Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Following the success of ASEAN's series of post-ministerial conferences launched in the mid-1980s, APEC started in 1989, in response to the growing interdependence of Asia-Pacific economies and the advent of regional trade blocs in other parts of the world; it aimed to establish new markets for agricultural products and raw materials beyond Europe. Headquartered in Singapore, APEC is recognized as one of the highest-level multilateral blocs and oldest forums in the Asia-Pacific region, and exerts significant global influence.
Alan Paige Lightman is an American physicist, writer, and social entrepreneur. He has served on the faculties of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is currently a professor of the practice of the humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of states in South Asia. Its member states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. SAARC comprises 3% of the world's land area, 21% of the world's population and 5.21% of the global economy, as of 2021.
The Economic Cooperation Organization or ECO is an Asian political and economic intergovernmental organization that was founded in 1985 in Tehran by the leaders of Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey. It provides a platform to discuss ways to improve development and promote trade and investment opportunities. The ECO is an ad hoc organisation under the United Nations Charter. The objective is to establish a single market for goods and services, much like the European Union. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the ECO expanded to include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in 1992.
An autonomous administrative division is a subnational administrative division or internal territory of a sovereign state that has a degree of autonomy—self-governance—under the national government. Autonomous areas are distinct from the constituent units of a federation in that they possess unique powers for their given circumstances. Typically, it is either geographically distinct from the rest of the state or populated by a national minority. Decentralization of self-governing powers and functions to such divisions is a way for a national government to try to increase democratic participation or administrative efficiency or to defuse internal conflicts. States that include autonomous areas may be federacies, federations, or confederations. Autonomous areas can be divided into territorial autonomies, subregional territorial autonomies, and local autonomies.
The Chevening Scholarship is an international scholarship, funded by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, that lets foreign students with leadership qualities study at universities in the United Kingdom.
The politics of Asia are extremely varied as would be expected of such a large landmass and a diverse population. Constitutional monarchies, absolute monarchies, one-party states, federal states, dependent territories, liberal democracies and military dictatorships are all factors in the region, as well as various forms of independence movements.
The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) is an international organisation that provides research training, career development and networking opportunities for women scientists throughout the developing world at different stages in their career. It was founded in 1987 and was officially launched in 1993. The organisation was formerly known as the Third World Organization for Women in Science (TWOWS). It is a program unit of UNESCO and based at the offices of The World Academy of Sciences in Trieste, Italy.
The American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) is an Afghan private university located in the Darulaman section of Kabul. Most students of AUAF currently live abroad and there are plans to create a new AUAF campus in Qatar in the near future. AUAF was the country's first private, not-for-profit institution of higher education and was located in Kabul near the Darul Aman Palace and the Afghan Parliament.
The Asian Cultural Council (ACC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing international cultural exchange between Asia and the U.S. and between the countries of Asia through the arts. Founded by John D. Rockefeller III in 1963, ACC has invested over $100 million in grants to artists and arts professionals representing 16 fields and 26 countries through over 6,000 exchanges. ACC supports $1.4 million in grants annually for individuals and organizations.
Harris Sam Sahayam Lawrence was an Indian educationalist born in Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu.
The Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship program is a scholarship program which funds students from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom to undertake graduate study at Harvard University.
University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific (UMAP) is a voluntary regional association of government, non-government and/or university representatives of the higher education sector established in 1993 to enhance cooperation and exchange of people and expertise through increased mobility of higher education students and staff. UMAP has been endorsed by Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and member countries are implementing UMAP projects.
Afghanistan–India relations are the diplomatic relations between India and Afghanistan. They had been historical neighbors and shared cultural ties through Bollywood and cricket.
Kumiko Haba is a Japanese Professor of International Politics at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo. Her research is International Relations, International Politics, International Sociology, Power Shift and National Anxiety, Immigrants-Refugee questions, Nationalism and Xenophobia in the European Union. She wrote a book, Division and Integration in Europe, Nationalism and Border in the Enlarged EU—Inclusion or Exclusion, Chuokoronshinsya, 2016.
The Heart of Asia – Istanbul Process (HoA-IP) is an initiative of the Republic of Afghanistan and the Republic of Turkey, which was officially launched at a conference hosted by Turkey in Istanbul on 2 November 2011. Since then, Afghanistan supported by fourteen Participating Countries of the Heart of Asia Region and 16 Supporting Countries beyond the region as well as 12 Regional and International Organizations is leading and coordinating this Process. It is a platform for promoting regional security, economic and political cooperation centered on Afghanistan through dialogue and a set of Confidence Building Measures (CBMs).
Mahmoud Saikal is a senior Afghan diplomat and an international development specialist. He was the Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the United Nations from October 2015 until February 2019.
Wahidullah Waissi is a career Afghan diplomat. He is now serving as the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the Commonwealth of Australia, New Zealand and Republic of Fiji. He worked as Director-General for Economic Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from 2012 to 2016 overseeing regional economic cooperation and multilateral development partnerships, chaired economic diplomacy committee, coordinated Regional Economic Cooperation Conference for Afghanistan process and projects and served as a Focal Point for economic Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) of the Heart of Asia Istanbul Process.
Hamidullah Farooqi is an Afghan politician, economist and activist. He has written several research papers and served in higher positions within the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan’s government. Farooqi currently serves as the Chancellor of Kabul University and Advisor Minister to President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani on Higher Education. He previously served as Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation from March 2009 to January 2010 in the cabinet of former President Hamid Karzai.
Hasina Jalal is an advocate for women's rights and democracy in Afghanistan. In 2014, Jalal was elected by public vote to receive the "N-Peace Award" from the UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Office and the UN Secretary General's Special Advisor on the University for Peace. In 2012, she co-founded the National Association of Afghanistan Civil Society with the membership of more than 50 non-profit and non-governmental organizations in Afghanistan. She has strived to raise the voices of Afghan women and girls in various regional and international platforms and has co-founded the first alliance of South Asian women on women's economic, social, and culture rights in Sri Lanka. In her last position at the government of Afghanistan, she was heading the international donors' funded programs and initiatives to the mines, oil, and gas sectors of Afghanistan.
