After Empire: The Emerging Geopolitics of Central AsiaJed C. Snyder When the Soviet Union collapsed, no states were less prepared for independence than the 5 republics of Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan. This book includes papers and discussions presented at a conf. of scholars from the U.S., Russia, Europe, and the Middle East who gathered to examine the region's political, economic, social, and security evolution since 1989. The papers are arranged by themes: the struggle for identity; the roots of Islam in Central Asia: a brief primer; Moscow's security perspective, the commonwealth, and interstate relations; and security implications of the competition for influence among neighboring states. |
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Afghanistan agreement alliance areas armed forces army Asia's Azerbaijan BBC Summary bilateral border Central Asia Central Asian republics China Chinese collective security Commonwealth Communist concerns conflict cooperation countries create cultural December defense democracy democratic domestic economic elites emerging establish ethnic Fergana Valley five republics foreign policy former Soviet South former Soviet Union groups identity important India influence interests Interfax internal involvement Iran Iranian Islamic fundamentalism issues ITAR-TASS January joint Karimov Kazakh Kazakhstan Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan Krasnaya Zvezda Kyrgyz Kyrgyzstan leadership major military-strategic Moscow Muslim nationalist Nazarbaev neighboring Nezavisimaya Gazeta nuclear weapons officials opposition Pakistan peacekeeping percent political population post-Soviet potential President problems question Qur'an reform regime region relations religious RFE/RL role Russian-Central Asian Saudi signed Slav Soviet Union stability strategic structures Tadzhik Tadzhikistan Tajik Tajikistan Tashkent territory threat trade Treaty troops Turkey Turkic Turkish Turkmen Turkmenistan Ukraine USSR Uzbek Uzbekistan Western Xinjiang
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Page 122 - With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, our security environment has undergone profound transformation.
Page 131 - But there is no uncertainty about China's intention, and ability, to play a major role in Central Asia for the foreseeable future. Even if China's vision of a modern Silk Road is never realized, an economically dynamic and militarily ascendant China seems destined to exert tremendous influence over neighboring Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. This is still not widely appreciated.
Page 98 - Groups of Military Observers and Collective Peacekeeping Forces in the ClS," which set the terms and basic conditions of peacekeeping operations in the Commonwealth.
Page 84 - Tajikistan: The Fall of Nabiev," RFE/RL Research Report, September 25, 1992; "Tajikistan: The Conservative Triumph," RFE/RL Research Report, February 12, 1993; "Tadzhik Opposition to Be Banned," RFE/RL Research Report, April 2. 1993. CENTRAL ASIA: EMERGING...
Page 123 - Xinjiang's government leader denouncing "splittists"6 seems to have been the last hurrah of the hard line in Xinjiang. After that, references to "splrrtists" and to militia-building dried up, while news of economic reform and development, including many reports of Xinjiang's burgeoning trade ties with its Central Asian neighbors, dominated official media reports from the region. Several other factors, some probably more important than the workings of domestic Chinese politics, also explain why the...
Page 126 - ... us with ample illustrations of China's overall approach to Central Asia. Although available statistics are far from satisfactory, they leave no doubt that China's bilateral trade with Kazakhstan has been soaring since early 1992. Reports from the Chinese news agency, Xinhua, indicated that Xinjiang's total foreign trade in 1992 increased to more than US $500 million. Exports and imports going through regular channels jumped by 130 percent, to about US $300 million.1...
Page 215 - ... capital, technology, and entrepreneurial resources of Hong Kong and Taiwan. The advantage does not end there. The business communities in Hong Kong and Taiwan can also act as a bridge to world capital markets and multinational corporations. China's emerging, economics-based approach to Central Asia can be best understood by first examining the dramatic developments in its relations with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan since 1991. We will look briefly at China's economic ties with the other three republics....
Page xvii - The evidence, after all, was there for anyone who chose to look at the map. For four centuries the Russian Empire had been steadily expanding at the rate of some 55 square miles a day, or around 20,000 square miles a year. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, more than 2,000 miles separated the British and Russian empires in Asia. By the end of it this had shrunk to a few hundred, and in parts of the Pamir region to less than twenty. No wonder many feared that the Cossacks would only rein...
Page 159 - Goethe-lnstitut, and Alliance Francaise. After initial successes, Pakistani businessmen and technicians will have a hard time holding their own against Chinese and Japanese. Turkey, too, will have to overstretch herself and find it difficult to match the high expectations of the impoverished cousins in (Central Asia). For two fundamental reasons, it is inappropriate to think about the former Soviet South's future in terms of a Turkish model, an 159 lranian model, or a Pakistani model.
Page 130 - Although it may initially strike many as romantic boilerplate, such Chinese rhetoric is highly significant. China sees a new Silk Road of modern railways and highways as a transmission belt that could project Chinese wealth and influence far westward, not only through Central Asia, but to Iran and the Middle East. While most discussions of Central Asia's future physical links with the outside world focus on north-south links, the logic of east-west links are often overlooked. These could well include...