Please join us for a timely discussion on the post-Soviet experience with multiethnic and multi-faith societies and the destabilizing trends of rising religious extremism. Government officials and experts will draw lessons from the South Caucasus and Central Asia region on how to foster religious and ethnic tolerance and to preserve stability in insecure regions.
This discussion will be on-the-record.
Preliminary Conference Agenda
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
8.30am-9.00am: Registration
9.00am: Introductions
Janusz Bugajski, Senior Associate, CSIS
Ariel Cohen, Senior Fellow, Heritage Foundation
9.10-9.30am: Opening Remarks
Farah Pandith, Special Representative to Muslim Communities, Department of State
9.30-11.00am: Panel One: Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Faith Societies: The Post-Soviet Experience
Moderator:
Ariel Cohen, Heritage Foundation
Svante Cornell, Research Director, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, Johns Hopkins University
Mark Levin, Executive Director, National Conference on Soviet Jewry
Mamuka Tsereteli, Director, Center for Black Sea-Caspian Studies
Stephen Blank, Research Professor of National Security Affairs, U.S. Army War College
11.10-12.50pm: Panel Two: Maintaining Diversity and Stability in Insecure Regions
Moderator:
Janusz Bugajski, CSIS
Joshua Walker, International Affairs Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
Fatima Tlisova, Journalist, VOA Russian Service
Brenda Shaffer, Senior Lecturer, School of Political Sciences, Haifa University
Margarita Assenova, Director of Programs, Balkans, Caucasus & Central Asia, Jamestown Foundation
Commentator:
Ariel Cohen, Heritage Foundation
12.50-1.20pm Luncheon Keynote
Moderator:
Heather Conley, Senior Fellow and Director, Europe Program, CSIS
Sevinj Fataliyeva, Deputy Chair, Standing Committee on International Relations,
Parliament of Azerbaijan
1.30pm: Concluding Comments
Janusz Bugajski, CSIS
Ariel Cohen, Heritage Foundation