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

全球发展轨迹根植于西方的“善治”、经济进步和民主促进的核心理念，正日益受到小国崛起、新秩序出现及其反地缘政治格局的挑战。在他们看来，西方的做法本质上仍然是“单边的”，其基础是西方规范的“普遍性”以及植根于欧洲历史性成功和后殖民话语的看似“例外主义”（Nikolaidis 2015）。因此，毫不奇怪，“善治”作为构建对外关系的一种方式，遇到了来自非欧洲外部的蔑视和抵制，他们认为他们的存在方式，归属感和信仰被忽视，排斥，甚至“被忽视”。COMPASS倡导对“善治”采取一种新的概念和实际方法，通过能力建设更加强调当地“人民”，更加强调“他者化”，以此作为地方社区需求的去中心化和优先化的一种方式，更加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和对话。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”。被选中的国家是前苏联加盟共和国，它们都有着过去的遗产，包括未经改革和官僚主义严重的公共部门、专制治理、过时和不公平的教育。此外，他们仍然相对难以进入国际社会，并遭受经济困难，持续的种族冲突和俄罗斯的地缘政治压力。COMPASS不仅旨在解决发展中国家促进可持续治理，公平教育和弹性和无冲突社区的社会挑战。它还将与迄今为止封闭的制度建立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来实现变革。特别是，充分利用我们与该地区学者的长期联系，我们寻求实现3个具体目标：- 促进每个合作伙伴在国际上认可的卓越专业能力-发展研究协同作用和联合项目-整合并向区域和国际学术、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，这些国家是根据其跨学科性、高研究潜力、专业学科优势以及与所有领域的联系而选择的。水平利益相关者。它们包括：-阿塞拜疆外交学院，欧洲研究卓越中心，专门从事欧洲研究，区域安全和能源外交-白俄罗斯州立大学，专门从事历史，社会学，经济学和IR的和平建设-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-乌兹别克斯坦世界经济和外交大学，专门从事欧亚经济关系和外交实践通过开展广泛的研究讲习班，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产生积极影响。展望未来，建立战略伙伴关系和研究网络也将大大加强英国学术界和对东部地区和中亚长期感兴趣的财团的工作。这将通过提供直接和特权进入迄今为止封闭的专制政权，以及有见地的研究机会和协同作用来实现。此外，它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.