[Bilimsel Haber] PUBL.- Report on AIAS Conference (June 2008, Istanbul): Afghanistan's Other Neighbors

[Gonul Pultar]

PUBL.- Report on AIAS Conference: Afghanistan's Other Neighbors

Posted by: American Institute of Afghanistan Studies <aias at 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



Distrib. by: Central-Eurasia-L - Announcement List for Central Eurasian 
Studies