In October students of Politics and Security class had an opportunity to meet several experts and discuss the current security issues in the region and beyond within the framework of their class on Central Asian Politics and Security taught by Viktoria Akchurina.
On 16 October Dr. Marat Murzabekov, monitoring & evaluation consultant for the UNDP offices in Lebanon and Niger gave a guest lecture to students. Dr. Murzabekov shared insider's insights from his extensive work on peace and conflict issues in Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East, as well as best practices in Monitoring & Evaluation methods and techniques.
On 21 October students attended a guest lecture of Dr. Melissa Skye Kerr Chiovenda, a professor at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi. As a leading anthropologist of Afghanistan, Dr. Chiovenda provided thought-provoking insights on the current situation in Afghanistan, methodology of data collection in the conflict regions, and a fresh take on the ethnic policies in Afghanistan and their impact on the recent fall of the government, the rise of Taliban, and potential advancement of ISIS to Afghanistan and Central Asia.