Paper long abstract:

Edward Lemon is President of the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs and Research Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University, Washington DC campus. He has previously held positions at the Wilson Center and Columbia University. Dr. Lemon’s research focuses on secularism, Islam and security issues in Central Asia. He is editor of the book Critical Approaches to Security in Central Asia (Routledge, 2018). His research has been published in Democratization, Central Asian Affairs, Caucasus Survey, Journal of Democracy, Central Asian Survey, the Review of Middle Eastern Studies and The RUSI Journal. He has extensive experience organizing workshops, chairing panels and leading discussions, including using online platforms.

Bradley Jardine is a Research Consultant at the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs and a Schwarzman Fellow at the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States. Jardine’s research focuses on the proliferation of surveillance technology in Central Asia and China’s growing security presence in the countries of the former Soviet Union. He is the author of the upcoming Kennan Institute monograph “Great Wall of Steel: China’s Strategy to Secure Central and South Asia.” His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, World Politics Review, and Nikkei Asian Review, among others. Jardine has wide-ranging experience organizing seminars for the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States and chairing panels and event discussions for the Kennan Institute, including online multimedia platforms and podcasts.