Regional Policy Symposium

Education, Higher Education Development, Research Support, Americas, Eurasia, Europe

The Regional Policy Symposium Program provides American students, scholars, and professionals with a forum to examine and discuss current policy relevant research on the countries of Eurasia and Central and East Europe from multi-disciplinary and multi-regional approaches.

Key research findings and conclusions are ultimately disseminated to US government and academic communities.

Each spring, the Symposium brings together American junior and senior scholars and members of the policy community to discuss timely issues related to a specific regional theme. The 2012 Symposium will focus on timely issues concerning transnational crime and corruption in Eastern Europe and Eurasia from multi-disciplinary perspectives. Research areas include: organized crime, corruption, human trafficking, drug trafficking, illicit trade, terrorism, cyber crime, financial crime and environmental crime, among others.

Application Information

Goals

The Regional Policy Symposium Program, developed by IREX in collaboration with the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and funded by the Title VIII Program of the US Department of State, has four primary goals:

• To enable American junior and senior scholars to work together in analyzing complex issues affecting the countries of Eurasia and Central and East Europe from multi-disciplinary and multi-regional approaches

• To encourage the cross-fertilization of ideas and networking opportunities among scholars with similar regional interests

• To provide policymaking communities with knowledge of current research on evolving regions and valuable findings and conclusions drawn from intensive interaction among scholars

• To nurture interest among junior scholars in the study of these regions

Project Activities

The Symposium is held annually in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and involves two full days of peer review of current research projects and roundtable discussions, and the dissemination of research results to the policy community through a networking event. Junior scholars are chosen based on a national competition to present their current research on the theme of the Symposium.

Past Symposium topics have included:

• Gender in the 21st Century in Eastern Europe and Eurasia
• Regional Security in Eastern Europe and Eurasia
• Prospects and Challenges for the First Post-Communist Generation: Young People Today in Eurasia and Eastern Europe
• Frozen Conflicts and Unrecognized States in Southeast Europe and Eurasia
• The Former Soviet Republics of Central Asia and the Contemporary Silk Road
• EU and NATO Member States and their Eastern Borderlands