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Newsletter:  October 2003/ Issue 5
Uzbek Scholar Visits Pacific Northwest Center for Global Security

by Ghuzal Badamshina, PNWCGS Staff

In May 2003, sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Center for Global Security, Dr. Mirzokhid Rakhimov visited the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Seattle office. Dr. Rakhimov is an historian and Senior Researcher at the History Institute of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences. At the Academy he leads a research team studying Uzbekistan’s relationships with international organizations over the last 12 years. The research team functions under the Uzbekistan State Committee for Science and Technology, a government body in charge of making the country’s science policy and of distributing funds among the republic’s research organizations.

Dr. Rakhimov and his colleagues focus on the challenges of preventing and resolving conflict in modern Central Asian societies.

As the international community’s concern about stability and security in the Central Asian region becomes more pronounced, a variety of exchange grants are being offered to scholars and scientists in the region. These grants aim to expand Uzbek and other Central Asian scientists and academic’s understanding of Western models for the management of scientific organizations and to support public outreach and engagement with decision-makers. The Regional Scholar Exchange Program of the U.S. Department of State, now in its tenth year, fosters Community Connections in Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and also encourages joint work in projects through the Collaborative Research Grant program aimed at the academic communities in Georgia, Mongolia and Tajikistan.

Dr. Rakhimov was awarded an International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) scholarship to conduct research at the University of Washington’s (UW) Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. He was hosted by the Russian, Eastern Europe, and Central Asian Studies Center (REECAS). During his stay in Seattle, Rakhimov took advantage of numerous opportunities to discuss regional issues with the professors at the UW’s REECAS Center, History Department, Department for Near-Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and the Institute for Global and Regional Security Studies (IGRSS), the joint UW/PNNL program. He attended the April 2003 Caspian Sea Basin Security Conference, organized by the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), co-sponsored by the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute, Pacific Northwest Center for Global Security and UW’s REECAS. At the conference Dr. Rakhimov met U.S. experts on the large post-Soviet territories of the Caspian and Central Asian regions and had an opportunity to participate in informal discussions with them.

Dr. Rakhimov returned to Uzbekistan in June. He is now seeking avenues to further scholarly work with Seattle colleagues on Uzbekistan’s relationships with international organizations during the post-Soviet era.

“I am excited,” Dr. Rakhimov wrote in a recent correspondence, “about the possibility of joint research with Dr. Badamshina and her colleagues. Collaborations bring about new inquiries, new ideas, and this is what scholars on both sides can gain from.”