International conference on "The Great Powers and Central Asia after Western Drawdown from Afghanistan"

Between 6 and 7 June, 2016 the OSCE Academy in Bishkek in cooperation with the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies of Columbia University in New York, hosted an international conference on "The Great Powers and Central Asia after Western Drawdown from Afghanistan." The Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies (SIWPS) is part of Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in New York.

The workshop featured presentations from a Columbia University research team, as well as by distinguished researchers from Russia and Central Asia, who gathered to discuss the changing strategies of external power towards Central Asia during the current drawdown of NATO forces in Afghanistan. The researchers considered current security challenges and the new emerging economic architectures, such as China's One Belt One Road Initiative, and analyzed how they are impacting the politics, economic and social policies of the Central Asian states.

As the closing session of the conference the former president of Kyrgyzstan, H.E. Roza Otunbaeva delivered the keynote speech.

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