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Kazakhstan, Kirgystan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have all become independent states in central Asia, following the break-up of the USSR. All have Muslim majorities and ancient histories, but are otherwise very different. This book provides an introduction to the region. Rashid gives a history of each country, including its incorporation into Tsarist Russia to the present day. He provides basic socio-economic information and explains the diverse political situations. He focuses primarily on the underlying issues confronting these societies: the legacy of Soviet rule; ethnic tensions; the position of women; the future of Islam; the question of nuclear proliferation; and the fundamental choices over economic strategy, political system and external orientation which lie ahead. ... Read more

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As part of an attempt to resolve a larger puzzle - what makes economic reform in Russia difficult, this book examines how one of the major sectors of the economy, energy, has influenced economic growth and political development. It provides an in-depth analysis of the country's export of oil and gas, showing how the energy sector went through the topsy-turvy period of Gorbachev's economic reform and the initial stages of market transition under Yeltsin. In doing so, it highlights the importance of the major oil and gas companies for the functioning of Russian politics. ... Read more

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R. CHARLES WELLER, 2006, RETHINKING KAZAKH AND CENTRAL ASIAN NATIONHOOD: A CHALLENGE TO PREVAILING WESTERN VIEWS (LOS ANGELES: ASIA RESEARCH ASSOCIATES) -- After summarizing the five main views of nationhood, including the central debate between ´naturalists-perennialists´ and ´Western modernists´, a critique is offered of Western modernist writers treating the Kazakh and Central Asian nations. These writers insist on applying the cardinal Western doctrine of ´the separation of ethnicity and state´ in the Central Asian context in an effort to conform the post-Soviet Central Asian nations to Western norms of multiethnic ´democratic´ nationhood. To achieve this, they offer historiographical reinterpretations based in late 20th century Western modernist theories which themselves still echo Western eurocentric views of ´historyless, cultureless peoples´. They attribute the rise of modern ethnicity and statehood in Central Asia to Tsarist and/or Soviet policy. Modern Central Asian ethnic identities as well as the nation-states associated with them are, in their view, artificial (i.e. ´imagined´ or ´invented´) constructs, political fabrications "created" via Russian "ethno-engineering" and Russian-trained ´elite´ nationalists who inculcated in the masses an entirely ´new´ and ´modern´ idea of ethnonational identity having little or no roots in their own past. By taking this approach, they allegedly demonstrate that today´s nation-states in Central Asia have no true or historic relation to the ethnic nations whose names they bear and that those ethnic identities themselves in their current forms are ´inherently problematic´, inconsistent and highly unstable, largely divorced from their pre-colonial histories. The Central Asians are conveniently (for Western modernists) left with no rightful historical claim as ´ethnic nations´ to their own modern ´political nations´. These views continue to profoundly impact international and ethnonational human rights in the modern global age, including rights of national language, culture and history in Central Asia. As a challenge to these prevailing Western views, the author offers a perspective on Central Asian ethnonational identity which affirms its ´complex unity´ and depth of historical rootedness, recognizing the long-standing intimate connection between the ethnosocial, ethnocultural, ethnolinguistic, ethnoreligious and ethnopolitical dimensions of nationhood in the Central Asian tradition. From this unique, non-Western historical and contextual base, a more indigenous, integral form of ´Central Asian democratic nationhood´ is sought which strives to achieve genuine justice and equality for all ethnonational peoples involved. The author´s experience and insight is founded upon eight years of living and working in Kazakhstan, including a Ph.D. in cultural theory and history from Kazakh National University working entirely in Kazakh under the direction of Kazakh scholars. He draws significantly upon this base of Kazakh scholarship as a central part of the ´challenge to prevailing Western views´ regarding Central Asian nationhood. ... Read more