Dr. Arne Seifert studied International Relations and Diplomacy at the Institute for International Relations at Moscow, and graduated in 1963. From 1964 to 1999, he worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the former German Democratic Republic in the Middle East. He also served as the Ambassador to Kuwait. He completed his PhD in 1977 at the Institute for International Labour Movement at Berlin, where he wrote his dissertation on the Israel Communist Party. From 1996 to 1997 Dr. Seifert served as a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Tajikistan. During 1998-2001 and 2002-2003, he worked as a research fellow at the Association for International Politics and International Law, Berlin, on projects for the Volkswagen Foundation. These projects were on the transformation of the political system of Tajikistan and on multilateral procedures for coordination of cooperative security strategies of the OSCE in Central Asia. Dr. Seifert’s research focuses on policy towards the ‘Islamic factor’ in Central Asia, on examining Islamic and secular state power in Tajikistan, and on political transformation processes in the country.