Dr. Mirzokhid Rakhimov is the Head of Social and Humanities Branch of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan and Head of the Department of Modern and Contemporary History at the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan. His academic interests include the contemporary history of Central Asia and international and regional relations in Central Asia. He has conducted research at the University of Washington, Seattle; the University of Georgia, Athens, GA; Leiden University, Netherlands; University of Cambridge, UK; NATO Defense College in Rome; The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London; University of Giessen, Germany; Slavic-Eurasian Research Center at Hokkaido University, Japan; the University of Bielefeld, Germany; and Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C. He is an author and editor of several books, articles, and chapters. Dr. Rakhimov holds a PhD in History (2001) from the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan and an MA in History from Navoi State Pedagogical Institute (1996).