DKU Talks on U.S. Foreign Policy will take place on January 20, 2020

The Kazakh-German University is pleased to invite all to the DKU Talk on «U.S. Foreign Policy towards Central Asia after 2020 presidential election» taking place in online format on January, 20, at 4 pm (Almaty time).

• How, if at all, the change of US administration will affect the US foreign policy toward Central Asia?

• What has been the greatest foreign policy accomplishment of the US toward Central Asia since independence?

• What steps, if any, would the new administration take to counter the influence of China and Russia in the region?

• Would the new administration commit to full withdrawal from Afghanistan and, if yes, what alternative strategies would the new administration take to counter the growth of terrorism/radicalism in the region?

We will discuss all these and other questions with Dr. Shairbek Dzhuraev, Co-Founder and Director at Crossroads Asia, Research Fellow at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek and Iskander Akylbaev, Executive Director at the Kazakh Council for International Relations in Nur-Sultan.

Dr. Shairbek Dzhuraev is co-founder and director at Crossroads Central Asia, a Bishkek-based research institute. He is also a Volkswagen Foundation postdoctoral fellow based at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek. Shairbek previously served as deputy director at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, and dean of academic development at the American University of Central Asia. Shairbek taught international relations, foreign policy analysis, Central Asian politics, Central Asia and Russia at the American University of Central Asia. He is a member of PONARS Eurasia and is in the advisory groups of the EU-Central Asia Monitoring and the European Neighbourhood Council. Shairbek’s research interests include political regimes, international relations and foreign policymaking in Central Asia. Shairbek has a PhD from the University of St Andrews and MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), both in International Relations.

Iskander Akylbayev is executive Director of the Kazakhstan Council on International Relations. Iskander has more than 10 years' experience working in the sphere of foreign policy, government relations and mass media. Previously he worked as advisor to the CEO on foreign policy issues at the Qazaqstan TV Channel and senior fellow at the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies (KazISS) under the President of Kazakhstan. Iskander also served as a senior fellow at the Institute of Diplomacy at the Academy of Public Administration under the President of Kazakhstan. He focuses on Kazakhstan’s foreign policy, security and geopolitics of Eurasia. He is Asia 21 Young Leader at the Asia Society, Atlantic Council Millennium Fellow, Pacific Forum Fellow, Rumsfeld Fellow, Gorcahkov Fund Fellow. In 2020 Iskander was selected as the only security fellow from Central Asia by Arms Control Negotiation Academy (ACONA) organized by Harvard University’s Davis Center, MGIMO, Wilson Center, Höfði Reykjavík Peace Centre, National Research University Higher School of Economics and Peace Research Institute Frankfurt. He was the first runner-up winner of the Hong Kong Cup All Japan University Students English Speech Contest 2013 and interned at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Iskander is founder and CEO of XANDER platform for leadership and networking in Central Asia. He received the MEXT scholarship by the government of Japan and holds MA degree in international relations from the University of Tsukuba.

The working language during the event is English.

Date: January, 20, 2020, at 16:00 (Almaty time)

Connect to the webinar via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82038251517?pwd=U0J2NG1ZdkN0QVNhM2J0QklIbDJadz09

• Conference identifier: 820 3825 1517

• Password: 677127

DKU Talks is conducted with the financial support of DAAD with funds from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Contacts: dku.talks@dku.kz
+7 707 625 42 55