On 22 February the OSCE Academy’s Associate Research Fellow Mr. Olivier Korthals delivered a lecture on his MSc thesis topic “Security Sector Reform of European Actors towards Central Asia.” Mr. Korthals is an Erasmus Mundus exchange student to Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty. He’s enrolled in the MSc program Conflicts, Territories and Identities at his home institution Radboud University Nijmegen, and has a BA degree in History at the University Utrecht.
During the public lecture Mr. Korthals presented the background of his research, the theoretical and conceptual framework, as well as preliminary findings gained from interviewing local experts and civil society actors. The presentation was followed by the discussion and suggestion on further research steps.
The OSCE Academy Associate Research Fellowship (ARF) was launched in 2017 and aims to support PhD Candidates and/or Post-Doctoral researchers in conducting their research projects and to provide institutional affiliation to independent scholars. The length of the fellowship is from six to twelve months and is open for Bishkek-based and non-Bishkek residents. Associated Research Fellows are regularly invited to present their research to an interested public and to submit their work to the Academy’s academic outlets. http://osce-academy.net/en/research/arf/