The Long Game on the Silk Road

The Long Game on the Silk Road
Author: S. Frederick Starr
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2018-04-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1538114658

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.

Energy, Wealth and Governance in the Caucasus and Central Asia

Energy, Wealth and Governance in the Caucasus and Central Asia
Author: Richard Auty
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2006-08-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134194145

Drawing upon recent progress in development economics and political science, the book provides fresh analysis of the Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) countries transition to a market economy by tracing the impact of natural resource endowment. The book examines the synergies between energy-rich and energy-poor states and highlights the practical consequences of both well-managed and poorly-managed deployment of energy. Featuring contributions from prominent specialists on resource-driven economies, the book argues that unless CCA elites change the way in which they deploy natural resource, revenues regional development will fall short of its potential with possible disastrous consequences. The contributors apply the experience of the developing market economies to demonstrate that the region still holds considerable potential to become an important, stable supplier of raw materials and a source of industrial demand to the global economy. However, the CCA is equally likely to become a threat to the global economy as a consequence of the misuse of energy revenues to promote the interests of predatory political elites.

Conflict Areas in the Caucasus and Central Asia

Conflict Areas in the Caucasus and Central Asia
Author: Arda Özkan
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 469
Release: 2022-01-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1793651264

The Caucasus region and Central Asia covers a large part of the Eurasian. Both regions, where Russia and China have a serious influence and visibility, also have a location that reflects the hegemonic expectations of both these actors. In this context, domestic political developments and even internal conflicts in the region can be linked to the policies of Russia and China to a certain extent and have the potential to affect the motives of these two powers. Although Central Asia is rich in natural resources, it is landlocked and has lagged other nations in terms of agricultural production and industrial development. Although the Caucasus is divided into the North, the territory of Russia, and the South, where three independent states are located, it is insufficient in terms of production and development. The Caucasus stands out especially with energy projects and its feature of being a commercial corridor.

The Central Asian Economies in the Twenty-First Century

The Central Asian Economies in the Twenty-First Century
Author: Richard Pomfret
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2019-01-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0691185409

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.

Energy and Conflict in Central Asia and the Caucasus

Energy and Conflict in Central Asia and the Caucasus
Author: Robert E. Ebel
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2000
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780742500631

This timely study is the first to examine the relationship between competition for energy resources and the propensity for conflict in the Caspian region. Taking the discussion well beyond issues of pipeline politics and the significance of Caspian oil and gas to the global market, the book offers significant new findings concerning the impact of energy wealth on the political life and economies of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. The contributors, a leading group of scholars and policymakers, explore the differing interests of ruling elites, the political opposition, and minority ethnic and religious groups region-wide. Placing Caspian development in the broader international relations context, the book assesses the ways in which Russia, China, Iran, and Turkey are fighting to protect their interests in the newly independent states and how competition for production contracts and pipeline routes influences regional security. Specific chapters also link regional issues to central questions of international politics and to theoretical debates over the role of energy wealth in political and economic development worldwide. Woven throughout the implications for U.S. policy, giving the book wide appeal to policymakers, corporate executives, energy analysts, and scholars alike.

Engaging Central Asia

Engaging Central Asia
Author: Bhavna Dave
Publisher: CEPS
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2008
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 929079707X

"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.

Conflict and Security in Central Asia and the Caucasus

Conflict and Security in Central Asia and the Caucasus
Author: Hooman Peimani
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2009-07-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 159884055X

This is the only book since the fall of the Soviet Union to analyze the security of the newly emerged independent states in the strategically vital region of Central Asia and the Caucasus. This insightful work maps out the possibilities and dangers that lie ahead for the nations of Central Asia and the Caucasus. The book analyzes the current security situation and clarifies its historical context, identifying the factors that have shaped the security of these young nations since their independence. It also examines the parameters—political, economic, ethnic, energy, and military—that will decide the security of the region in the future. The book's author tells the whole story behind the headlines when he discusses, for example, the real reason for the "wine war" of 2006, when Russia banned imports of Georgian wine for "health reasons," or when explaining the impact of the expanding American presence—both political and military—after September 11. Conflict and Security in Central Asia and the Caucasus is a primer for those who want to know more about this strategic region and essential reading for all students of world affairs.

Russia and Central Asia

Russia and Central Asia
Author: Shoshana Keller
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2020
Genre: History
ISBN: 1487594348

This introduction to Central Asia and its relationship with Russia helps restore Central Asia to the general narrative of Russian and world history.

Development in Central Asia and the Caucasus

Development in Central Asia and the Caucasus
Author: Sophie Hohmann
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2014-06-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0857737341

After the final collapse of the Soviet Union, the so-called 'last empire', in 1991, the countries of Central Asia - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan - and of the Caucasus - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia - became independent nations. These countries, previously production centres under the socialist planning system of the Soviet Union, have made enormous economic adjustments in order to develop - or attempt to develop - along capitalist lines. As this study will show, however, inequality in Central Asia and the Caucasus is widening, as the Soviet systems of healthcare and state provisions disappear. Rejecting the Cold War-era East/West paradigm often used to analyse the development of these nations, this study analyses development along the North-South lines which characterise the migration patterns and poverty levels of much of the rest of the developed world. This opens up new avenues of research, and helps us understand why it is, for instance, that this region is better characterised as a 'new South' - as skilled workers flood out of the territories and into Russia and Western Europe. Development in Central Asia and the Caucasus draws together detailed analyses of the development of migration economics as the region's oil wealth further enhances its strategic and economic importance to Russia, the US, the Middle East and to the EU.