25/06/2025, 14:00 - 18:00, Essen | hybrid
This workshop will critically and comparatively examine the European Union’s and Central Asia’s bilateral and multilateral relations. Contributors will discuss regional and cross-regional challenges, interregional interdependence and connectivity, as well as soft and smart power issues. The workshop’s goals are to propose some recommendations for improving relations between the EU and Central Asia, and foster academic partnership in the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary study of diversity issues and challenges.
The workshop is jointly organised by Michael Kaeding (Institute of Political Science, University of Duisburg-Essen) and Mirzokhid Rakhimov (Contemporary History Center of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences), who is currently a Senior Fellow at the College for Social Sciences and Humanities.
Please register by 22 June to participate on site or online:
College for Social Sciences and Humanities, Essen & online
Lunch (at the College)
Registration
Opening and Welcome
Mark Halawa-Sarholz, College for Social Sciences and Humanities (Germany)
Michael Kaeding, University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany)
Mirzokhid Rakhimov, Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences & College for Social Sciences and Humanities (Germany)
The EU strengthen its future enlargement and neighborhood policy in times of disruptive geopolitics
Michael Kaeding, University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany)
The EU and CA in in light of the Russian war in Ukraine
Pierre Andrieu, Asia Society France
Shifts in the EU's Central Asia Policy in the New Geopolitical Context
Julian Plottka, Institut für Europäische Politik (Germany)
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a filter and amplifier of the ‘soft’ power projection and reception: Comparative case of the European Union, China and Russia in Kazakhstan
Fabienne Bossuyt, Ghent University (Belgium)
Central Asia and the EU in 2025: what has changed, what has not
Dr. Shairbek Dzhuraev, OSCE Academy in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan)
Coffee break
The Variety of EU-CA relations: when international politics produce concrete results in academia
Adrien Fauve, Paris-Saclay University (France)
Questioning Externally Guided Regionalism in Central Asia: The Role of China and Its Implications for EU Policy in the Region
Maryia Danilovich, University of Göttingen (Germany)
Energy and communication issues in the EU-CA relations
Zhansaule Zharmakhanova, Eurasian National University (Kazakhstan)
The EU-Central Asia in wider regionalism
Mirzokhid Rakhimov, Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences & College for Social Sciences and Humanities (Germany)
“European values” as perceived from Central Asia
Zhanibek Aryn, Nazarbaev University (Kazakhstan)
Discussion
Concluding Words
Dinner