Retired U.S. Ambassador George Krol will discuss the development and challenges of U.S. policies towards the former Soviet states of Central Asia from the 1990’s to the present. Krol, a career diplomat, has been involved in the Central Asian region for much of that time, serving, inter alia, as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central Asia as well as U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. He will provide an insider’s view of how official U.S. policies have developed and been received in the Central Asian states and the broader region. He will also address how Russia’s war in Ukraine and current U.S.-China relations are affecting U.S. relationships in the Central Asian region.

About the Speaker: Ambassador George Krol retired from the U.S. Department of State in 2018, concluding a 36-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, during which he served, inter alia, as Ambassador to Belarus, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central Asian Affairs, Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and Director of the State Department’s Office of Russian Affairs. Ambassador Krol resides in Rhode Island where he teaches as an Adjunct Professor at the U.S. Naval War College and is an Associate of Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. He is a graduate of Harvard and Oxford Universities.