Tuesday, 30 April 2013

CACI FORUM: Investing in the Caucasus, Greater Central Asia and Mongolia: Challenges and Opportunities

Published in Forums & Events

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

CACI FORUM

"Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst"

Investing in the Caucasus, Greater Central Asia and Mongolia: Challenges and Opportunities

Featuring

Spring 2013 Rumsfeld Fellows at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, SAIS:

Mr. Abdul Nafi Olomi, (Afghanistan), political analyst/consultant, Kandahar; CEO/owner of Blueberry Construction Company; co-founder, Alpistan, an Afghan-Italian NGO for disaster management in remote mountain communities of Afghanistan

Dr. Sergey Minasyan (Armenia), Deputy Director and Head , Political Studies Department, Caucasus Institute, Yerevan, Armenia

Ms. Nargiz Nasrullayeva-Muduroglu (Azerbaijan), Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan

Mr. Muratbek Akhmatov (Kazakhstan), Head of the Industry Development Division, Ministry of Economy and Budget Planning of Kazakhstan

Ms. Nazira Beishenalieva (Kyrgyzstan), Chairperson of the Board of Directors, CJSC Bank of Asia

Mr. Semetei Omurgazy (Kyrgyzstan), Owner and CEO, The Bishkek Fashion Retail Group

Mr. Dulguun Baasandavaa (Mongolia), Vice President, Tenger Capital, brokerage/investment-banking arm of Tenger Financial Group; Board Member, Mongolian Business Development Association

Mr. Dzhura Babaev (Tajikistan), CEO , Cokey Central Asia and Caucasus Ltd., a Japanese holding company pursuing investment opportunities in the Central Asia - Caucasus region

Mr. Ravshan Sobirzoda (Tajikistan), Economic Advisor, U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan; Senior Lecturer, School of International Economics and Law, Tajik State University of Commerce

Mr. Mansur Bustoni (Uzbekistan), Investment officer, International Finance Corporation (IFC), a private sector arm of the World Bank Group; Board Member/Treasurer, Central
Eurasian Leadership Alliance

Moderating

S. Frederick Starr, Chairman, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, SAIS, Johns Hopkins U.

Tuesday, April 30, noon to 2 p.m.

Rome Auditorium, 1st Fl., The Rome Building

SAIS, Johns Hopkins University

16 19 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.

Washington, DC 20036

The Rumsfeld Fellowship program brings rising young men and women from Central Asia, the Caucasus and Mongolia to Washington for period of intensive discussions with American leaders of government and business. Under the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, the program which began in 2008, is now hosting the tenth group of Rumsfeld Fellows here for a period of six weeks.

The Forum is preceded by a reception and light lunch at noon. The program will begin promptly at 12:30 p.m. and conclude at 2:00 p.m.

The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute is a primary institution in the United States for the study of the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Caspian Region. The Institute, affiliated with Johns Hopkins University-SAIS, forms part of a Joint Center with the Silk Road Studies Program, affiliated with the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy. Additional information about the Joint Center, as well as its several publications series, is available at www.silkroadstudies.org.

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    Tuesday, 23 May 2023 00:00

    Why Russians Support the War: Jeffrey Gedmin interviews S. Frederick Starr on the resurgence of Imperial Russia.

    The American Purpose, May 23, 2023

    Jeffrey Gedmin: Do we have a Putin problem or a Russia problem today?

    S. Frederick Starr: We have a Putin problem because we have a Russia problem. Bluntly, the mass of Russians are passive and easily manipulated—down to the moment they aren’t. Two decades ago they made a deal with Vladimir Putin, as they have done with many of his predecessors: You give us a basic income, prospects for a better future, and a country we can take pride in, and we will give you a free hand. This is the same formula for autocracy that prevailed in Soviet times, and, before that, under the czars. The difference is that this time Russia’s leader—Putin—and his entourage have adopted a bizarre and dangerous ideology, “Eurasianism,” that empowers them to expand Russian power at will over the entire former territory of the USSR and even beyond. It is a grand and awful vision that puffs up ruler and ruled alike.

    What do most Russians think of this deal? It leaves them bereft of the normal rights of citizenship but free from its day-to-day responsibilities. So instead of debating, voting, and demonstrating, Russians store up their frustrations and then release them in elemental, often destructive, and usually futile acts of rebellion. This “Russia problem” leaves the prospect of change in Russia today in the hands of alienated members of Putin’s immediate entourage, many of whom share his vision of Russia’s destiny and are anyway subject to Putin’s ample levers for control. Thus, our “Putin problem” arises from our “Russia problem.”

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  • CACI director Svante Cornell's interviewed on the 'John Batchelor Show' podcast regarding Turkey's 2023 presidential election
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  • New Article Series on Changing Geopolitics of Central Asia and the Caucasus
    Wednesday, 24 November 2021 11:53

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  • CACI Initiative on Religion and the Secular State in Central Asia and the Caucasus
    Sunday, 24 January 2021 13:53

    In 2016, the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program launched an initiative on documenting the interrelationship of religion and the secular state in the region. This initiative departed from the fact that little systematic reserch had been undertaken on the subject thus far. While there was and remains much commentary and criticism of religious policy in the region, there was no comprehensive analysis available on the interrelationship of religion and the state in any regional state, let alone the region as a whole. The result of this initiative has been the publication of six Silk Road Papers studying the matter in regional states, with more to come. In addition, work is ongoing on a volume putting the regional situation in the context of the Muslim world as a whole.

     

    Case Studies

    Each study below can be freely downloaded in PDF format.

    az-formula-SRSP

    Azerbaijan's Formula: Secular Governance and Civil Nationhood
    By Svante E. Cornell, Halil Karaveli, and Boris Ajeganov
    November 2016   




    2018-04-Kazakhstan-SecularismReligion and the Secular State in Kazakhstan
    By Svante E. Cornell, S. Frederick Starr and Julian Tucker
    April 2018

     

     

     

    1806-UZ-coverReligion and the Secular State in Uzbekistan
    Svante E. Cornell and Jacob Zenn
    June 2018

     

     

     

    2006-Engvall-coverReligion and the Secular State in Kyrgyzstan
    Johan Engvall
    June 2020

     Event video online

     

    2006-Clement-coverReligion and the Secular State in Turkmenistan
    Victoria Clement
    June 2020

    Event video online

     

     

     

    Articles and Analyses

    Svante E. Cornell, "Religion and the State in Central Asia," in Ilan Berman, ed., Wars of Ideas: Theology, Interpretation and Power in the Muslim World, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.

    Svante E. Cornell, "Central Asia: Where Did Islamic Radicalization Go?" in Religion, Conflict and Stability in the Former Soviet Union, eds. Katya Migacheva and Bryan Frederick, Arlington, VA: RAND Corporation, 2018.