Das DLR: Hoch hinaus und bodenständig

Das Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR), wird vielfach, sicherlich im wesentlichen durch seine Namensgebung begründet, nur mit „h?heren Zielen” in Verbindung gebracht; sei es durch die D2-Space-Shuttle-Mission oder das Deutsche Fernerkundungsdatenzentrum (DFD) des DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen. Bei letzterem kann man sich den Einsatz von Geographen gut vorstellen. Die „irdische” Komponente des DLR, die wenig oder keine Verbindungen zur Luft- und Raumfahrt aufweist, bietet aber durchaus ebenso Besch?ftigungsm?glichkeiten für unsere Zunft, wie das Beispiel von Dipl.-Geogr. Annette Bona unterstreicht, die als Projektmanagerin in der Organisationseinheit „Innovationsmanagement und Technologiemarketing” am K?lner Standort besch?ftigt ist. Mit ihr unterhielt sich J?rg Franzen M. A. über die weniger bekannten, bodengebundenen T?tigkeiten des DLR und ihren spezifischen Anteil daran.     

Regionalism in Central Asia: New Geopolitics, Old Regional Order

Behind the rhetoric of regional cooperation, the Central Asian states have been embroiled with increasing frequency in conflicts among themselves, including trade wars, border disputes and disagreements over the management and use of water and energy resources. Far from engendering a new regional order in Central Asia, the events of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent basing of US troops in the region have served to entrench pre-existing patterns of regional cooperation, while highlighting the obstacles that have beset the regionalization process there since the mid-1990s. While all five Central Asian states have been attempting to use the renewed rivalry between Russia and the United States, which is being played out in the Central Asian region, to maximize their strategic and economic benefits, the formation of the United States–Uzbekistan strategic partnership has increased the resolve of the other Central Asian states (Turkmenistan excepted) to balance Uzbekistan's preponderance by enthusiastically pursuing regional projects involving Russia and, to a lesser extent, China. This regional dynamic has resulted in the steady gravitation of the centre of regionalism in Central Asia to the north from a nominal Tashkent–Astana axis to a more stable Astana–Moscow one, with possible repercussions for the poorer states of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The article examines the major constraints on regionalism in Central Asia, considering in particular the ways in which the personalist, non-democratic regimes of Central Asia have obstructed state–centric 'top–down' regionalism as well as informal regionalist processes 'from below'.