Well, the big day is almost here. Gill is leaving today from Japan and I am leaving on Tuesday. I still have to buy my ticket for the Kyrgyzstan leg of the journey but I am not anticipating any problems. Well, nothing beyond the problem of it being inordinately expensive and incredibly inconvenient.
Once we are in Kabul we have a couple of meetings set up at colleges and one at the State department. We are also going to hang out at some English classes. Our hope is that we can get enough paper surveys done in country to have a decent sample.
I finally got my visa today. It was quite a story. I had thought that I would be able to get it overnight. I sent it and called and asked if they were processing the visa and the guys asked me how much money I had paid. I know, it was just a practical way of asking how fast I had paid to have it processes, still, it was not the most confidence inspiring answer.
He rummaged around and found it and said he would have it out that night. It was actually the next day that it was sent. It came to the UPS store. When I went to the store to get it the kid working the counter--who was not the regular guy who does this--had to rummage around the store for 5 minutes, during which time I was thinking, "Well, between Afghanistan and Mississippi you knew someone would lose it."
I am really excited about the project. Even though we are behind and all I think we have such an exciting idea and such an interesting situation that we can't really go wrong.
Our project is to assess the impact of higher education on Democracy in Central Asia. Central Asia is a uniquely fluid political situation. One can imagine its future as totalitarian theocracies or beacons of liberal democracy with almost equal ease. One the one hand these countries have almost no experience with democracy and precious little experience with being nation states in the modern sense. On the other hand the loose political confederations that have governed these high planes for most of the last two millennia were, like many tribal societies, governed by surprisingly democratic institutions. For instance, in setting up a democracy in Afghanistan it was not necessary to set up entirely new institutions but only to revive and expand the powers of old ones, such as the Loya Jurga.
The influences that are in play internationally in Central Asia are also uniquely diverse. From being the connecting link to two great civilizations of the East and West to being the central battle ground in 19th Century imperial powers during the pseudo cold war known as "The Great Game," the area has always seemingly been the object of the machinations of greater powers. Today it has gone from being the cross-roads of international trade to being in the cross-fire of international conflict.
Central Asia lies in the fault lines created by the intersection of most of the important powers in international politics. Seeing this requires little more than reciting the countries that border central Asia: Turkey, Iran, Russia, India and China. Add in the major military facilities that have been recently added by the US and the potential for international conflict is obvious. And the great powers have moved to advance their interests in the area.
But more than geography makes CA liable to international conflict. The structure of population in the nations of Central Asia would create the potential for conflict without the intervention of outside powers. Harsh landscapes, weak central governments and colonization have combined to make the nations of CA a mosaic of ethnic groups, languages and cultures. The two nations in which we will conduct our initial studies, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan, exemplify this.
Afghanistan, as many Americans have come to know all too well, is made up of four major ethnic groups. The Pashtoons are the largest, making up some 40% of the population. Ethnically they are related to their neighbors in much larger Pakistan. Behind them are the Tajiks--closely related to the Iranians or Persians--are the second largest. They are followed by the more Asiatic Hazzars--apparently related to the Mongols who invaded in the 13th century--and the Uzbeks--a Turkic people.
Next to Kyrgyzstan the Afghanistan looks positively homogeneous. There is no significan Pashtoon presence in Krygyzstan but all the other elements are there with additions. The main group is the Kyrgyz, who are numberically dominant in the population. Thier language is a variant of Turkish (they can pick up Turkish by osmossis though it does not seem to work in the other direction) but in appearance are more like the Mongolians. But there is a very large remnant of peoples from around the former Soviet Union there also. In addition to ethnic Russians there are significant contingents of Koreans, Tartar and Germans. Part of this diversity is due to Stalin's policy of sending populations of questionable loyalty (at least in his mind) to some place far away. Kyrgyzstan is nothing if not far away. At the edge of the Russian and the Chinese Empire; farther back in time at the edge of the Mongolian and the Trukish empires, it is always somehow at the periferry of somewhere.
It is also a very tolerant place, certainly by the standards of the region. This has made it a sort of ideological and identity politics battle ground. Bishkek, the capital, is home to several institutions of higher learning that are backed by different foreign powers as a way of advancing their interests and increasing thier influence.
The American University of Central Asia is the US's entry into the academic version of the Great Game. Backed by the Soros Foundation and the US State Department for its start up funds, it is patterned on an American style liberal arts college and all classes are taught in English. There are other Universities with greater or lesser degrees of government backing and teaching in the language of thier partron country. There is a Russian, Turkish and Kurwaity backed University, as well as the Kyrgyz National University. the European Union backs a graduate school and there is intermittant talk of Kyrgyzstan joining NATO in some way. There is also a strong and growing Chinese presence and many students express a desire to learn Chinese.
The situation in Kyrgyzstan makes a number of identities plausible for the typical citizen. One might think of oneself as an Asian or as an outpost of Anglo-American style democracy. One could think of thier country as primarily Turkic (it is referred to by Turks as "the Motherland"), as part of the Russian cultural sphere or an outpost of Sinic civilization. Of course there is a serious Muslim identity option too.
Democracy and support for the values that under lie it is also often thought to be a by product of higher education. Here we build on a well-trodden path from the beginings of large-scale survey research in the post war era.
Finally, in line with contemporary thinking about liberal arts education in the US, we expect that a liberal arts education backed by a 'liberal' nation should result in greater inclination toward critical thinking. We draw on relatively recent efforts to measure critical thinking as a result of liberal arts education in the academy, especially California's critical thinking initiative.
Our goal on this trip is to try out some of our questions and to build relationships with professors in institutions of higher education in Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan.
We propose to investigate the effect of these nationally backed institutions on the development of the political orientations of future elites in Central Asia. Roughly speaking, we expect the effects of national backing to be found in four areas: affect, identity, democracy and critical thinking.
The affect hypothessis is straight forward. If you are going to a school that is in part supported by a foreign government you should, on the whole, feel more favorably disposed toward that foreign government. Likewise with identity.
Once we are in Kabul we have a couple of meetings set up at colleges and one at the State department. We are also going to hang out at some English classes. Our hope is that we can get enough paper surveys done in country to have a decent sample.
I finally got my visa today. It was quite a story. I had thought that I would be able to get it overnight. I sent it and called and asked if they were processing the visa and the guys asked me how much money I had paid. I know, it was just a practical way of asking how fast I had paid to have it processes, still, it was not the most confidence inspiring answer.
He rummaged around and found it and said he would have it out that night. It was actually the next day that it was sent. It came to the UPS store. When I went to the store to get it the kid working the counter--who was not the regular guy who does this--had to rummage around the store for 5 minutes, during which time I was thinking, "Well, between Afghanistan and Mississippi you knew someone would lose it."
I am really excited about the project. Even though we are behind and all I think we have such an exciting idea and such an interesting situation that we can't really go wrong.
Our project is to assess the impact of higher education on Democracy in Central Asia. Central Asia is a uniquely fluid political situation. One can imagine its future as totalitarian theocracies or beacons of liberal democracy with almost equal ease. One the one hand these countries have almost no experience with democracy and precious little experience with being nation states in the modern sense. On the other hand the loose political confederations that have governed these high planes for most of the last two millennia were, like many tribal societies, governed by surprisingly democratic institutions. For instance, in setting up a democracy in Afghanistan it was not necessary to set up entirely new institutions but only to revive and expand the powers of old ones, such as the Loya Jurga.
The influences that are in play internationally in Central Asia are also uniquely diverse. From being the connecting link to two great civilizations of the East and West to being the central battle ground in 19th Century imperial powers during the pseudo cold war known as "The Great Game," the area has always seemingly been the object of the machinations of greater powers. Today it has gone from being the cross-roads of international trade to being in the cross-fire of international conflict.
Central Asia lies in the fault lines created by the intersection of most of the important powers in international politics. Seeing this requires little more than reciting the countries that border central Asia: Turkey, Iran, Russia, India and China. Add in the major military facilities that have been recently added by the US and the potential for international conflict is obvious. And the great powers have moved to advance their interests in the area.
But more than geography makes CA liable to international conflict. The structure of population in the nations of Central Asia would create the potential for conflict without the intervention of outside powers. Harsh landscapes, weak central governments and colonization have combined to make the nations of CA a mosaic of ethnic groups, languages and cultures. The two nations in which we will conduct our initial studies, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan, exemplify this.
Afghanistan, as many Americans have come to know all too well, is made up of four major ethnic groups. The Pashtoons are the largest, making up some 40% of the population. Ethnically they are related to their neighbors in much larger Pakistan. Behind them are the Tajiks--closely related to the Iranians or Persians--are the second largest. They are followed by the more Asiatic Hazzars--apparently related to the Mongols who invaded in the 13th century--and the Uzbeks--a Turkic people.
Next to Kyrgyzstan the Afghanistan looks positively homogeneous. There is no significan Pashtoon presence in Krygyzstan but all the other elements are there with additions. The main group is the Kyrgyz, who are numberically dominant in the population. Thier language is a variant of Turkish (they can pick up Turkish by osmossis though it does not seem to work in the other direction) but in appearance are more like the Mongolians. But there is a very large remnant of peoples from around the former Soviet Union there also. In addition to ethnic Russians there are significant contingents of Koreans, Tartar and Germans. Part of this diversity is due to Stalin's policy of sending populations of questionable loyalty (at least in his mind) to some place far away. Kyrgyzstan is nothing if not far away. At the edge of the Russian and the Chinese Empire; farther back in time at the edge of the Mongolian and the Trukish empires, it is always somehow at the periferry of somewhere.
It is also a very tolerant place, certainly by the standards of the region. This has made it a sort of ideological and identity politics battle ground. Bishkek, the capital, is home to several institutions of higher learning that are backed by different foreign powers as a way of advancing their interests and increasing thier influence.
The American University of Central Asia is the US's entry into the academic version of the Great Game. Backed by the Soros Foundation and the US State Department for its start up funds, it is patterned on an American style liberal arts college and all classes are taught in English. There are other Universities with greater or lesser degrees of government backing and teaching in the language of thier partron country. There is a Russian, Turkish and Kurwaity backed University, as well as the Kyrgyz National University. the European Union backs a graduate school and there is intermittant talk of Kyrgyzstan joining NATO in some way. There is also a strong and growing Chinese presence and many students express a desire to learn Chinese.
The situation in Kyrgyzstan makes a number of identities plausible for the typical citizen. One might think of oneself as an Asian or as an outpost of Anglo-American style democracy. One could think of thier country as primarily Turkic (it is referred to by Turks as "the Motherland"), as part of the Russian cultural sphere or an outpost of Sinic civilization. Of course there is a serious Muslim identity option too.
Democracy and support for the values that under lie it is also often thought to be a by product of higher education. Here we build on a well-trodden path from the beginings of large-scale survey research in the post war era.
Finally, in line with contemporary thinking about liberal arts education in the US, we expect that a liberal arts education backed by a 'liberal' nation should result in greater inclination toward critical thinking. We draw on relatively recent efforts to measure critical thinking as a result of liberal arts education in the academy, especially California's critical thinking initiative.
Our goal on this trip is to try out some of our questions and to build relationships with professors in institutions of higher education in Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan.
We propose to investigate the effect of these nationally backed institutions on the development of the political orientations of future elites in Central Asia. Roughly speaking, we expect the effects of national backing to be found in four areas: affect, identity, democracy and critical thinking.
The affect hypothessis is straight forward. If you are going to a school that is in part supported by a foreign government you should, on the whole, feel more favorably disposed toward that foreign government. Likewise with identity.
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