Download or read book Order at the Bazaar written by Regine A. Spector and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-15 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Order at the Bazaar delves into the role of bazaars in the political economy and development of Central Asia. Bazaars are the economic bedrock for many throughout the region—they are the entrepreneurial hubs of Central Asia. However, they are often regarded as mafia-governed environments that are largely populated by the dispossessed. By immersing herself in the bazaars of Kyrgyzstan, Regine A. Spector learned that some are rather best characterized as islands of order in a chaotic national context. Spector draws on interviews, archival sources, and participant observation to show how traders, landowners, and municipal officials create order in the absence of a coherent government apparatus and bureaucratic state. Merchants have adapted Soviet institutions, including trade unions, and pre-Soviet practices, such as using village elders as the arbiters of disputes, to the urban bazaar by building and asserting their own authority. Spector’s findings have relevance beyond the bazaars and borders of one small country; they teach us how economic development operates when the rule of law is weak.
Download or read book The Central Asian Economies in the Twenty First Century written by Richard Pomfret and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes the Central Asian economies of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, from their buffeting by the commodity boom of the early 2000s to its collapse in 2014. Richard Pomfret examines the countries’ relations with external powers and the possibilities for development offered by infrastructure projects as well as rail links between China and Europe. The transition of these nations from centrally planned to market-based economic systems was essentially complete by the early 2000s, when the region experienced a massive increase in world prices for energy and mineral exports. This raised incomes in the main oil and gas exporters, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan; brought more benefits to the most populous country, Uzbekistan; and left the poorest countries, the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan, dependent on remittances from migrant workers in oil-rich Russia and Kazakhstan. Pomfret considers the enhanced role of the Central Asian nations in the global economy and their varied ties to China, the European Union, Russia, and the United States. With improved infrastructure and connectivity between China and Europe (reflected in regular rail freight services since 2011 and China’s announcement of its Belt and Road Initiative in 2013), relaxation of United Nations sanctions against Iran in 2016, and the change in Uzbekistan’s presidency in late 2016, a window of opportunity appears to have opened for Central Asian countries to achieve more sustainable economic futures.
Download or read book Engaging Central Asia written by Bhavna Dave and published by CEPS. This book was released on 2008 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In July 2007, the European Union initiated a fundamentally new approach to the countries of Central Asia. The launch of the EU Strategy for Central Asia signals a qualitative shift in the Union's relations with a region of the world that is of growing importance as a supplier of energy, is geographically situated in a politically sensitive area - between China, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan and the south Caucasus - and contains some of the most authoritarian political regimes in the world. In this volume, leading specialists from Europe, the United States and Central Asia explore the key challenges facing the European Union as it seeks to balance its policies between enhancing the Union's energy, business and security interests in the region while strengthening social justice, democratisation efforts and the protection of human rights. With chapters devoted to the Union's bilateral relations with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan and to the vital issues of security and democratisation, 'Engaging Central Asia' provides the first comprehensive analysis of the EU's strategic initiative in a part of the world that is fast emerging as one of the key regions of the 21st century."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Language Politics in Contemporary Central Asia written by Jacob M. Landau and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-12-18 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nationalist leaders in the former Soviet states strive for national identity in both the political and cultural domains. Their language policies contend with Russian-speaking intelligentsias, numerous ethnic minorities and sizeable Russian communities backed by the Russian Federation - all presenting major challenges to facing the legacy of Soviet rule. Drawing on many years of research, interviews with educators and officials, and visits to the region, Barbara Kellner-Heinkele and Jacob M. Landau explore the politics of language and its intersection with identity in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. With special attention to language education in schools and universities within each state and debates over bilingualism versus multilingualism, their insights offer researchers of politics, linguistics and Central Asian studies a comprehensive account of a highly politicised debate.
Download or read book Connecting Central Asia with Economic Centers written by ADBI and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2016-03-08 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the final report of the Asian Development Bank Institute study Connecting Central Asia with Economic Centers. The study focuses on the five Central Asian economies: Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The aim of the study is to examine the pattern of economic relations between these economies and major economic centers since Central Asia began its transition to a market economy in the early 1990s, highlighting emerging challenges and exploring their policy implications along the way. The report considers trade ties, foreign direct investment and financial flows, migration and remittances, and institutional cooperation between the Central Asian economies and major economic centers such as those in Asia, the European Union, the Russian Federation, and the United States.
Download or read book Central Asia and the Silk Road written by Stephan Barisitz and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-04-28 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a comprehensive overview of the pre-modern economic history of Central Asia and the Silk Road, covering several millennia. By analyzing an abundance of sources and materials, it illustrates the repeated economic heydays of the Silk Road, during which it linked the Orient and Occident for many centuries. Nomadic steppe empires frequently dominated Central Asia, molded its economy and influenced trade along the Silk Road. The book assesses the causes and effects of the wide-ranging overland trade booms, while also discussing various internal and external factors that led to the gradual economic decline of Central Asia and eventual demise of the Silk Road. Lastly, it explains how the economic decline gave rise to Chinese and Russian colonialism in the 18th and 19th centuries. Detailed information, e.g. on the Silk Road’s trajectories in various epochs, is offered in the form of numerous newly drafted maps.
Download or read book Islam after Communism written by Adeeb Khalid and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2014-02-08 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do Muslims relate to Islam in societies that experienced seventy years of Soviet rule? How did the utopian Bolshevik project of remaking the world by extirpating religion from it affect Central Asia? Adeeb Khalid combines insights from the study of both Islam and Soviet history to answer these questions. Arguing that the sustained Soviet assault on Islam destroyed patterns of Islamic learning and thoroughly de-Islamized public life, Khalid demonstrates that Islam became synonymous with tradition and was subordinated to powerful ethnonational identities that crystallized during the Soviet period. He shows how this legacy endures today and how, for the vast majority of the population, a return to Islam means the recovery of traditions destroyed under Communism. Islam after Communism reasons that the fear of a rampant radical Islam that dominates both Western thought and many of Central Asia’s governments should be tempered with an understanding of the politics of antiterrorism, which allows governments to justify their own authoritarian policies by casting all opposition as extremist. Placing the Central Asian experience in the broad comparative perspective of the history of modern Islam, Khalid argues against essentialist views of Islam and Muslims and provides a nuanced and well-informed discussion of the forces at work in this crucial region.
Download or read book Inside Central Asia written by Dilip Hiro and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “For those who still get their ‘-stans’ mixed up, Hiro’s book provides a detailed and nuanced overview of the region.” —Financial Times (Best Books of the Year) The nations of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Iran—the majority of them former Soviet republics—remain little understood in the West even in the post-Cold War era. This book delves into these Central Asian countries: their histories, cultures, economics, politics, militaries, and relationships with regional neighbors, Russia in particular. Ultimately, Inside Central Asia is an outstanding, in-depth introduction to this part of the world, “full of dependable history-telling and analysis” (The Economist). Praise for the work of Dilip Hiro “The writing is clear and informative.” —The New York Times “Hiro’s mix of lively writing and serious detail should draw in readers.” —Choice “Intriguing analysis.” —Publishers Weekly “[An] eminent historian.” —Kirkus Reviews
Download or read book The Development of Civil Society in Central Asia written by Janice Giffen and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book considers the applicability and use of civil society, both as a concept and in practice, in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The volume examines whether civil society organisations (CSOs) are a progressive force for change, or a safety net. Various forms of CSOs are investigated: NGOs and community based organisations, trade unions, political parties and religious groups, as well as more long-standing soviet and traditional institutions and practices. The book contains lessons and perspectives about civil society growth across time, and considers future directions.
Download or read book The New Central Asia written by Emilian Kavalski and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2010 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on Central Asia's place in world affairs and how international politics of state-building has affected the Asian region, thus filling the gaps in ongoing discussions on the rise of Asia in global governance. It also attempts to generalize and contextualize the "Central Asian experience" and re-evaluate its comparative relevance, by explaining the complex dynamics of Central Asian politics through a detailed analysis of the effects of major international actors -- both international organizations as well as current and rising great powers.--Publisher's description.
Download or read book Central Asia and Its Asian Neighbors written by Rollie Lal and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2006-06-21 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China, Iran, Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan are critical players in the security and economic issues that will determine the future of Central Asia and affect U.S. interests in the region. By assessing the developing relations between Central Asia and its neighbors, it is evident that each country stands to benefit from stability and economic growth in Central Asia, but opinion toward U.S. presence and policy in the region could be a point of conflict.
Download or read book Central Asia written by BorisZ. Rumer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The economic, political, and international profile of Central Asia has been the subject of much speculation since the region emerged from under the Soviet banner. This book offers systematic, informed analysis of developments in the newest of emerging market regions by a team of international experts, including leading in-country specialists. After an astute survey of political regimes by Umirserik Kasenov, Boris Rumer and Stanislav Zhukov present a comprehensive analysis of economic development and integrated issues. In the final four chapters, focused attention is devoted to foreign investment and trade questions and the most critical challenges confronting the two largest states, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Download or read book The Long Game on the Silk Road written by S. Frederick Starr and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-04-03 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that American and European policies toward Central Asia and the Caucasus suffer from both conceptual and structural impediments. It traces the framework of Western policies to the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, which resulted in the stovepiping of relations into political, economic, and democracy categories – and in often uncoordinated or contradictory policies. While the authors embrace the goal of promoting human rights and democracy, they argue that the antagonistic methods adopted to advance this goal have proven counter-productive. They propose that Western governments work with the regional states rather than on or against them; and that instead of focusing directly on political systems, policies should focus on developing the quality of governance and help build institutions that will be building blocks of rule of law and democracy in the long term. The authors also argue that Western leaders have largely failed to grasp the significance of this region, relegated it to a subordinate status and thus damaging western interests. The development of sovereign, economically strong, and effectively self-governing states in the Caucasus and Central Asia is an important goal in its own right; the book stresses the importance of a region where the development and preservation of secular statehood could become a model for the entire Muslim world.
Download or read book The Hungry Steppe written by Sarah Cameron and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-15 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Hungry Steppe examines one of the most heinous crimes of the Stalinist regime, the Kazakh famine of 1930–33. More than 1.5 million people perished in this famine, a quarter of Kazakhstan's population, and the crisis transformed a territory the size of continental Europe. Yet the story of this famine has remained mostly hidden from view. Drawing upon state and Communist party documents, as well as oral history and memoir accounts in Russian and in Kazakh, Sarah Cameron reveals this brutal story and its devastating consequences for Kazakh society. Through the most violent of means the Kazakh famine created Soviet Kazakhstan, a stable territory with clearly delineated boundaries that was an integral part of the Soviet economic system; and it forged a new Kazakh national identity. But this state-driven modernization project was uneven. Ultimately, Cameron finds, neither Kazakhstan nor Kazakhs themselves were integrated into the Soviet system in precisely the ways that Moscow had originally hoped. The experience of the famine scarred the republic for the remainder of the Soviet era and shaped its transformation into an independent nation in 1991. Cameron uses her history of the Kazakh famine to overturn several assumptions about violence, modernization, and nation-making under Stalin, highlighting, in particular, the creation of a new Kazakh national identity, and how environmental factors shaped Soviet development. Ultimately, The Hungry Steppe depicts the Soviet regime and its disastrous policies in a new and unusual light.
Download or read book The Indian Diaspora in Central Asia and Its Trade 1550 1900 written by Scott Cameron Levi and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Countering the commonly held notion that 17th-century Central Asia was economically isolated after the relative prosperity of the Mongol and Timurid Empires, Levi (Asian history, Eastern Illinois U.) argues that Indian merchants established a diaspora network of commercial communities across urban and rural Central Asia. Not limiting their exchange to the import-export trade, these merchants engaged in a variety of money-lending activities that placed them in a unique socio-economic position that allowed the mainly Hindu merchants to live for extended periods in Muslim countries. Furthermore, these merchants' associations with Indian family firms helped finance transregional trade, rural credit systems, and industrial production throughout Central Asia. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book Central Asia written by Adeeb Khalid and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-11-29 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major history of Central Asia and how it has been shaped by modern world events Central Asia is often seen as a remote and inaccessible land on the peripheries of modern history. Encompassing Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and the Xinjiang province of China, it in fact stands at the crossroads of world events. Adeeb Khalid provides the first comprehensive history of Central Asia from the mid-eighteenth century to today, shedding light on the historical forces that have shaped the region under imperial and Communist rule. Predominantly Muslim with both nomadic and settled populations, the peoples of Central Asia came under Russian and Chinese rule after the 1700s. Khalid shows how foreign conquest knit Central Asians into global exchanges of goods and ideas and forged greater connections to the wider world. He explores how the Qing and Tsarist empires dealt with ethnic heterogeneity, and compares Soviet and Chinese Communist attempts at managing national and cultural difference. He highlights the deep interconnections between the "Russian" and "Chinese" parts of Central Asia that endure to this day, and demonstrates how Xinjiang remains an integral part of Central Asia despite its fraught and traumatic relationship with contemporary China. The essential history of one of the most diverse and culturally vibrant regions on the planet, this panoramic book reveals how Central Asia has been profoundly shaped by the forces of modernity, from colonialism and social revolution to nationalism, state-led modernization, and social engineering.
Download or read book Great Games Local Rules written by Alexander Cooley and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The struggle between Russia and Great Britain over Central Asia in the nineteenth century was the original "great game." But in the past quarter century, a new "great game" has emerged, pitting America against a newly aggressive Russia and a resource-hungry China, all struggling for influence over one of the volatile areas in the world: the long border region stretching from Iran through Pakistan to Kashmir. In Great Games, Local Rules, Alexander Cooley, one of America's most respected Central Asia experts, explores the dynamics of the new competition over the region since 9/11. All three great powers are pursuing important goals: basing rights for the US, access to natural resources for the Chinese, and increased political influence for the Russians. But Central Asian governments have proven themselves powerful forces in their own right, establishing local rules that serve to fend off foreign involvement, enrich themselves and reinforce their sovereign authority. Cooley's careful and surprising explanation of how small states interact with great powers in this vital region greatly advances our understanding of how world politics actually works in this contemporary era.
