On March 13-16, 2003, IREX, in collaboration with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Kennan Institute [16], Asian Program, and Middle East Project (WWC), hosted the Central Asia and Its Neighbors Regional Policy Symposium at Bavarian Inn & Lodge in Shepherdstown, WV.
The three-day symposium, sponsored by the US Department of State Title VIII Program, The Starr Foundation, and the WWC, provided senior and junior scholars, as well as members from the policy community, with the opportunity to discuss a variety of political, economic, historical, and cultural topics related to Central Asia and its relationship with neighboring Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, China, Mongolia, and Azerbaijan.
Symposium Participants
Symposium participants included eight junior scholars, five senior scholars, as well as members of IREX and WWC staff. Read scholar bios here [17].
Junior Scholars
Junior scholars were awarded grants to present research papers based on their demonstrated commitment to continued study, research, and work on and with the countries of the Central Asia Region. The event provided them with the opportunity receive feedback from participating senior scholars and engage in US policy development discussions.
Junior scholar presentations represented a diversity of fields and perspectives, including history, education, environmental studies, economics, security issues, and gender issues. Topics included “Looking at the Hay for the Answer: Environmental Policy and the Sequence of Political and Economic Reform in Central Asia,” “International Assistance Programs and the Reform of Central Asian Higher Education,” and “Gender Policy in Central Asia at the Crossroads: Integrating International Aspirations with Renascent Islamic Orientations.”
Senior Scholars
The five senior scholar participants in the symposium were:
- Dru Gladney, Professor of Asian studies and anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa
- William Fierman, Director, Indiana University Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center
- Dr. Roger Kangas – Professor of Central Asian Studies, College of International and Security Issues, George C. Marshall European Center for Strategic Studies
- Kathleen Kuehnast, Cultural Anthropologist and Research Associate at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at the George Washington University
- John Schoeberlein, Director of the program on Central Asia and the Caucasus at Harvard University
Event Summary
The event commenced with a dinner at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for scholars in Washington, DC on March 13, 2003. IREX President Mark Pomar, and the Director of the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center, Blair Ruble, gave welcoming remarks. Among those in attendance were Elmar Mamedyarov, Counselor at the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Askar Tazhiyev, Counselor at the Embassy of the Republic Kazakhstan, as well as representatives from the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Embassy of the Kyrgyz Republic, and Embassy of the Russian Federation. After the dinner, all scholars were taken by shuttle bus to the Bavarian Inn.
All sessions took place on March 14th and 15th. During this time, junior scholars presented their research in a sequence based on the nature of their topics. Each scholar was also paired up with one of the senior scholars who served as a moderator for discussions following each of the 20 minute presentations. Sessions included:
- “Paying for Patronage: Regime Change in Central Asia”
- “Political Transition in Central Asian Republics: Power Sharing Versus Authoritarianism”
- “Music and the Making of the Kazakh Nation, 1920-1936”
- “Gender Policy in Central Asia at the Crossroads: Integrating International Aspirations with Renascent Islamic Orientations”
- “Looking at the Hay for the Answer: Environmental Policy and the Sequence of Political and Economic Reform in Central Asia”
- “The Transformation of Askar Akaev, President of Kyrgyzstan”
- “International Assistance Programs and the Reform of Central Asian Higher Education"
- “Geopolitical Visions of a "Turkic World" - Perspectives from Neighboring Turkey”
In order to ensure that the countries of the broader Central Asian region were represented at the Symposium, Roger Kangas led a discussion on Afghanistan’s role in Central Asia, and Dru Gladney have a more formal presentation entitled “Borderline Identities: Three Peoples Caught Between China and Central Asia.”
Read the symposium agenda here [18].