Svetlana Kozhirova

(Director, Teaching and Research Office of the Eurasian National University)

Author

Svetlana Kozhirova, born in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 1963, is Professor at the Teaching and Research Office of State Relations, and Director at the Teaching and Research Office of the Eurasian National University. She is also Member of the Research Center of Military Strategy at Kazakhstan's Ministry of Defense, and Council Member of the International Studies Association. Graduated as a Political Science major, with a PhD in political sciences and associate PhD in history from the Saint Petersburg State University, she also studied at the Teaching and Research Office of Political Sciences at Bulgaria's Sofia University, the Teaching and Research Office of Oriental Research of the Academy of Political Sciences at Poland's University of Warsaw, the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque) and South Korea's Seoul National University. She won sponsorship from NATO's Science for Peace and Security project in 2010, and Britain's non-governmental TIRI project Integrity in Public Administration in 2009 and 2013.

Abstract

After the disintegration of the former USSR, countries of Central Asia began to establish their own research centers, aiming to carry out research on social economics and political changes within the region. At present, ties between international politics and scientific development are strong enough. However, the establishment of these national scientific research centers has become more complicated. The research program of Central Asia, promoted by Elliott School of International Affairs of the George Washington University, aims at carrying out high level scientific research on modern Central Asian regions. It dedicates itself to build a bridge for experts and political organizations. This program holds significance for the research personnel of Central Asia issues. In Kazakhstan, border studies and border issues have become important subjects of study in academia. At first, academia conducted research regarding ethnic boundaries in the framework of "ethnics and immigration". In the mid-1990s, many research centers shifted their focus to national borders and border communities. Currently, studies primarily focus on cross-disciplinary fields such as Border Studies, which focuses on social development in regions bordering Kazakhstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. Under the leadership of the Elliott School, some progress have been achieved. The geographic extent of the Euro-Asian continent has been expanded, and scholars from multiple countries have contributed efforts from their respective fields of studies. Achievements are well documented in quantity of research programs, academic publications, and varieties of direct scientific publicity. The research of border studies has already shown some trends: For example, some inherent features of the current global political regime have been revealed. With regard to border studies or global political regimes, the current feature is that, according to research from North American countries, globalization of research is developing at an astounding speed. Kazakh academia has showed interest in Border Studies, which is based on the inter-relevance of political science, geography, sociology, economics, and many other disciplines. Elliott School has rich experience in studying Central Asian countries, thus it has become a constructive scientific platform for relevant studies. It also facilitates the study of new trends in border policies of Central Asian countries.