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| NewsPublic Lecture "Hedging Strategic Bets: Contemporary Geopolitical Thought in Tajikistan”May 13, 2010 OSCE Academy is pleased to invite you to the Public Lecture "Hedging Strategic Bets: Contemporary Geopolitical Thought in Tajikistan" by Dr. Kirill Nourzhanov, Research and Teaching Fellow, the OSCE Academy. Geopolitics, or the study of international relations from a geographical perspective, has a venerable tradition as an academic discipline going back to the late-19th century. It has also informed the strategic thinking of great powers seeking territorial expansion or global influence. The Eurasian Heartland, and especially its southern fringe comprising Central Asia, has continuously been at the centre of their attention. However, the countries that make up the Heartland also employ geopolitical themes in their foreign policy discourse. Tajikistan is no exception. Since it gained independence in 1991, far from blindly following the whim of the big players, the country's elites have actively sought to conceptualise its unique position inside the Heartland and work out a long-term strategy using the logic, idiom and core assumptions of classical geopolitics. This presentation will survey the main schools of geopolitical thought in contemporary Tajikistan, focusing on their divergent approaches to such topical issues as globalisation, great power rivalry, and interaction among different civilisations. Bio: Dr Kirill Nourzhanov is a Senior Lecturer at the Australian National University's Centre for Arab & Islamic Studies (the Middle East &Central Asia). Dr Nourzhanov's areas of expertise include Russian and Eurasian politics, the strategic and security environment in Central Asia and the Caucasus, and Islamic radicalism. He has published widely on these subjects, and also comments regularly in the Australian and international mass media on conflicts in the former Soviet Union, geopolitics, and terrorism. In 2000 - 2003, Dr Nourzhanov acted as an international adviser to the governments of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in the field of public administration reform. Currently, he is a Research and Teaching Fellow December 3, 2009 16.30 PM The OSCE Academy Library, 3rd floor Language: English Please send RSVP to t.zelichenko@osce-academy.net with your name and affiliation. |
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1 A, Botanichesky pereulok, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic |