The Edinburgh
Symposium:
Central Asia and the Caspian Basin: A Decade
Post-Independence
7-8 December 2001
The University of
Edinburgh
in association with
Harvard University,
USA
CNRS, Paris,
British East-West Centre, UK
Sponsored
By:
The British Academy
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Department
for International Development
We are pleased to announce the
Edinburgh Symposium,
Central Asia and the
Caspian Basin: A Decade
Post-Independence. The Symposium will be co-hosted by the
Department of
Politics and the School of Law on 7-8 December 2001.
The Symposium is
held in association with the British East-West Centre, Harvard
University,
and the CNRS in Paris. Uniting leading academics and
practitioners in the field - including
from the UK, USA, Europe and Central
Asia - the Edinburgh Symposium will be the largest
of its kind held to date
in the UK. The Symposium is sponsored by the British Academy, the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office and the Department for International
Development, UK
Government. Details of the conference can be found at:
http://www.pol.ed.ac.uk/conferences/cacor email
[log in to unmask]The strategic area of Central Asia has
undergone a profound transformation in the first decade
of its independence.
The implications of geopolitical change in this new world region,
housing
over 300 million inhabitants and substantial natural resources, are
considerable. Occurring as
it does ten years after the collapse of the Soviet
Union, the timely Edinburgh Symposium will:
-provide a multidisciplinary
assessment of a region of growing political and
economic importance;
-bring together Western and Central Asian researchers - from the UK,
USA,
Europe and the five states of Central Asia;
-stimulate a frank
exchange between practitioners and leading academics in the
field, in
particular between academics, UK government and representatives of the
oil
and gas sector.
The Symposium is organised around seven thematic
panels, each of which consists of short
presentations, to be followed by
roundtable discussion:
P R O G R A M M E
Friday
7th December, 2001
08.30 - 09.30
Registration and
coffee
09.30 - 0945
OPENING ADDRESS
09.45 -
11.00
INTRODUCTIONS
Sally Cummings, University of Edinburgh
(Kazakhstan)
Meg Luckins, British East-West Centre (Kyrgyzstan)
Shirin
Akiner, SOAS, London (Tajikistan)
Annette Bohr, University of Cambridge
(Turkmenistan)
Stuart Horsman, FCO (Uzbekistan)
11.00 -
11.30
Coffee
11.30 - 12.45
POLITICAL and LEGAL
REFORM
Sally Cummings, Edinburgh (Authoritarianism)
Shirin Akiner,
SOAS (Political Order and Succession)
Scott Newton, SOAS (Legal Reform in
Central Asia)
John Anderson, St. Andrews University (Constitutional Reform in
Central Asia)
12.45 - 14.30
Lunch
14.30 - 15.45
ECONOMIC
and LEGAL REFORM
Pauline Luong Jones, Yale University (Energy Development
Strategies)
Helen Boss, Consultant, (Comparing Economic Reform in
Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan)
Erzhan Dosmukhametov, Oxford
University (Foreign Investment Law
in Central Asia)
Brian Cassidy,
Ledingham Chalmers, Solicitors (The Foreign Investment
Regime in Azerbaijan)
15.45 - 16.15
Tea
16.15 - 17.30
LAND
REFORM
Malcolm Childress, University of Wisconsin Madison
(Agricultural
Restructuring and Performance in Central Asia)
Brian
Cassidy, Ledingham Chalmers, Solicitors (The Legal Regulation
of
Privatisation in Azerbaijan)
Mr Tolobek Omuraliev, Director, Gosregister(Land
registration in
Kyrgyzstan)
Mr Maksatbek Tashbolotov, Director, Kalys
Consult (Land market
development in Kyrgystan)
18.00 - 19.00
Conference Reception
19.00 - 22.00
Conference
Dinner
Saturday 8th December, 2001
09.15 -
10.45
CIVIL SOCIETY and NATION-BUILDING
Ruth Mandel, University
College, London (Civil Society in Central
Asia)
John Schoeberlein, Harvard
University (Cultural change)
Pal Kolsto, University of Oslo, Norway
(Nation-building and Language
Standardisation in Kazakhstan)
Sergei
Gretsky, Tajikistan (Civil Society in Central Asia)
10.45 -
11.15
Coffee
11.15 - 12.45
THE CASPIAN: OIL, PIPELINES and the
ENVIRONMENT
John Roberts (Caspian Oil and Gas: how far have we come and
where
are we going?)
Alan Boyle, University of Edinburgh (oil/water
swaps)
Stuart Horsman, FCO (Environment)
Adnan Amkhan, Energy Charter
Secretariat (Energy transit issues)
Peter Riches, Texaco Oil Corporation
(Perspectives on political risk for
oil and gas field developments in Central
Asia)
12.45 - 14.30
Lunch
14.30 - 15.45
STABILITY and
SECURITY in CENTRAL ASIA
Roy Allison, Royal Institute of International
Affairs (Central Asian
military reform)
Ravshan Alimov, Director,
Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies, Uzbekistan (Uzbekistan's
perceptions of stability and security in Central Asia)
Anna Zelkina, SOAS,
(Islamic Fundamentalism)
Rafis Abazov, Kyrgyzstan (Foreign Policy Making in
Central Asia)
15.45 - 16.15
Tea
16.15 -
17.30
GEOPOLITICS of CENTRAL ASIA
Olivier Roy, CNRS, Paris (Islam
in Central Asia: How to Assess the
Afghan Influence?)
Talgat
Ismagambetov, Kazakhstan (Russia and China)
John Erickson, University of
Edinburgh (Geopolitics, Geostrategy and
Geoeconomics in
Eurasia)
Details of the conference can be found at:
http://www.pol.ed.ac.uk/conferences/cacor email
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