PUBL.- Report on AIAS Conference: Afghanistan's Other Neighbors
Posted by: American Institute of Afghanistan Studies <aias@bu.edu>
Report on "Afghanistan's Other Neighbors: Iran, Central Asia, and China"
A symposium held by the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies
(AIAS) and the Hollings Center for International Dialogue
Landlocked Afghanistan lies in the heart of Asia. It links three major
cultural and geographic regions: the Indian subcontinent to the
southeast, Central Asia to the north, and the Iranian Plateau in the
west. Geography may not be destiny, but it has set the course of
Afghan history for millennia. Even today Afghanistan continues to
share cross-border populations, trade links, labor migrations, and
cultural ties that transcend current nation-state boundaries. Although
Afghanistan's relationship with its southeastern neighbor, Pakistan,
receives considerable scrutiny, its relationship with its other
neighbors to the west and north--China, Iran, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan--has received much less attention.
To address this issue, the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies
(AIAS) and the Hollings Center for International Dialogue cosponsored
a seminar in Istanbul in July 2008 entitled "Afghanistan's Other
Neighbors: Iran, Central Asia, and China." Building on a path-breaking
July 2007 AIAS-Hollings Center conference on the Durand Line, the
contested border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the seminar brought
together a diverse and interdisciplinary group of 26 prominent
scholars, diplomats, former government officials, and NGO
representatives from Afghanistan, the Central Asian Republics, the
European Union, Turkey, and the United States. Discussions explored
the past, present, and future connections between Afghanistan and its
northern and western neighbors. The seminar concluded that
Afghanistan's long-term prospects for political stability and economic
prosperity depend on strengthening its links with these neighbors.
Both the Afghan government and the international community therefore
must give far greater attention to the structure of these
relationships, their present status, and their future prospects when
creating development and security policies for Afghanistan. A report
of this conference was released in March 2009 to summarize the key
discussion points and conclusions.
You may access the report by going to the AIAS web site at
http://www.bu.edu/aias/conferences.html
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