S. Frederick Starr

S. Frederick Starr is a preeminent American scholar of Central Asia. He is the founding chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program, a joint transatlantic research and policy center affiliated with the American Foreign Policy Institute in Washington and the Institute for Security and Development Policy in Stockholm. He authored a groundbreaking history of the region, Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Earlier, Starr was the founding chairman of the Kennan Institute in Washington, and served as vice president of Tulane Uni- versity and president of Oberlin College (1983-94). His work today focuses on finding ways to reopen continental-wide trade routes passing through Central Asia and Afghanistan.