Baktybek Beshimov

About

Baktybek Beshimov is a faculty member in the Global Studies and International Relations program and Professor of the Practice. His research interests include the history of Central Asia and Eurasia; the security and foreign policies of the Central Asian states; post-Soviet transition and comparative state building in Central Asia; and extremism and terrorism in Central and South Asia. Dr. Beshimov’s current research projects include evaluating the influences of rivalry among the United States, Russia, and China on the post-Communist transition of Central Asia. He is the author of numerous book chapters, articles, and books, including Interethnic Relations at the Present Stage: Practice and Problems, Civil Movement in Kyrgyzstan and Ferghana Valley: The Heart of Central Asia. He is a frequent lecturer and contributor to international media.

Previously, Dr. Beshimov was a Visiting Professor at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s Center for International Studies, and Suffolk University’s Government Department from 2010 to 2014; Vice President and Provost for the American University of Central Asia from 2005 to 2007; and President of Osh University from 1992 to 1998. He was a member of parliament in his native Kyrgyzstan, where he was a leader of the Social Democrat’s fraction from 2007 to 2009. Dr. Beshimov served as Kyrgyz Ambassador to India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal from 2000 to 2005. He is a member of the editorial board of Central Asia and Caucasus Journal (Sweden). Dr. Beshimov was a national manager of the United Nations Ferghana Valley Development Program and the United Nations Development Program’s LIFE Program in the 1990s and was a representative of Kyrgyzstan’s Parliament in the Organization for Security and Economic Cooperation in Europe.