[03.04.08] Islam and Conflict in the North Caucasus
The Department for Russian and Eurasian Studies at NUPI is pleased to invite you to a seminar on
Competing versions of Islam in Chechnya and the potential for new conflicts in the North Caucasus region
Vakhit Akayev, Chechen State University
Tom de Waal, Institute for War and Peace Reporting
According to Russian official rhetoric the war in Chechnya is over and a period of normalisation has begun. However, the advent of Radical Islam in the North Caucasus and the continuation of harsh and counterproductive anti-terrorist operations carried out by the federal forces are still a reality. This hampers the prospects for lasting peace and makes it likely that new conflicts will arise in the region.
Vakhit Akayev is Doctor of Philosophy and Head of the Institute of Theoretical and Practical Social Work at the Chechen State University in Grozny. He is also a member of the Chechen Academy of Science. Akayev is a prominent scholar on Chechen history, culture, society and religion and has published widely on these topics. More recently his work has focused particularly on the conflict between traditional and non-traditional versions of Islam in Chechnya. This is also the topic he is working on during his stay as a guest researcher at NUPI.
Tom de Waal is editor of IWPR’s Caucasus Programme and has spent the past fifteen years writing about the former Soviet Union. He completed a degree in Russian and Modern Greek at Oxford, before working for the BBC, The Moscow Times and The Times in London and Moscow. De Waal is co-author with Carlotta Gall of Chechnya: A Small Victorious War , the first full-length book on Chechnya in English.
You are most welcome to attend the seminar.
Please notify your participation no later than 31 March.