Boundary Issues in Central Asia

Boundary Issues in Central Asia
Author: Necati Polat
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2021-09-06
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9004480501

Boundary Issues in Central Asia provides detailed answers to: What was the legal framework within which the new states of Central Asia attained statehood? How did the administrative divisions of the former Soviet Union evolve, almost over night, into inter-state frontiers, and on what legal basis? Are Central Asian states content with the post-independence border arrangements? What outstanding border issues with states adjacent to the former Soviet Central Asia were inherited by Central Asian states from the USSR, the predecessor state? What became, in particular, of the perennial border disputes of the predecessor state with China? What border issues with the latter have since been settled by Central Asian states and what issues are pending resolution? as well as to a host of other boundary-related questions, such as the minority, self-determination and ethno-border issues, with significant bearings on the stability of the existing territorial arrangements, the legal regimes for the use of transboundary watercourses in the region, including the dispute over the legal status of the Caspian Sea with its vast hydrocarbon resources. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.

Nationalism in Central Asia

Nationalism in Central Asia
Author: Nick Megoran
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2017-10-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0822982390

Nick Megoran explores the process of building independent nation-states in post-Soviet Central Asia through the lens of the disputed border territory between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. In his rich "biography" of the boundary, he employs a combination of political, cultural, historical, ethnographic, and geographic frames to shed new light on nation-building process in this volatile and geopolitically significant region. Megoran draws on twenty years of extensive research in the borderlands via interviews, observations, participation, and newspaper analysis. He considers the problems of nationalist discourse versus local vernacular, elite struggles versus borderland solidarities, boundary delimitation versus everyday experience, border control versus resistance, and mass violence in 2010, all of which have exacerbated territorial anxieties. Megoran also revisits theories of causation, such as the loss of Soviet control, poorly defined boundaries, natural resource disputes, and historic ethnic clashes, to show that while these all contribute to heightened tensions, political actors and their agendas have clearly driven territorial aspirations and are the overriding source of conflict. As this compelling case study shows, the boundaries of the The Ferghana Valley put in succinct focus larger global and moral questions of what defines a good border.

Mobilities, Boundaries, and Travelling Ideas

Mobilities, Boundaries, and Travelling Ideas
Author: Manja Stephan-Emmrich
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2018-04-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1783743360

This collection brings together a variety of anthropological, historical and sociological case studies from Central Asia and the Caucasus to examine the concept of translocality. The chapters scrutinize the capacity of translocality to describe, in new ways, the multiple mobilities, exchange practices and globalizing processes that link places, people and institutions in Central Asia and the Caucasus with others in Russia, China and the United Arab Emirates. Illuminating translocality as a productive concept for studying cross‐regional connectivities and networks, this volume is an important contribution to a lively field of academic discourse. Following new directions in Area Studies, the chapters aim to overcome ‘territorial containers’ such as the nation‐state or local community, and instead emphasize the significance of processes of translation and negotiation for understanding how meaningful localities emerge beyond conventional boundaries. Structured by the four themes ‘crossing boundaries’, ‘travelling ideas’, ‘social and economic movements’ and ‘pious endeavours’, this volume proposes three conceptual approaches to translocality: firstly, to trace how it is embodied, narrated, virtualized or institutionalized within or in reference to physical or imagined localities; secondly, to understand locality as a relational concept rather than a geographically bounded unit; and thirdly, to consider cross‐border traders, travelling students, business people and refugees as examples of non-elite mobilities that provide alternative ways to think about what ‘global’ means today. Mobilities, Boundaries, and Travelling Ideas will be of interest to students and scholars of the anthropology, history and sociology of Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as for those interested in new approaches to Area Studies.

Central Asia Today

Central Asia Today
Author: Sunatullo Jonboboev
Publisher: Cuvillier Verlag
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2014-06-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3736947321

This collection of descriptions and analyses from scholars from Central Asia, Xinjiang, Kashmir, and Siberia gives first a general overview about the geopolitics, economics, and politics of the Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgizstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) plus a details description of their foreign policy towards their neighborhood, the region, and the further abroad (Russia, India, China). This is complemented by studies on the relations between Central Asia on the one side and China, India, and Russia on the other hand. Secondly, the history, problems, and pers-pectives of the Central Asian regionalization and trans-regional (SCO, OSCE) process is discussed and evaluated. Third, problems such as Islamism in Central Asia are studied. The book is not only a coherent handbook on Central Asia but presents the views of the academic generation of the newly independent Central Asian countries. It gives a comprehensive overview about foreign policies and Central Asian relations with the big neighbors China, Russia, and India as well as a differentiated discussion on the regionalization process.

Globalizing Central Asia

Globalizing Central Asia
Author: Marlene Laruelle
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 414
Release: 2015-02-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317469631

In this global era, Central Asia must be understood in both geo-economic and geopolitical terms. The region's natural resources compel the attention of rivalrous great powers and ambitious internal factions. The local regimes are caught between the need for international collaborations to valorize these riches and the need to maintain control over them in the interest of state sovereignty. Russia and China dominate the horizon, with other global players close behind; meanwhile, neighboring countries are fractious and unstable with real potential for contagion. This pathbreaking introduction to Central Asia in contemporary international economic and political context answers the needs of both academic and professional audiences and is suitable for course adoption.

Central Asia in the Era of Sovereignty

Central Asia in the Era of Sovereignty
Author: Daniel L. Burghart
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2018-03-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1498572677

After twenty-five years of independence, there is little doubt that the five Central Asian states will persist as sovereign, independent states. They increasingly differ from each other, and are making their way in global politics. No longer connected only to Russia, they are now connected in important ways to Afghanistan, South Asia, China, Iran, and each other. This volume covers a wide range of issues and presents the work of emerging scholars authors well-known for their expertise in the region. The first part addresses social issues. Covering a wide range from HIV/AIDs to social media, the rebirth of Islam, outmigration, and problematic borders, this section follows two main currents: political development in the region and states’ responses to transboundary challenges. The second part, addressing economics and security, provides analyses of new infrastructure, informal economies (from bazaars to criminal networks), energy development, the role of enclaves in the Ferghana Valley, and the development of the states’ military structures. This section illuminates the interactions between economic developments and security, and the forces that could undermine both. The final part, comprised of five case studies, offers a “deeper dive” into a specific factor that matters in the development of each Central Asian state. These cases include Kazakhstan’s foreign policy identity, Kyrgyzstan’s domestic politics, Tajikistan’s pursuit of hydropower, foreign direct investment in Turkmenistan, and the perception of everyday corruption in Uzbekistan.

Central Asia: Challenges of Independence

Central Asia: Challenges of Independence
Author: BorisZ. Rumer
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2017-07-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351572555

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.

Central Asian Security

Central Asian Security
Author: Roy Allison
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2004-05-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0815798539

This volume is the first comprehensive scholarly analysis of the strategic reconfiguration of Central Asia as Russia has become more disengaged from the nations in the region and as these nations have developed new relations to the south, east, and west. The international implications are enormous because of the rich energy sources—oil and natural gas—located in the Caspian Sea area. The authors assess a variety of internal security policy challenges confronting these states—for example, the potential for conflict arising from such factors as a mixed ethnic population, resource scarcity, particularly in relation to water management, and an Islamic revival. They also examine the security policy content of relations between the Central Asian states and regional and international powers—specifically the stakes, interests, and policies of Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, and the United States. These internal challenges and the evolution of relations with external powers may result in new cooperative relationships, but they may also lead to destabilizing rivalry and interstate enmity in Central Asia. It is important to identify new patterns of relevance for future security cooperation in the region, but the potential for a new security system or for new institutions to manage security in the region remains uncertain. These issues are explored by a team of prominent specialists from Western Europe, the United States, Russia and China.