Leading Researcher at the Laboratory of Anthropology and Conflictology
Rustam Makhmudov (Uzbekistan), Leading Researcher at the Laboratory of Anthropology and Conflictology of the Institute for Advanced International Studies (IPMI), Associate Professor at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy (UWED). In this capacity, Rustam Makhmudov is responsible for preparing analytical materials, articles and scientific research on various aspects of socio-political anthropology, ethnology and conflictology related to the situation in Central Asia and Afghanistan. Rustam Makhmudov also lectures on "Digital Aspects of World Politics" and "Strategic Culture" at the UWED. Prior to joining IPMI, Rustam Mahmudov worked in various positions at the Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies, the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and the Center for Political Studies. He is the author of over 200 articles on regional and global politics and security, economics, energy and technological geopolitics.
Rustam Makhmudov, a Leading Research Fellow at the Centre for Anthropology and Conflict Studies of the Institute for Advanced International Studies (IAIS), has published an article on “Central Asia facing the challenge of contemporary identity dynamics” in the Proceedings of the international conference “Identification in Central Asian countries: trajectories of development”, organised in December 2023 in Almaty by the Representative Office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Central Asia.
The article discusses in detail the issue of the entry and functioning of various identity constructs formed in other cultural and civilisational spaces in the region. Identity is described by the author as a socio-economic institution, and the latest modern scientific-theoretical methods are applied to the analysis of its phenomenon.
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This annual flagship report, including 13 policy briefs, offers an alternative glimpse at the events and developments in and around Afghanistan, prioritizing timely and significant thematic and regional approaches. Obviously, the Taliban’s rapid surge into power in August 2021 and the subsequent measures to solidify their position reshaped relations with Afghanistan’s neighbours.
Thematic analyses cover critical issues such as terrorism and extremism, humanitarian crises, transnational crime, as well as political and social problems stemming from Afghanistan. Additionally, sporadic efforts by the Taliban government to regulate the country’s economic situation are deeply analysed. The report also explores Afghanistan’s role as a centre for transport communications between its immediate and extended neighbours.
Policy briefs highlight emerging concerns such as transboundary water issues and border conflicts between Afghanistan and its neighbours. Furthermore, the report underscores Afghanistan’s growing importance for Central Asian Republics (CAR) as an alternative transportation corridor diversifying away from traditional partners. Several papers assess CAR’s pragmatic foreign policy towards Afghanistan amid a challenging international environment where varying approaches to establishing formal relations with the Taliban prevail.
Overall, the report presents ideas in an orthodox yet easily understandable manner, with historical events laid out chronologically to aid in understanding the contemporary developments.
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The policy of Turkmenistan after the Taliban took control of Kabul and the entire territory of Afghanistan in August 2021 can be described as proactive, aimed at establishing constructive, working and mutually beneficial relations with the new authorities of the country. Meanwhile, Ashgabat sought to achieve three strategic goals - by establishing diplomatic contacts to secure its borders, to maintain access to the Afghan consumer market and to try to give new impetus to transport and energy projects, tied to Afghanistan.
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Central Asia is gradually becoming part of the global process of transition to a new technological structure, which Klaus Schwab called the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” (FIR). This process is most active in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, which are the locomotives of the region’s economic growth and are investing heavily in digitalization and creating an ecosystem of startups and venture capital, gradually turning into exporters of digital services.
Meanwhile, when they talk about the digitalization of Central Asia, they most often consider its economic and technological aspects, while the value and closely related ethical aspects remain insufficiently developed at the academic level. However, as studies by Max Weber, Joseph Schumpeter and Douglas North have shown, ideological, value and institutional paradigms directly influence the nature of economic and technological development. Moreover, the technologies themselves then influence the consolidation of a new value system and the transformation of previous value systems. For Central Asia, this is more relevant than ever, given that the region today faces competition between value systems.
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The radical change in the situation in Afghanistan, brought about by the return to power of the Taliban in August 2021, raised the question of the further development of the jihadist terrorist movements in the region, as well as the participation of citizens of Central Asian countries. Experts’ assessments, made immediately after the fall of Kabul, that Central Asia would be the target of direct coercive pressure from international groups, which would receive Taliban protection and funding, have not yet come true.
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