Forums and Conferences

The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program organize occasional joint conferences on topical issues, in addition to the regular CACI Forum and Silk Road Forum. These normally take place in Washington or Stockholm/Uppsala, but occasionally, in cooperation with partner institutions, in other locations.

April 19, 2007
Workshop on ”Peacekeeping in the 21st Century: Ideology or Policy for Resolving Violent Conflict? - Great Power Perspectives”
Stockholm, Sweden.
To visit the conference web site [click here].

March 27, 2007
Workshop on “Nepal Water Security Forum - An Academic Forum for Policy Making in the South Asian Region”
Uppsala, Sweden

21 March 2007
Workshop on "Conflict Prevention and Management in the Taiwan Strait - Challenges and Opportunities"
Stockholm, Sweden.
To visit the conference web site [click here].

13-14 March 2007
Workshop "Taipei Workshop on Conflict Management"
Taipei, Taiwan
To visit the workshop web site [click here].

12 March 2007
Conference ”Stockholm-Taipei 2007 International Conflict Management Conference - Managing Conflict for Modus Vivendi”
Taipei, Taiwan
To visit the conference web site [click here].

March 8 - 9, 2007
Conference on "The Need for Conflict Prevention and Conflict Management in Sino-Japanese relations"
Tokyo, Japan
To visit the conference web site [click here].
To download conference report [click here].

June 30, 2006
Conference on "Minorities and the Georgian State"
Tbilisi, Georgia
Click here for Conference Report, by Johanna Popjanevski and Niklas Nilsson

This conference was organized in cooperation with Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, with funding from the Folke Bernadotte Academy, focusing on the relations between compactly settled national minorities and the state in Georgia. The conference brought together government officials, minority NGO representatives, and experts. Click for the conference program.


May 5, 2006
Conference on "Turkey in Europe: Change and Challenge"
Stockholm, Sweden
Click Here for Conference Report, by Per Häggström

This conference, organized by the Joint Center in cooperation with the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, sought to broaden the discussions on Turkey's role in Europe following Turkey's beginning of negotiations on EU membership. It aspired to do so by focusing on Turkey's role in the security of a changing and expanding Europe. The conference brought together leading Turkish experts on a wide array of topics. It was opened by Ms. Annika Söder, Swedish State Secretary for Foreign Affairs.

April 1-2, 2006
Conference on "Partnership, Trade, and Development in Greater Central Asia"
Kabul, Afghanistan
Click here for Conference Report, by Nicklas Norling

This conference, organized by the Joint Center with the Institute of World Economy and Policy (IWEP) of the First Kazakhstan President Foundation, convened experts and officials from throughout Greater Central Asia to discuss how each country can benefit from region-wide trade, what it must do in order to reap these benefits, and how the U.S. can work in partnership with regional states to bring this about.  Conferees considered trade in all directions, but a main focus was how each country can benefit from opening major transport routes to the Indian Ocean, South Asia, and beyond. Impediments in the areas of infrastructure and institutions were identified, as were steps that might be taken jointly with the U.S. to overcome them.

December 16-17, 2005
Conference on"Comparing Different Approaches to Conflict Prevention and Management: Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Strait"
Stockholm, Sweden
To visit the conference web site [click here].
To download conference report [click here].

The aim of the conference was identifying the differentiating factors with regard to the attempted measures of conflict prevention and management in the Taiwan Strait and the Korean Peninsula. The purpose was to give a historical and theoretical perspective on approaches to conflict management and prevention in order to enable a constructive analysis of the present situation. Conclusions from the conference facilitate theory development in the field of conflict prevention and management in that it provided focus and specialization to existing theories.

June 1-2, 2005
Conference on Countering Narcotics and Organized Crime in the Baltic Sea Region
Stockholm, Sweden
Click here for Conference Report, by Emin Poljarevic

The conference focused on understanding drug-related problems and organized crime behavior in the Baltic sea region. In the context of rapid increase in the accessibility of narcotics and its consequences within the European Union, the conference focused on efforts to combat narcotics abuse and the spread of organized crime networks. Since the Baltic region is one of the European frontiers in combating and preventing the inflow of drugs to the EU, the conference drew significantly on expertise and experience from the region in order to analyze the possibilities of improving the current situation. The conference served to to discuss counter-narcotics efforts and to examine the region's capacity to tackle the problem. Participants consisted of high level government officials from the Baltic region and Sweden, and a wide range of renowned academics. The conference was sponsored by the Office of the Swedish National Drug Policy Coordinator.

May 19-20, 2005
Conference on New Security Threats in Eurasia: Implications for the Euro-Atlantic Space
Stockholm, Sweden
Click here for Conference Report, by Emin Poljarevic

Central Eurasia is at the heart of the tug-of-war between authoritarian governance and democracy. It is also increasingly important to the energy security of the west, as illustrated by the completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in May 2005. Yet the region is also plagued by instability, conflict and poverty which fuel the illicit trade in narcotics and other forms of organized crime with profound effects on the West. The same factors, coupled with the slow development of political systems, also fuel radicalism that potentially breeds terrorism. In sum, more often than not, this wider area is at the center of the crucial events and processes of our time. Against this background, this conference gathered two dozen globally leading experts to discuss the security challenges arising from the region and their relationship to the Euro-Atlantic community. The conference was made possible through the direct support of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. In addition, it is supported by ongoing project funding by the Swedish Emergency Management Agency and the Office of the National Drug Policy Coordinator, and by sponsoring from Gustavus Capital Asset Management Ltd. and TeliaSonera, inc.

April 8-9, 2005
Workshop on Conflict Mangement and Conflict Prevention in Northeast Asia
Uppsala, Sweden
To visit the conference web site [click here].
To download the conference report (pdf) [click here].
To download concept paper (pdf) [click here].

The aim of the workshop is to discuss and develop the existing theories and concepts of conflict prevention and conflict management. The purpose is to set the stage for new research on the concepts of conflict management and prevention through building on previous research by the Project on Conflict Management in Northeast Asia and the individual participants of the workshop. The workshop will take a general approach to existing theories with the purpose of reviewing the existing concepts and research
regarding the theoretical foundation of conflict management and prevention. Although general in approach the workshop will capitalize on the participants leading expertise on Northeast Asia and thus will incorporate an evaluative perspective of the relevance of existing theories to the region.

April 6-7, 2005
Workshop on Narcotics and Organized Crime in the Baltic region, Riga, Latvia

November 26-28, 2004
Conference on “Conflict prevention and Conflict Management in Northeast Asia”
Beijing, China
To visit the conference web site [click here].
To download the conference report (pdf) [click here].
To access conference volume [click here].

This conference has three main aims. First, participants will present articles and share knowledge gained in their research. This is part of the collaborative effort of constructing a theoretical and empirical framework for the development of conflict prevention and management focusing on the regional context. The research findings will be published as a joint volume. Second, the conference will serve as a forum for discussing and planning an expansion of the ongoing research collaboration with researchers from China and Taiwan. The new project will include additional members from the Northeast Asian region, such as Japan, North Korea and South Korea, as well as the United States. Third, and linked with the expanding collaboration, discussions on the initiation of a new project focusing on the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Straits will take place. The idea to initiate a project that utilizes the methodological and theoretical findings from the current project in order to concretize tools for conflict prevention and management for the region, has surfaced during the course of the Conflict Management Project.