GCRF-COMPASS: Capacity-building in Eastern Neighbourhood and Central Asia: research integration, impact governance and sustainable communities

嵌入西方“良好治理”、经济进步和民主促进等核心理念的全球发展轨迹，正日益受到小国崛起、新兴新秩序及其反地缘政治格局的挑战。在他们看来，西方的方法本质上仍然是“单方面的”，其基础是西方规范的“普遍主义”，以及他们似乎植根于欧洲的历史性成功和后殖民话语的“例外主义”(Nikolaidis 2015)。因此，“善治”作为一种构建对外关系的方式，遇到来自非欧洲人的挑衅和抵制也就不足为奇了，他们觉得自己的存在、归属感和信仰方式被忽视、排斥，甚至受到了“威胁”。COMPASS倡导对“善政”采取一种新的概念和实际办法，通过能力建设更多地强调地方“人民”，把“其他”作为去中心化和优先考虑当地社区需求的一种方式，并强调与各级利益攸关方的联系，以确保持久和合法的变革效果以及对话。因此，该项目寻求在阿塞拜疆、白俄罗斯、塔吉克斯坦和乌兹别克斯坦的主要高等院校建立“卓越中心”。入选的国家是前苏联加盟共和国，这些国家继承了过去留下的遗产，包括未经改革且官僚化严重的公共部门、专制治理、过时和不公平的教育。此外，国际社会仍然相对难以接触到他们，并遭受经济困难、持续不断的种族冲突和俄罗斯的地缘政治压力。它还将与迄今封闭的制度发展持久的研究伙伴关系，寻求通过英国和欧洲研究框架的跨学科研究整合的方式带来变化。特别是，充分利用我们与该地区学者建立的长期联系，我们寻求实现三个具体目标：-促进每个合作伙伴的国际公认的卓越专家能力-发展研究协同效应和联合项目-整合并向区域和国际的学术、政策和公共社区传播产出活动。为此，我们将在选定的国家建立知识平台，根据这些国家的跨学科、高研究潜力、专业主题利基以及与所有级别利益攸关方的联系进行选择。他们包括：-阿塞拜疆外交学院，欧洲研究英才中心-白俄罗斯国立大学，专门从事欧洲研究，区域安全和能源外交-白俄罗斯国立大学，专门从事和平建设，跨越历史，社会学，经济学和IR-塔吉克斯坦国际沙希迪基金会，专门从事文化人类学，身份和社会心理学-乌兹别克斯坦大学世界经济和外交，专门研究欧亚经济关系和外交实践通过开展广泛的研究研讨会，试点项目，学习和培训活动，政策论坛和公共活动，我们将寻求对发展中国家的福利条款产生积极影响。展望未来，建立的战略合作伙伴关系和研究网络也将极大地促进英国学术界以及该财团在东亚和中亚长期感兴趣的工作。这将通过提供进入迄今封闭的独裁政权的直接和特权途径以及富有洞察力的研究机会和协同作用来实现。此外，它还将为英国和欧盟的政策部门做出巨大贡献，为地区安全、经济、文化和外交合作提供第一手证据。

Global trajectories of development embedded in core Western notions of 'good governance', economic progress and democracy promotion, are being increasingly challenged by the rise of smaller states, emergent new orders and their counter geopolitical configurations. In their perception, the western approach still remains essentially 'unilateral', predicated on the 'universalism' of western norms and their seeming 'exceptionalism' rooted in a historic success and post-colonial discourses of Europe (Nikolaidis 2015). Therefore it comes as no surprise that 'good governance' as a way to structure external relations, encounters defiance and resistance from a non-European outside, who feel that their way of being, belonging and believing is ignored, excluded and even 'threatened'. COMPASS advocates for a new conceptual and practical approach to 'good governance', which would place more emphasis on local 'peoplehood' by way of capacity-building, on 'othering' as a way to de-centre and prioritise the needs of local communities, and on connectivity with all-level stakeholders, to ensure lasting and legitimate transformative effect, and dialogue. The project thus seeks to set up the 'hubs of excellence' at the leading HEIs in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The chosen countries are former Soviet Republics, who share the legacies of the past including unreformed and heavily bureaucratised public sector, autocratic governance, outdated and inequitable education. Furthermore, they remain relatively inaccessible to the international community, and suffer from economic hardship, ongoing ethnic conflicts and Russia's geopolitical pressure.COMPASS does not only aim to address the societal challenges of facilitating sustainable governance, equitable education and resilient and conflict-free communities in the developing countries. It also sets to develop lasting research partnerships with hitherto closed regimes, seeking to bring about change by way of inter-disciplinary research integration in the UK and European research frameworks.In particular, drawing fully on our long-established contacts with the scholars of the region we seek to achieve 3 specific objectives:- promote internationally recognisable specialist excellence capacity for each partner- develop research synergies and joint projects- integrate and disseminate output activities to scholarly, policy and public communities, regionally and internationallyTo do so, we will establish knowledge platforms in the chosen countries, selected on the basis of their inter-disciplinarity, high research potential, specialist subject niche and connectivity with all-level stakeholders. They include:- Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, Centre of Excellence for European Studies, specialising in European Studies, regional security and energy diplomacy- Belarusian State University, specialising in peace-building straddling History, Sociology, Economics and IR- Tajikistan International Shahidi Foundation, specialising in Cultural Anthropology, Identity and Social Psychology- Uzbek University of World Economy and Diplomacy, specialising in Eurasian economic relations and diplomacy practiceBy conducting a wide range of research workshops, pilot projects, learning and training activities, policy forums, and public events, we would seek to positively impact on the welfare provisions in the developing countries. Looking prospectively, established strategic partnerships and research networks would also greatly enhance the UK academia and the work of the consortium with a long-standing interest in the eastern region and Central Asia. This will be achieved by providing direct and privileged access into hitherto closed autocratic regimes, and insightful research opportunities and synergies. Additionally, it would greatly contribute to the UK and EU policy sectors, offering first-hand evidence on regional security, economic, cultural and diplomatic cooperation.