Download or read book Kyrgyzstan written by John Anderson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-11 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born out of the collapse of the USSR, Kyrgyzstan has been notable for its struggle to develop a pluralist polity and free market, an attempt that distinguishes it from some of its more authoritarian neighbors. This volume introduces students and businessmen to this most attractive of republics, offering an overview of its history, politics, economic development, and place in the international community. In particular, it focuses on the problematic nature of political development, with democratic and pluralist impulses struggling to survive against the dominance of more traditional forms of governance.
Download or read book Central Asia written by P. Stobdan and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Central Asia remains both stable and unpredictable after 20 years of its reemergence. The states here continue to undergo complex nation-building process, which is far from complete, but they firmly remain insulated by Russia and but more increasingly so by China. Only Kyrgyzstan has so far uniquely followed a liberal polity, but this young country had to cope with two revolutions before achieving a parliamentary democracy in 2010. However, the institution of democracy remains weak because of some difficult and intricate internal and external challenges i.e., economic, ethnic, Islamic, narcotic along with convoluted strategic games played by major powers in Kyrgyzstan. It is the only country in the world that hosts military bases of both Russia and the United States. The country retains strong Chinese economic influence. The book is an attempt to provide an overview of political and strategic processes at work in the region by taking the case of Kyrgyzstan, tracing the events erupted since 2005 and more after 2010. It contains aspects of India's engagement in Kyrgyzstan and throws light on India's newly launched 'Connect Central Asia' policy.
Download or read book Democracy at Large written by B. Petric and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-10-22 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analysis of the transnationalization of politics in several societies concerned by programs of democracy promotion, the contributors to this book seek to understand how these new global norms and programs create forms of appropriation and resistance at the local level.
Download or read book Weapons of the Wealthy written by Scott B. Radnitz and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2012-07-12 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mass mobilization is among the most dramatic and inspiring forces for political change. When ordinary citizens take to the streets in large numbers, they can undermine and even topple undemocratic governments, as the recent wave of peaceful uprisings in several postcommunist states has shown. However, investigation into how protests are organized can sometimes reveal that the origins and purpose of "people power" are not as they appear on the surface. In particular, protest can be used as an instrument of elite actors to advance their own interests rather than those of the masses.Weapons of the Wealthy focuses on the region of post-Soviet Central Asia to investigate the causes of elite-led protest. In nondemocratic states, economic and political opportunities can give rise to elites who are independent of the regime, yet vulnerable to expropriation and harassment from above. In conditions of political uncertainty, elites have an incentive to cultivate support in local communities, which elites can then wield as a "weapon" against a predatory regime. Scott Radnitz builds on his in-depth fieldwork and analysis of the spatial distribution of protests to demonstrate how Kyrgyzstan's post-independence development laid the groundwork for elite-led mobilization, whereas Uzbekistan's did not.Elites often have the wherewithal and the motivation to trigger protests, as is borne out by Radnitz's more than one hundred interviews with those who participated in, observed, or avoided protests. Even Kyrgyzstan's 2005 "Tulip Revolution," which brought about the first peaceful change of power in Central Asia since independence, should be understood as a strategic action of elites rather than as an expression of the popular will. This interpretation helps account for the undemocratic nature of the successor government and the 2010 uprising that toppled it. It also serves as a warning for scholars to look critically at bottom-up political change.
Download or read book Politics Identity and Education in Central Asia written by Pınar Akçalı and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on the areas of politics, identity and education, this book looks at some of the most pressing and challenging issues that Kyrgyzstan faces in the post-Soviet era. It argues that Kyrgyzstan is challenged with oscillations between the old and the new on the one hand, and domestic and international on the other. The book analyses the process of post-Soviet transition in today’s Kyrgyzstan by focusing on the political elites, some of the major identity problems and educational issues. It discusses how Kyrgyzstan’s first president in the post-Soviet era had already been an exceptional leader even prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union in terms of his democratic and liberal tendencies. The book goes on to look at how identity is a major factor in the country, shaped to a large extent by genealogical factors and patron-client mechanisms on the one hand, and religious considerations on the other. Finally, it highlights how education has been perceived as a very influential agent of socialization that develops not only literacy and other skills, but also common attitudes and values that are considered essential to any society. By evaluating these three areas, the book argues that Kyrgyzstan cannot isolate itself from the demands, priorities and pressures of international actors, which sometimes are in conflict with the country’s domestic conditions. It is of interest to students and scholars of Asian Studies, Politics and International Relations.
Download or read book Kyrgyzstan beyond Democracy Island and Failing State written by Marlene Laruelle and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2015-12-03 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kyrgyzstan is probably the best known of any central Asian country, the one that has elicited the most academic publications, reports by NGOs or advocacy groups, and op-eds in the media. The country opened up massively to Western influence through development aid for civil society and for economic reforms, faced two revolutions in 2005 and 2010, and experienced bloody interethnic conflict in 2010. Kyrgyzstan is therefore commonly studied as a twin case: that of having been, for more than two decades, both an “island of democracy” in Central Asia—and the only country of the region to have made the transition to a parliamentary regime—and the archetypical example of a “failing state,” one marked by endemic corruption, criminalization of the state apparatus, and collapse of public services. This volume goes beyond these two clichés and provides a research-based and unideological narrative on the country. It identifies political dynamics, their powerbrokers, and the role of international organizations; investigates the profound social transformations of both the rural and the urban worlds; and examines the broad feeling, by local actors, that Kyrgyzstan’s fragile state identity should be consolidated. This book gives the floor to the new generation of scholars whose long-term vernacular-language field research made it possible to provide new interpretative prisms for the complex evolution of Kyrgyzstan.
Download or read book Neighborhood Challenge written by Birgül Demirtas-Coskun and published by Universal-Publishers. This book was released on 2009 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the intriguing questions of the post-Cold War era has been whether the EU will play a major global role in world politics as non-traditional threats and challenges came to the forefront. Launching new policies such as the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the European Security and Defence Policy and the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) have been considered important steps in the EU's evolution as a regional and possibly global actor. Neighborhood Challenge analyzes critical aspects of the European Union's relations with its neighbours, by extending its analysis beyond the ENP. Unlike existing books on the subject, the volume covers the entire neighborhood from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus to North Africa; from the Western Balkans to the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Such an extensive overview of EU policies toward its neighbors is a timely and valuable contribution to European Studies literature. This book can be used as a tool for both academicians and practitioners who specialize in European foreign and security policy; as a textbook in European Union foreign policy courses both at the undergraduate and graduate level; and as a comprehensive reference book for postgraduate students writing dissertations on European foreign and security policy in general and European Neighborhood Policy in particular. The contributions analyze challenges and prospects posed by countries neighboring the EU and the effectiveness of EU policy in dealing with these agendas. Region-focused chapters examine the EU's politics toward the Western Balkans, Middle East, CIS, and the Black Sea; country-focused chapters explore aspects of Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Iran, Bosnia, Kosovo; and thematically-focused chapters deal with energy security, organized crime, and other issues. Neighborhood Challenge is intended to contribute to the existing literature on EU foreign and security policy in two ways: First, its material is not restricted to the ENP. Instead, it addresses all EU neighbors in a large region and their position in European security. The authors argue that not only the countries in the immediate neighborhood of the EU but also those located in relatively far away regions have a role to play in European Union foreign affairs. Secondly, many of the contributions were written by experts living in countries which neighbor the EU. Their contributions lend new ideas and insight to the relevant literature on EU security and foreign policy.
Download or read book Warlords Rising written by Troy S. Thomas and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2005-08-09 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Violent non-state actors (VNSA) often serve a destabilizing role in nearly every humanitarian and political crisis faced by the international community. As non-state armed groups gain greater access to resources and networks through global interconnectivity, they have come to dominate the terrain of illegal trade in drugs, guns, and humans. Warlords Rising arms those confronting the mounting challenge by delivering an innovative, interdisciplinary framework of analysis designed to improve understanding of non-state adversaries in order to affect their development and performance. Examining the utility of traditional theories of deterrence and warfighting in light of the insight gained through this interdisciplinary approach, the authors elevate the powerful role of environmental shaping in group development, recast deterrence in ecological terms, and lay out a strategy to defeat non-state adversaries if necessary. Whether the goal is preventing, coercing, or conquering, the framework of analysis presented here is designed to be universal, allowing for structured analysis across regions, types, and functions of non-state actors and providing the decision maker and policy maker witha variety of modes and methods of intervention.
Download or read book Under Solomon s Throne written by Morgan Y. Liu and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2012-05-20 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Under Solomon's Throne provides a rare ground-level analysis of post-Soviet Central Asia's social and political paradoxes by focusing on an urban ethnic community: the Uzbeks in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, who have maintained visions of societal renewal throughout economic upheaval, political discrimination, and massive violence. Morgan Liu illuminates many of the challenges facing Central Asia today by unpacking the predicament of Osh, a city whose experience captures key political and cultural issues of the region as a whole. Situated on the border of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan—newly independent republics that have followed increasingly divergent paths to reform their states and economies—the city is subject to a Kyrgyz government, but the majority of its population are ethnic Uzbeks. Conflict between the two groups led to riots in 1990, and again in 2010, when thousands, mostly ethnic Uzbeks, were killed and nearly half a million more fled across the border into Uzbekistan. While these tragic outbreaks of violence highlight communal tensions amid long-term uncertainty, a close examination of community life in the two decades between reveals the way Osh Uzbeks have created a sense of stability and belonging for themselves while occupying a postcolonial no-man's-land, tied to two nation-states but not fully accepted by either one. The first ethnographic monograph based on extensive local-language fieldwork in a Central Asian city, this study examines the culturally specific ways that Osh Uzbeks are making sense of their post-Soviet dilemmas. These practices reveal deep connections with Soviet and Islamic sensibilities and with everyday acts of dwelling in urban neighborhoods. Osh Uzbeks engage the spaces of their city to shape their orientations relative to the wider world, postsocialist transformations, Islamic piety, moral personhood, and effective leadership. Living in the shadow of Solomon's Throne, the city's central mountain, they envision and attempt to build a just social order.
Download or read book Incomplete State Building in Central Asia written by Viktoria Akchurina and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-10-19 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about transformation of the state and an incomplete state-building. It defies the transitology assumption of continuity, linearity and dichotomy of formal and informal in the transformation of the state. Contrary to the conventional approaches, it claims that any social order or its political scaffolding, the state, is always incomplete and we need to develop cognitive maps to better understand that incompleteness. It reflects on the social practices, processes and patterns that evolve as a non-linear result of three sets of factors: those that are historical, external, and elite-driven. Three Central Asian states - Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan - are examined here comparatively as case studies, as Central Asia represents an interesting terrain to challenge conventional understanding of the state. Specifically, the book captures a paradox at hand: how come three states, which made different political, economic, cultural, and social choices at the outset of their independence in the 1990s, have ended up as so-called “weak states” in the 2000s and onwards? This puzzle can be better understood through looking at the relationship among three main sets of factors that shape state-building processes, such as history, external actors, and local elites. This book applies an interdisciplinary approach, combining political anthropology, political economy, sociology, and political science. It helps conceptualize and understand social and political order beyond the “failed state” paradigm
Download or read book Central Asia s Second Chance written by Martha Brill Olcott and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2010-03-01 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading authority on Central Asia offers a sweeping review of the region's path from independence to the post-9/11 world. The first decade of Central Asian independence was disappointing for those who envisioned a straightforward transition from Soviet republics to independent states with market economies and democratic political systems. Leaders excused political failures by pointing to security risks, including the presence of terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. The situation changed dramatically after 9/11, when the camps were largely destroyed and the United States introduced a military presence. More importantly the international community engaged with these states to give them a "second chance" to address social and economic problems. But neither the aid-givers nor the recipients were willing to approach problems in new ways. Now, terrorists groups are once again making their presence felt and some states may be becoming global security risks. This book explores how the region squandered its second chance and what might happen next.
Download or read book Political Regimes and Neopatrimonialism in Central Asia written by Ferran Izquierdo-Brichs and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is aimed both at researchers and advanced students of Central Asia, the space of the former USSR, and the foreign policy of Russia and China. The authors adopt a sociological approach in understanding how power structures emerged in the wake of the Soviet collapse. The independencies in Central Asia did not happen as a consequence of a nationalist struggle, but because the USSR imploded. Thus, instead of the elites being replaced, the same Soviet elites who had competed for power in the previous system continued to do so in the new one, which they had to build, adapting themselves and the system to their needs. Additionally, unlike in the immense majority of the independent states that emerged from decolonization, the social movements and capacity to mobilize the people were very weak in the new Central Asian states. For this reason, the configuration of the new systems was the product of a competition for power between a very small number of elites who did not have to answer to the people and their demands. Thus, the new power regimes acquired a strong neopatrimonial component. Analyzing the structure of societies, economies and polities of post-socialist states, this book will be of great interest to scholars of Central Asia, to sociologists, and to scholars of China's rise.
Download or read book Structure and Agency in the Neoliberal University written by Joyce E. Canaan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-05 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together a set of largely ethnographic articles written from a critical perspective that consider how current transitions in post-secondary education are impacting on higher education (HE) institutions.
Download or read book Lords of the Silk Route Violent Non State Actors in Central Asia written by Troy S. Thomas and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2002 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the 43rd volume in the Occasional Paper series of the U.S. Air Force Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). This paper, while it reports the results of research undertaken across the year prior to the events of September 11 and their aftermath, presents an analysis that is both timely and relevant given those events. This important paper represents the kind of original thinking that this Institute was designed in the hope of fostering. The two authors, each of whom is individually the winner of a previous INSS outstanding research award, develop and test a systematic, targeted, and useful methodology for examining the non-state political violence and its practitioner that the United States now faces. Their analysis also is grounded in Central Asia, a new but increasingly important region to United States military interest and presence. The paper stands well on either of those legs -- a systematic methodology for violent non-state actors or a detailed and security-oriented examination of an emerging critical region. Taken together, the two legs mark it as a singularly significant work, one well worthy of serious study.
Download or read book Oil Transition and Security in Central Asia written by Sally Cummings and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-02-24 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Approaching Central Asia from the perspective of geopolitics, transition, oil and stability, the authors provide a very broad and diverse analysis of the region, examining domestic and international developments since 1991. The book both provides an introduction to the region and presents advanced research on international pipeline projects, political risk and developments after September 11th. The authors draw on a variety of disciplines, including economics, politics, international relations, law and sociology.
Download or read book Financial Crimes written by Maximillian Edelbacher and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2012-06-04 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Financial market reform has focused chiefly on the threats to stability arising from the risky, uncontrolled activity of the leaders of financial institutions. Nevertheless, organized crime, white-collar crime, and corruption have a huge impact on financial systems worldwide and must also be confronted if true reform is to be achieved. A collection of articles written by experts in their fields of study, Financial Crimes: A Threat to Global Security spotlights the importance of addressing the problem of illegal financial activity as part of a greater comprehensive plan for reforming the financial sector. Drawn from the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) held in Vienna, the book explores the major themes discussed at this elite symposium. In the first section, the contributors examine changing concepts in security over the course of history and across nations. They discuss how an event in Austria led to the implementation of a new security philosophy that is now followed by the majority of the European Union. The book examines the diverse models of preventing security threats that have grown from that idea as well as the gradual expansion of the role of the security council of the United Nations. The next section analyzes the present state of security worldwide and examines the wide array of criminal activity that plagues the financial sector. Expert contributors reveal methods to identify certain types of behavior and criminals as well as efforts to combat illegal activity—including the role of the media. The final section investigates alternative approaches to preventing another worldwide financial disaster through investigative reporting, human factors analysis, legislative initiatives, and other methods. Filled with insight from international experts, the book highlights both the warning signs to illegal activity as well as the most effective methods for combating the invidious corruption that, if unchecked, puts all nations at risk. Maximilian Edelbacher will be appearing at three upcoming events: June 28, 2012: Roundtable in the House of the European Union in Vienna on the topic "Financial Crimes: A Threat to European Security?" October 8, 2012: Roundtable in Joannneum, Austria on the topic "Financial Crimes: A Threat to Global Security" October 9, 2012: Book presentation at the Hans Gross Museum in Graz, Austria
Download or read book The Paradox of Democracy in Latin America written by Katherine Isbester and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What becomes clear throughout is that there is a paradox at the heart of Latin America's democracies. Despite decades of struggle to replace authoritarian dictatorships with electoral democracies, solid economic growth (leading up to the global credit crisis), and increased efforts by the state to extend the benefits of peace and prosperity to the poor, democracy - as a political system - is experiencing declining support, and support for authoritarianism is on the rise.
