Forums & Events
CACI Forum: Lessons from Kyrgyzstan's Experiment with Parliamentarism
Lessons from Kyrgyzstan's Experiment with Parliamentarism
This CACI Forum will present some of the findings of the newly published paper from the Silk Road Papers series, authored by Dr. Johan Engvall. The paper examines successes and failures of Kyrgyz experiment of parliamentarism, which ended in 2021. Our speakers will offer analysis and comments on this unique experience for Central Asia, which lasted about a decade.
WHEN: Mar 3, 2022 10:00-11:15 EST
Speakers:
- Johan Engvall, Deputy Research Director at the Swedish Defense Research Agency. He is a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center.\
- Erica Marat, Associate Professor, College of international Security Affaires, National Defense University
Moderator:
- Svante Cornell, Director, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at the American Foreign Policy Council
CACI Forum: In Ukraine’s Shadow: The Kazakh crisis and the need for a new U.S. strategy in Central Asia
CACI Forum: In Ukraine’s Shadow: The Kazakh crisis and the need for a new U.S. strategy in Central Asia
Since the U.S. launched its Central Asia strategy in February 2020, momentous changes have taken place. The U.S. left Afghanistan, new leadership in Kyrgyzstan, and the recent unrest in Kazakhstan are only the most significant examples. Meanwhile, tensions over Ukraine dominate the U.S. foreign policy agenda. While Central Asia should be part of U.S. strategic thinking, it does not seem to be. Against this background, the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute convened a forum to discuss how U.S. Central Asia Strategy can be improved in light of these circumstances.
Speakers:
- Ambassador (retired) George Krol, Adjunct Professor, The US Naval War College and Associate, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
- Margarita Assenova, Senior Fellow, The Jamestown Foundation
- S. Frederick Starr, Chairman, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at the American Foreign Policy Council
Moderator:
- Svante Cornell, Director, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at the American Foreign Policy Council
CAMCA Conversations: Tajikistan’s Emerging Private Sector Development
Tajikistan's Emerging Private Business Development
'CAMCA Conversations': Co-organized by The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at AFPC, The CAMCA Network and The Rumsfeld Foundation
When: Thursday, January 20, 2022, 10-11:30 AM EST
Speakers:
- Shuhrat Mirzoev, Economist and Co-Founder, IRSHAD Consulting; CAMCA Network Member
- Ozod Davlatshoev, CEO, T-Cell Tajikistan; Executive Board Member, Accelerate Prosperity; CAMCA Network Member
- Abdullo Kurbanov, Co-founder and CEO, Alif Bank; CAMCA Network Member
- Firuza Rahimova, Program Officer, Swiss Cooperation Office in Tajikistan; CAMCA Network Member
- Farukh Sultonov, Country Office, IFC; CAMCA Network Member
Moderator:
- S. Frederick Starr, Chairman, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at American Foreign Policy Council
When: Thursday, January 20, 2022,10:00 -11:30 AM EST
CACI Book Event - Strong and Unique: Three Decades of U.S.-Kazakhstan Partnership
The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute invites you to join us for a book launch event on Thursday 9 December, 2021. Strong and Unique: Three Decades of U.S.-Kazakhstan Partnership, authored by Dr. S. Frederick Starr and Dr. Svante E. Cornell, offers an insight-filled account of the evolution of the relationship between the United States and Kazakhstan. Given the U.S.' interest in nuclear security and energy exploration, this relationship predates the collapse of the Soviet Union; Kazakhstani and American leaders enjoyed a substantive and even privileged relationship from the outset. Over the past three-and-a-half decades, both countries have maintained this momentum despite occasional differences and rapidly shifting circumstances.
Today, America’s relationship with Kazakhstan stands out on a regional level as the most stable and positive -- a strong and unique partnership in a part of the world that seldom gets the attention it deserves. Kazakhstan's relationship with America, in the same spirit, stands as a model of the benefits a balanced foreign policy can bring to all concerned.
Lunch will be served.
Speakers:
Dr. S. Frederick Starr, Chairman, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute
Ambassador Erzhan Kazykhan, Special Representative of the President of Kazakhstan for International Cooperation
Ambassador Richard Hoagland (Ret.) former U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan
Moderator: Dr. Svante E. Cornell, Director, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute
Where: The Ritz Carlton, 1150 22nd St NW, Washington DC; Main Ballroom
When: Thursday, December 9, 2021, from 11:30 AM to 1.30 PM. The Presentation will start at Noon.
News
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Read CACI Chairman S. Frederick Starr's recent interview on the resurgence of Imperial Russia with The American Purpose
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
Listen to CACI director Svante Cornell's recent interview on the 'John Batchelor Show' podcast regarding Turkey's 2023 presidential election. Click here!
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New Article Series on Changing Geopolitics of Central Asia and the Caucasus
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CACI Initiative on Religion and the Secular State in Central Asia and the Caucasus
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.
Azerbaijan's Formula: Secular Governance and Civil Nationhood
By Svante E. Cornell, Halil Karaveli, and Boris Ajeganov
November 2016
Religion and the Secular State in Kazakhstan
By Svante E. Cornell, S. Frederick Starr and Julian Tucker
April 2018
Religion and the Secular State in Uzbekistan
Svante E. Cornell and Jacob Zenn
June 2018
Religion and the Secular State in Kyrgyzstan
Johan Engvall
June 2020
Religion and the Secular State in Turkmenistan
Victoria Clement
June 2020Articles 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.