Forschung

26.11.2021 - Expert roundtable "Winning Hearts and Minds? Public Diplomacy and Norm Entrepreneurs in Central Asia" organised in cooperation with the OSCE Academy

On 26. November, the Expert roundtable “Winning Hearts and Minds? Public Diplomacy and Norm Entrepreneurs in Central Asia” took place that I organised in cooperation with my colleague Dr. Aijan Sharshenova from the OSCE Academy. This half-day long expert roundtable brought together several qualified speakers to discuss foreign public diplomacy actors and norm entrepreneurs in Central Asia. Based on a selection of experts on foreign policy, public diplomacy and soft power, this roundtable aims to spark a discussion on the varieties, formats and contents of external public diplomacy efforts in Central Asia. The key purpose of this workshop was to increase awareness and understanding of soft power and public diplomacy and to facilitate a policy-relevant discussion on how and why external powers choose to have their norm entrepreneurs in Central Asia.

- Chiara Pierobon

29.10.2021 - Annual meeting of the OSCE Group of Friends of Youth and Security (GoFYS)

On 29. October I was delighted to attend - as invited speaker - the annual meeting of the OSCE Group of Friends of Youth and Security (GoFYS) focused on “On Investing in Education for Safer Societies” that this year was co-chaired by Spain, United States of America and Kyrgyzstan. During the meeting, I talked about the role of education in the transformative journeys of youth by sharing my experience as a lecturer and as manager of academic and research projects involving universities in the region.

- Chiara Pierobon

13.10.2021 - Latest publication on EU's prevention of violent extremism (PVE) in Central Asia

My latest paper “EU Efforts to Prevent Violent Extremism (PVE) by Engaging Civil Society in Kyrgyzstan” was published by Central Asian Affairs. The paper examined the EU’s engagement in preventing violent extremism (PVE) through the involvement of civil society organisations (CSOs) in Kyrgyzstan. In particular, by providing new insights into the EU-funded civil society projects under the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP) and its program Strengthening Resilience to Violent Extremism (STRIVE), the article deepens our understanding of the security–development nexus and the approach to stability and peace that characterises EU assistance on the ground. At the same time, by looking at the concrete activities carried out by EU-funded organisations in Kyrgyzstan, this article presents a classification of CSO forms of engagement in PVE that is relevant for the selected country and beyond. This study was conducted in the framework of the research-professionalisation project “Between Stability and Transformation: Regional and Transnational Cooperation in Central Asia and between Central Asia and Europe” funded by VolkswagenStiftung and in cooperation with the OSCE Academy in Bishkek.

Link: https://brill.com/view/journals/caa/8/2/article-p150_3.xml#.YW5JoFP3PhA.linkedin

- Chiara Pierobon

08.10.2021 - Open Lecture "EU's support to civil society in Central Asia: assessing the substance of CSO/LA, EIDHR and IcSP"

On 8. October, I presented the main findings of her research on EU’s support to civil society in Central Asia at the workshop “Human Rights in Central Asia: Troubled Nexuses between Internationalization and State Building” organised by the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies. The open lecture was based on 75+ semi-structured interviews collected with EU-funded civil society organisations (CSOs) and implementing partners in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in the past 10 years and sheds light on the main outcomes and shortcomings of the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP) and the EU thematic program CSO/LA in development.

- Chiara Pierobon

26.09.2021 - Presentation of study on “Ending Gender-based Violence: the Spotlight Initiative in Kyrgyzstan”

On 26. September I presented - together with my colleague Dr. Allia Maralbaeva - the preliminary findings of our current study on “Ending Gender-based Violence in Kyrgyzstan” at the conference “Glocal Transformation in Central Asia” organised by the OSCE Academy in Bishkek and Friedrich Ebert Foundation Kyrgyzstan. The study investigates how the Spotlight Initiative seeks to stimulate ownership and agency of an array of state and non-state actors that are engaged in addressing domestic violence from an institutional and legal perspective. The research project is conducted in the framework of the postdoctoral program ”Institutional Change and Social Practice. Research on the Political System, the Economy and Society in Central Asia and the Caucasus" funded by the VolkswagenStiftung.

- Chiara Pierobon