APL Colloquium

December 19, 2001

Colloquium Topic: Central Asia: Post-War Afghanistan and Its Region

Professor Starr will share with us his broad and deep knowledge of Central Asia.



Colloquium Speaker: S. Frederick Starr

Professor S. Frederick Starr is Chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University's Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. His research, which has resulted in eighteen books and 180 published articles, focuses on the rise of pluralistic and voluntary elements in modern societies, the interplay between foreign and domestic policy, and the relation of politics and culture. The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute is the first policy and graduate-level teaching center to focus exclusively on the ancient but now rapidly emerging heart of Eurasia. It organizes major conference and studies on Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Caspian region, maintains close links with policy makers in this country and abroad, and serves as a switchboard between scholars, governmental officials, business leaders and members of the press interested in Central Asia. Professor Starr was educated at Yale; Cambridge University, England; and Princeton and was Associate Professor of History at Princeton. Before coming to the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute he was founding director of the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies at the Wilson Center in Washington, president for eleven years of Oberlin College, and president of the Aspen Institute. He founded the Greater New Orleans Foundation, is a trustee of the Eurasia Foundation, and served for ten years on the board of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. He is the recipient of four honorary degrees and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.