THE IMPACT OF THE PAST ON THE FUTURE OF CENTRAL ASIA* The International Conference was held in Cambridge on March 13-14, 2014. It was organized by two Cambridge University centers: the Central Asian Forum and the Department for Development Studies. 35 researchers of the region from different countries were invited. The conference was opened by Sidhart Saxena (Great Britain), who spoke about the history of the Central Asian Forum and the formation of new relations between Cambridge University and centers of science and culture inside and outside Central Asia. He took revenge on the importance of such meetings for researchers. Further, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the United Kingdom Otabek Akbarov delivered a speech. He spoke about the formation of new relations between Uzbekistan and other Central Asian republics, with an emphasis on environmental issues. The scientific discussion was initiated by the key report "The Gap in Central Asian Politics: Recent and long history" by the renowned Central Asian researcher Sally Cummings1 (Great Britain). She stressed that the main paradox of today's Central Asia is the continuing polarity: on the one hand, the region is recognized as central, on the other - it still remains isolated. According to the author of the report, Central Asia is a metageographic combination with a large number of arbitrary interpretations. The conference was divided into nine sections. The first section consisted of two reports. Camila Hageland (Great Britain) made a presentation on "Regional economic integration in Central Asia and its impact on extra-regional trade potential". The topic of Aigul Izayeva's presentation (Kazakhstan) is "Comparative analysis of economic factors affecting exports and imports to the South Caucasus countries". Both presentations were distinguished by the latest calculations on the socio-economic development of the two regions. * English name of the conference: "The" Post " ... Читать далее