitled

with Rashid Gabdulhakov, Visiting Fellow, Central Asia Program, GWU The collapse of a state as large and diverse as the USSR inevitably led to disputes over natural and industrial resources, but also over borders. In the Ferghana Valley, divided between Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, several territorial units are located in other states. They are referred to as… Continue reading Enclaves in the post-Communist Central Asia: Do good fences make good neighbors?

11:00-12:30pm Panel I. Roundtable. Assessing Security Threats to Central Asia Chair: Sebastien Peyrouse (IERES, GWU) Clark Adams (Department of Defense) Alexander Cooley (Barnard College, Columbia University) Roger Kangas (Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University) Marlene Laruelle (IERES, GWU) Scott Smith (United States Institute of Peace) 12:30-1:30pm Lunch 1:30-3:00pm Panel II.… Continue reading Assessing the Capabilities of Central Asian Armies

11:00am Opening Remarks Marlene Laruelle (Central Asia Program, IERES, GWU) and Chantal De Jonge Oudraat (Women in International Security, WIIS) 11:15am Natalia Zakharchenko (Kyrgyzstan)  Quotes on Quotas: Political Representation of Women in Kyrgyzstan Discussant: Christina Fink (George Washington University) 11:45 Marina Kayumova (Uzbekistan) Emigration of “Crème de la crème” in Uzbekistan. Long-term consequences from a gender perspective Discussant:… Continue reading The Fourth Central Asia Fellowship Seminar

4:00pm Opening Remarks Marlene Laruelle (George Washington University) 4:15pm Farrukh Irnazarov (Uzbekistan) Labor Migrant Households in Uzbekistan: Remittances as a Challenge or Blessing? Discussant:  Seyed Reza Yousefi (Development Prospects Group (DECPG), World Bank) 5:15 Nazik Muradova (Turkmenistan) Revisiting Turkmenistan’s Energy Exports. Path Toward a Greater Diversity of Foreign Partners Discussant: Steve LeVine (Washington Correspondent, Quartz) 6:15 Reception Mr. Farrukh… Continue reading The Fifth Central Asia Fellowship Seminar

Based on the research of her forthcoming book Beyond Crimea: The New Russian Empire (Yale University Press, February 2015), Dr. Grigas will discuss Moscow’s policies towards the Russian minorities and Russian speakers in the Central Asia and how they relate to Russia’s broader foreign policy aims to regain influence and possibly territories in the five countries of… Continue reading Beyond Crimea: Russian Compatriot and Reimperialization Policies in Central Asia

During this discussion, Selbi Jumayeva will share her experiences in the women’s rights activism, feminist organizing and anti-violence campaigning in Kyrgyzstan and discuss gender and sexuality issues in Central Asia, particularly in times of backlash and conservative reactionary politics.  Selbi Jumayeva is a visiting research fellow (WEF) at the International Gender Studies Centre at LMH,… Continue reading Selbi Jumayeva – Feminist Organizing in Kyrgyzstan

Patrimonial, patronal, clientelistic: Central Asia’s authoritarian power is often classified in these terms. The proliferation of analytical rubrics and conceptual lenses to delve into regional developments confirms that, if anything, Central Asian politics are profoundly complex. The regional conformation of power does however remain relatively stable. Regime durability, in most cases, is supported by the… Continue reading Inside the Pyramid: Is Central Asia Authoritarianism Stable?

A round table organized by GW's Central Asia Program and CRCEES, University of Glasgow Chair: Marlene Laruelle (GWU) Sally Cummings (St Andrews) Edward Schatz (University of Toronto) Luca Anceschi (Glasgow University) Patrimonial, patronal, clientelistic: Central Asia's authoritarian power is often classified in these terms. The proliferation of analytical rubrics and conceptual lenses to delve into regional developments… Continue reading Understanding Regime Legitimacy in Central Asia

With Nargis Kassenova (KIMEP) and the Central Asia - Azerbaijan Program Fellows Chair: Marlene Laruelle (IERES, GW) 3:00pm. Nargis Kassenova (KIMEP) Kazakhstan 2016: The Politics of Crisis Discussion 4:00pm Kassymkhan Kapparov (Kazakhstan) Invisible Public Debt: The Case of Kazakhstan Sabina Insebayeva (Kazakhstan) A Quest For Status, Legitimacy And Ontological Security: The Image-Conscious Kazakhstan Discussion 5:00pm.… Continue reading Nargis Kassenova & CAAFP Fellows – New Challenges in Central Asia. Changing Societies in a Time of Economic Crisis

By Kristian Berg Harpviken and Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh   What drives neighboring states to intervene in the Afghan conflict? This book challenges mainstream analyses which place Afghanistan at the center - the so-called 'heart' - of a large pan- Asian region whose fate is predicated on Afghan stability. Instead Harpviken and Tadjbakhsh situate Afghanistan on the margins of three… Continue reading Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh – Book Launch for “A Rock Between Hard Places: Afghanistan as an Arena of Regional Insecurity”

The war in Syria, like a magnet, pulled radicals from around the world, including Central Asian fighters. There are different figures on the number of Central Asian militants in Syria. Separate research was conducted in Kazakhstan under the leadership of Dr. Yerlan Karin to estimate and organize all the data, as well as determine the main factors of radicalization attracting… Continue reading Yerlan Karin – Central Asian Fighters in Syria: Classification, Factors, Scale Assessment

For several decades, Georgia has been one of the most important economic and security partners of the United States. The US is the largest bilateral aid donor to Georgia, having provided several billion dollars since 1991. This support has always enjoyed bipartisan backing.  Since 2009, Georgia and the United States have had a Strategic Partnership… Continue reading Richard Weitz – Enhancing the Georgia-US Security Partnership

Azerbaijan's independence came after seven decades of militant atheism of the Soviet modernization project and emerged into staunch secularism of Western modernity, two factors that, on a par with the country's precarious neighbourhood, promised a sustained indigenous effort towards a desacralization of the country's political space and the associated exclusion of religion from politics, a… Continue reading Murad Ismayilov – (Homogenising) Hybrid Intentionality and the Dialectics of Elite Attitudes to Islam: Towards a Re-Sacralisation of the Political Space in Azerbaijan

Various donor agencies have become active players in defining and drafting strategies of transition from communist heritages and pasts to modern democratic societies and market economies, as well as in funding the implementation of these strategies.   However, after a quarter century of independence, most of Eurasia’s political elites have transformed into more autocratic regimes,… Continue reading Zuhra Halimova – Foreign Aid to Eurasia: Donors’ Agendas, Local Perceptions, and Lost Illusions