From 21-29 November 2009, Anna Kreikemeyer organised a one-week international seminar on „Conflict Prevention by the OSCE“ for 20 PhD and postgraduate students from seven post-Soviet states of the Caucasus and Central Asia. The seminar, which was financed by the German Academic Exchange Service, was jointly set up by Prof. Kuralai Baizakova and Prof. Mara Gubaidullina from the Centre for European Studies at the Al Farabi Kazakh National University (KazNU). Ms Eva Portius, the head of DAAD Almaty and Stefan Buchmayer, human dimension officer at the OSCE Centre/Liason Office Almaty gave presentations at the opening and during the week. The seminar was very demanding with regard to individual work load as well as communication and presentation skills. The organisers worked with a participatory method of continuous group work in multinational composition. The seminar was accompanied by a round table discussion on questions of the Kazakh OSCE chairmanship jointly organised by KazNU and the Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan (KISI) and the OSCE-Centre Astana. Ms Kreikemeyer spoke on the CORE capacity-building activities.

Contact: Dr Anna Kreikemeyer