US- Uzbek Relations: Stressing the "Asia" in "Central Asia"

The U.S. has tended to view policy in Central Asia through the prism of the former Soviet Union. Ambassador Norland will discuss the extent to which this has obscured the 'Asian' dimension of Uzbekistan's realities - and how we can strike the right balance. Richard Norland is the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Uzbekistan and a career Foreign Service Officer. Prior to his nomination, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Riga, Latvia, and as Political Officer in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan where he worked with U.S. Army Civil Affairs teams to promote political and economic reconstruction in Afghanistan. Ambassador Norland also has extensive experience in European affairs, providing advice on the Northern Ireland peace process as Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council and as Political Counselor at the American Embassy in Dublin, Ireland. He served as a peacekeeping monitor in the Republic of Georgia with the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and visited Chechnya in a similar capacity in 1995. Asia Society members $15; non-members $25; Please RSVP HERE for the event by 5:00 pm, Tuesday, December 1, 2009.