Transformation Of Central Asia Research Articles

Central asia-main foreign policy priorities of Uzbekistan : a new approach and practical actions

This article discusses the consistent development of cooperation between the Republic of Uzbeki- stan and Central Asian countries. The importance of making the Central Asian region a priority of Uz- bekistan’s foreign policy was highlighted. It was explained that the centuries-old brotherhood of Central Asian peoples, common history, spiritual and cultural values, similar traditions and customs play a role in strengthening regional cooperation. It has been shown that its implementation contributes to the de- velopment of security, stability and economic integration processes in the Central Asian region. The fac- tors contributing to the further strengthening of friendly and trusting relations between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan were also analyzed. When analyzing the issues of economic cooperation between Uzbekistan and the countries of the region, special attention was paid to transport communications, and the important strategic position of the Central Asian states requires the rational use of international transport corridors. The specificity of such types of transport communication as railway, aviation and automobile is shown. They also analyzed the practical initiatives of Uzbekistan to strengthen regional cooperation. In particular, the beginning of a new era in the cooperation of Uz- bekistan with Central Asian countries since 2017 has been studied. Conclusions were reached on the transformation of Central Asia into the main priority of the foreign policy of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and a number of proposals were made to strengthen cultural cooperation. Key words. Republic of Uzbekistan, Central Asia, cooperation, Foreign policy, Action strategy, con- sultations, summit, good neighborly environment, prosperity belt, priorities, general history, stability, sustainable development, good neighborliness, universal values.

EUROPEAN UNION’S SECURITY POLICY IN REGARD TO CENTRAL ASIA WITHIN THE EU STRATEGY FOR CA

As Central Asia undergoes a rapid transformation process, political, economic and security developments remain uncertain and difficult to predict. External actors will play a key role in defining the contours of transformation in Central Asia. In recent years, a number of powerful countries—mainly China, the Russian Federation and, to a lesser extent, the United States, Japan and Turkey—have sought to increase their influence in Central Asia. There was a timely initiative proposed by Germany, which presided over the European Union at the time, to launch the process of rethinking EU participation in Central Asia, culminating in the development of a Strategy for Central Asia. Thus, the European Union has reinforced its presence at a strategic moment for Central Asia. The Strategy for a New Partnership, adopted by the European Council on 21-22 June, 2007, became the main document for the significant and decisive strengthening of EU policy in Central Asia. The strategy represents the most ambitious EU project in the region and demonstrates a significant improvement in relations. The EU has the needed resources and, in line with the Strategy, it wants to do its part to transform the region into a secure and well-governed area, which is also in the interests of Central Asians. In 2019, in order to intensify cooperation, the EU updated and launched the new Strategy for Central Asia. It should be noted that security is a particularly important issue. In both the first Strategy 2007 and the updated Strategy 2019, the theme of security is reflected in various EU programs and projects. Thus, the article will provide a general analysis of EU’s security programs in Central Asia.

Expression of Socio-Political Zeitgeist in Tsarist Central Asia Printing

Orientalist approach to Central Asia especially Bukhara in our historical references present a romantic picture. This paper takes publications and printing as the indicator of intellectual maturity of the population and progressive zeitgeist in socio-political life. Analysis of historical events and facts reveal very little appetite of reading, almost universal ignorance and scarcity of written/printed books. The transformation of Central Asia took place after introduction of presses during the Tsarist control. With the arrival of printing, not only literacy increased but also the scope, number and range of topics expanded. As a result of printing/publication, the Jadidist ideology emerged and opposed the Qadimist status quo. Ultimately the Jadids prevailed. Therefore, the paper establishes that socio-political awakening and increase in printing/publication are linked. The paper recommends revisiting errors in the representation of Central Asia in our accounts of history

The hydrosocial empire: The Karakum River and the Soviet conquest of Central Asia in the 20th century

Irrigation canals played an essential role in the Soviet conquest of Central Asia in the 20th century. From the time of Lenin onwards, Soviet authorities invested significant human and material capital to dig new irrigation channels in Central Asia's arid deserts, in an effort to subdue native peoples and integrate the region into a command economy. While the Soviet Union’s great success with environmental transformation in Central Asia was indeed extraordinary (and notorious), too little attention has been given to the ways that this transformation was assembled. In this contribution to the special issue on Archaeologies of Empire and Environment, I explore an archaeology of the contemporary past of Soviet irrigation in Central Asia, utilizing the insights of new materialism theory. Rather than conceiving of the Soviet imperial project as exclusively human-driven, I consider the multiple other non-human agents that exerted forces on irrigation development and drove its emergence within Central Asia’s desert environments. The example of the region’s largest irrigation canal is examined. Using a critically-informed, animated GIS, I show how this canal emerged through negotiations between human and non-human agents. In this process, a hydrosocial object – the Karakum River – was produced that continues to promote the imperial agenda even after the Soviet Union’s collapse. The implications for 21st century discourses on environmental degradation and post-Sovietism, and the methodological possibilities of a theoretically-informed, animated GIS for symmetrical, contemporary archaeologies, are also explored.

Economic Transformation in Central Asia: A Journey of Twenty-five Years

Disintegration of the Soviet state was unanticipated in Central Asia and the new independent states were unprepared. The end of central planning in the late 1980s led to transitional recession and this got worse with the dissolution of the USSR. In this difficult situation, the five countries moved at different paces to stabilize their economies and establish market-based system. During transition era, Central Asian states introduced stabilization and structural reforms in the form of monetary policy, introduction of national currencies, price liberalization, privatization and fiscal reforms. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan lead by introducing various reforms while Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan lagged behind and were slow reformers. Tajikistan was one state that suffered due to internal civil war. These stabilization and structural reforms produced mixed results for Central Asian states. Present study will provide an overview of the journey of 25 years of the five Central Asian states since independence, their experience with the reforms and their performance in the region.

Central Asian History as Soviet History

In a spring 2015 forum in this journal, a group of established scholars discussed Central Asia's place in the field of Russian and Soviet history. (1) Are scholars of Central Asia, they asked, marginalized by--or worse--marginal to the broader profession? The current collection of essays helps answer this question. Here four young historians present research on Central Asia that is not only valuable as Central Asian history but also addresses questions that are absolutely central to the history of the Soviet Union. What did it mean to be national, to be Soviet, to be both national and Soviet? How did World War II transform Soviet citizens and their relationship to one another and to the Soviet state? How did Soviet experts conceive of modernity and economic development? How did the Soviet Union represent itself at home and abroad? Each of these essays uses valuable, hitherto underutilized sources: soldiers' letters from the front, written in Uzbek and other non-Russian languages; republican archives in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan; the writings of Tajik economists; a trove of photographs from the Sovinformbiuro; oral history interviews. Timothy Nunan and Artemy Kalinovsky focus on topics scarcely explored in Soviet Central Asia--visual culture and political economy. Charles Shaw and Moritz Florin approach the more established topics of ethnicity, nationality, and Soviet identity in innovative ways. All four of these essays investigate the wartime and postwar years, crucial periods in Soviet Central Asian history that have only recently become the object of sustained attention. The essays offer a wealth of material for discussion, but I focus here on three themes that make particularly significant contributions to the field of Soviet history, in my view: World War II as a turning point in the transformation of Central Asia (and, by extension, the Soviet Union as a whole); the evolution of identities in Central Asia during and after the war; and the place of Central Asia in the intersection of Soviet domestic and foreign policy during the postwar era. World War II as a Turning Point The first post-Soviet generation of Western scholars in the 1990s and 2000s focused mainly on the period between the revolutions and World War II, for understandable reasons. A wealth of untouched materials and indigenous-language sources existed for the 1920s and 1930s that was richer and more diverse than that of the later Stalinist era. From a strictly practical point of view, it made sense to gain an understanding of the early Soviet period before turning to the later decades. These early post-Soviet works focused primarily on nation making, gender, and Islam--all topics that had attracted attention from scholars well before the post-1991 archival revolution. (2) Taken together, these monographs suggested that the Soviet transformation of Central Asia in the interwar period was incomplete. Indeed, in some ways it had scarcely begun. At the beginning of World War II, mass education continued to be rudimentary, and few Central Asians knew Russian. Most Central Asians remained mystified by, if not completely unfamiliar with, the main tenets of Marxist-Leninist ideology. Efforts to transform the status of women and backward family customs had met with limited success. Historians working on the 1920s and 1930s knew--or surmised--that the war and early postwar years were crucial in making Central Asia Soviet, but we did not yet have the evidence to demonstrate this. The next wave of scholarly work turned to the wartime and postwar periods, and dissertations and books dealing with this period have begun to appear in recent years. (3) Charles Shaw and Moritz Florin emphasize the war as a turning point in the transformation of Central Asia and its integration into the Soviet imagined community. First and most obviously, the war transformed the young Central Asian men who served in the Red Army. As Shaw shows, Uzbek soldiers learned Russian, adapted to Soviet frontline culture, and learned to present themselves in new ways. …

Soviet Orientalism and Nationalism in Central Asia: Aleksandr Semenov's Vision of Tajik National Identity

Russian Orientalists participated—often in a close but precarious relationship with the state—in the transformation of Central Asia from a tsarist colony into part of what Francine Hirsch has called an “Empire of Nations.” One of them was the former tsarist colonial clerk Aleksandr Semenov (1873–1958), who together with such prominent representatives of the region's Persian-speaking elites as Sadriddin Ayni or Bobojon Ghafurov, and with the support of his academic mentors, such as Vasilii Bartol'd and Sergei Ol'denburg, effectively—albeit somewhat reluctantly—lobbied for the official recognition of the Persian/Tajik language and of Tajikistani statehood. The study of their cooperation shows how Central Asian cultural heritage was researched and preserved, but also how it was reinvented in national terms and codified; and how these processes were negotiated between local intellectuals, scholars and the state.

Business Ethics as a Field of Teaching, Training, and Research in Central Asia

Central Asia presents a unique configuration of historical experience and societal responses that have been interacting and evolving for thousands of years. The current era of economic, political, and societal transformation in Central Asia began with the peaceful devolution of the Soviet Union and transition to the Commonwealth of Independent States in December 1991. Expectations about the natural social order based on western beliefs and experience may not apply in this part of the world, for—like all transitional and emerging market economies—Central Asia has inherited another social order that predates recent history. The field of Business Ethics provides an arena in which these issues can be explored. In this article, an overview of the current standing of Business Ethics as a field for teaching, training, and research in Central Asia is provided. Suggestions for further consideration and future research are presented in the concluding section.

Nationalism in modern Kazakhstan's language policy

38 Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. XXXIII, No. 4, Summer 2010 Nationalism in modern Kazakhstan’s language policy Gulnara Dadabaeva* Aigul Adibaeva* (I) In the modern world language policy engulfs relations between the state and society. The growth of interest among social scientists in these issues after the demise of the Soviet Union multiplied. The emerging of postSoviet republics enhanced the application of different theoretical approaches to this phenomenon. These approaches, appeal to Gellner’s idea of the homogenization of culture along with the state’s political borders,1 or construction of a nation-state under the guidance of the political elite, trying to reach civic unification of its ethnically, linguistically and culturally diverse population2 (C. Geerz, 1973). Some scholars have connected the sensitivity of these problems to the possibility of the representatives of different groups to get and, control over the economic and political spheres of influence3 (Horowitz D., 1985). Major scholarship on Kazakhstan language policy could be roughly divided into two mainstreams. The first one is mainly focused on the state’s ability to conduct language policy in order to decrease inter- and intraethnic conflicts. For the purpose of accelerated nation building, Kazakhstan’s ruling elite, as Dave argues, was able to establish political control over other ethnic groups, mainly Slavs, who are identified with the imperial past. The government pressure on the process of legislation provided more opportunities to strengthen access to administration, education and important economic sectors of the newly emerging state for titular nation, yet securing better opportunities for itself. Relatively easy *Gulnara Dadabaeva and Aigul Adibaeva, Kimep, Senior Lecturers, Almaty, Kazakhstan 1 Gellner, Ernest. 1983. Nations and Nationalism. Oxford: Blackwell. 2 Geerz, Clifford.1973.The Interpretation of Cultures: selected Essays, New York: Basic Books. 3 Horowitz, D. 1985. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley: University of California Press. 39 process of the Kazakh language application was primarily caused by the notion that a nation-state is represented by a state language defining certain territory, which is driven by “remedial of native population”, especially in such spheres as language, history, culture, etc.4 (Dave B., 2004, pp. 125126 ). These ideas are close to W. Fierman5 statement that sharp disputes over language issues are caused by different goals of the two main categories of the republic’s population who are identified as “civic-statists” versus “nation-statists”. Both groups succeeded in establishing their culture and language in a privileged position. Departing from A. Khazanov’s6 point that state provides less nationalism and thus opens more space for nationalist claims of Kazakh intelligentsia, one can say that the abovementioned scholars insist on political and social prerequisites for successful application of Kazakh as the only state language. Another group of scholars are mainly driven by the interest to language politics as a crucial factor in establishing tolerant ethnic relations; they stress those factors of ethnopolitics which diminish inter-ethnic conflicts, including language-political issues7 (Chaimun Lee). Modern Kazakhstan can thus successfully utilize ethnopolitics through lenient language requirements for ethnic non-Kazakhs that in turn leads to a decrease in ethnic intolerance. Ethnic cooperation among different groups is orchestrated by the state that elaborates strategies to create careful “‘divergent messages’, soft policy on language requirements and ethnic-language ties” (Chaimun Lee). The main problem arising from this situation is the 4 Dave, B. 2004. A Shrinking Reach of the State? Language Policy and Implementation in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, in “Transformation of Central Asia: State and Societies from Soviet Rule to Independence” ed. Pauline J. Luong, Cornell University Press: Ithaca and London, 2004, p. 125-26. 5 Fierman William. Language and Policy in Kazakhstan Formation in Policy Documents 1987-1997. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, vol. 31, #2, p. 177. 6 Khazanov A.M. The Ethnic Problems of Contemporary Kazakhstan. Central Asian Survey, 1995, 14 (2), p. 253. 7 Chaimun Lee. Languages and ethnic politics in Central Asia: The Case of Kazakhstan in Journal of International and Area Studies, Seoul, June 1004, vol. 11, Iss. 1; p.101. Here we could also mentioned scholars from Kazakhstan who’s research interests are concentrating on Russian population position in modern Kazakhstan. They also touched Kazakh and Russian languages status...

Economic Reforms in Kyrgyzstan

Article describes Kyrgyzstans achievements in the stabilization and liberalization of the economy and the majority of progress in this area that occurred in the first half of 1994.One may include Kyrgyzstan in the group of states that have adopted the radical variant of transition to market economics, a group to which the majority of Central European states and the above mentioned Baltic states belong. Kyrgyzstan has become a clear leader in economic transformation in Central Asia. Moreover, the progress in this area has been accompanied by a broad democratization of political life and an open, pro-Western orientation in foreign policy. These economic and political reforms represent the effect of the political course embarked upon in 1991 by the president of the republic, Askar Akayev. Thus far, they have made Kyrgyzstan an oasis of democracy and social peace in a region wracked by powerful ethnic and religious conflicts and whose political and economic regimes are of a significantly less liberal and democratic character and possess strong elements of the post-communist or even neo-communist order.

Брак, Современность и “Дружба Народов”: Межэтнические Отношения в Интимной Сфере Послевоенной Средней Азии в Сравнительной Перспективе

SUMMARY: The article by Adrienne Lynn Edgar is a direct attempt to respond to a recent challenge by leading scholars in colonial studies and include the Soviet Union in a comparative discussion of interethnic and interracial intimacy. The article takes its inspiration from the fact that while the terminology used in Soviet intermarriage discourse differed significantly from that of both European colonizers and U.S. racial theorists (to cite just one example, the Soviets tended to speak of “nationality” rather than “race,” especially after the early 1930s), the issue was clearly of central importance for Soviet nationality theorists. The article reconstructs the genealogy of Russian and Soviet discourse on interethnic marriage which is highly revealing about the form of modernity Soviet authorities envisioned for the Muslim periphery, and in particular about the role women and the family were expected to play in the transformation of Central Asia. The author suggests that the closest comparative model for Soviet inter-marriage discourse is the Latin American discourse of mestizaje. Soviet intermarriage ideology shared certain features with mestizaje: both involved a celebration of diversity and hybridity and an explicit rejection of European and U.S. racial ideology; both ideologies viewed intermarriage and ethnic mixing as the wave of the future and a harbinger of modernity; both also obscured the existence of entrenched ethnic and racial hierarchies. The most important difference between mestizaje and Soviet assimilationism is, according to the article, that the former was an ideology devised to attach a positive evaluation to an existing reality – the fact that large numbers of Latin Americans were racially mixed. Soviet intermarriage ideology, by contrast, was aspirational, describing a desirable situation in which all Soviet citizens would choose spouses without regard to nationality and lead an “internationalist, all-Soviet” lifestyle free of traditional practices and superstitions. Thus, Soviet intermarriage ideology was utopian in a way that mestizaje was not. The author concludes that, in reality, the prospect of creating a Soviet people through intermarriage became more remote in the Brezhnev era as titular nationalities became more entrenched within their republics. Thus the ideology of ethnic mixing tells a great deal about the relationship between national identities and a broader sense of “Sovietness.” Edgar suggests that close examination of intimate relationships may help us to understand one of the largest problems in Soviet history – the failure to create a Soviet identity capable of competing with national identities and withstanding the centrifugal pressures of the perestroika period.

Pauline Luong-Jones. The Transformation of Central Asia: States and Societies from Soviet rule to independence. Ithaca – London, Cornell University Press, 2004, 332 p.

Huit contributions pour « reconceptualiser l’Asie centrale apres l’independance ». Tel est le programme ambitieux que se donne le present recueil. Si on peut regretter l’absence de mention des travaux allemands, italiens ou francais (notamment anthropologiques), on peut neanmoins adherer a la volonte explicite de quitter la vision sovietologique de l’histoire recente de l’Asie centrale. Car des lors qu’on reduit cette histoire au debat entre ecole totalitaire et ecole revisionniste, on s’inte...

The Transformation of Central Asia: States and Societies from Soviet Rule to Independence. Ed. Pauline Jones Luong. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004. xii, 332 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Glossary. Index. Figures. Maps. $49.95, hard bound. $22.95, paper.

The Transformation of Central Asia: States and Societies from Soviet Rule to Independence. Ed. Pauline Jones Luong. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004. xii, 332 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Glossary. Index. Figures. Maps. 22.95, paper. - Volume 64 Issue 1

The Transformation of CentralAsia:States and Societies from SovietRuletoIndependence.Edited by Pauline Jones Luong. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004. xii, 332 pp. $49.95 (cloth); $22.95 (paper).

The Transformation of CentralAsia:States and Societies from SovietRuletoIndependence.Edited by Pauline Jones Luong. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004. xii, 332 pp. $49.95 (cloth); $22.95 (paper).

The Transformation of Central Asia: States and Societies from Soviet Rule to Independence

The Transformation of Central Asia: States and Societies from Soviet Rule to Independence. Edited by Pauline Jones Luong. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004. 352p. 22.95 paper.The closed nature of the Soviet system meant that little was known about the republics on the periphery, particularly those of Central Asia. Most scholars viewed the region as a cotton colony of the Soviet Union dominated by a largely traditional, feudal society impervious to Western understanding. Despite greater access to the region and its peoples in the wake of the collapse of communism, the perception that the region remained under Moscow's shadow continued to suppress interest among nonspecialists. More recently, however, renewed interest in the Muslim world brought on by the war on terror has changed all of that. Specialists in international relations, security studies, and comparative politics, in particular, are intrigued by any number of questions, not the least of which are the persistence of authoritarianism and the inability of radical Islam to gain traction in Central Asia.

The Transformation of Central Asia: states and societies from Soviet rule to independence

Pauline Jones Luong, ed. The Transformation of Central Asia: States and Societies from Soviet Rule to Independence. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004. $49.95, cloth. $22.95, paper.This collection provides an invaluable contribution to the small but growing literature on Central Asia, as well as addresses important theoretical questions surrounding the character and role of the state and its relationship to broader society. Unlike many of the studies that have treated Central Asia following the September 11 attacks, this one features authors who are familiar with the local languages and have done extensive fieldwork in the region. The result is a volume that offers important and nuanced insights surrounding the development of the post-Soviet states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.The eight essays admirably fulfill the goals stated by Pauline Jones Luong in her introduction: to dispel simplistic characterizations of Central Asia and bring the region from the periphery to the centre of debates surrounding the complex relationship between state and society in the post-socialist era. All of the authors agree that the Soviet state had, and continues to have, a profound impact on the region, shaping identities, institutions, and power. Even contemporary notions of Central Asian tradition, the basis for new nationalisms in the region, are based on Soviet characterizations of traditional society and culture. The authors also argue that progressively more authoritarian regimes are actually masking increased decentralization. Central Asian states can in fact be best as strongweak. They are strong in that they control substantial financial and natural resources and possess numerous tools of coercion, but weak in that individual states are often at war with themselves, with multiple struggles between and within local, regional, and central organs of government preventing the effective and coherent implementation of policies on the ground. Most significantly, many of the authors argue, the state at all levels remains largely isolated from society, neither seeking its participation nor meeting its everyday needs. As a result, Central Asian regimes appear profoundly unstable over the long term.The first piece, by Marianne Kamp, details the dissonance between societal expectations and weak state capacity in contemporary Uzbekistan. Kamp argues that Uzbek women still carry expectations, born in the Soviet era, of a universal cradle-to-grave welfare state. The Uzbek central government, however, has pawned off responsibilities for social services to neighbourhood (mahalla) committees. Kamp argues that this case demonstrates how devolutions of power to the local level, though favoured in western development theory, do not always work to society's advantage. Composed largely of unelected male elders, neighbourhood committees play favourites in determining who qualifies for the limited money available. They exclude women, such as single mothers, who are seen to violate moral standards of the community. Working mothers have seen resources available to them evaporate as the state moves from a Soviet maternalist to a nationalist paternalist policy, justified in the name of Central Asian tradition. Like Kamp, Cynthia Werner notes a marked decline in women's status in post-Soviet Central Asia. Werner's research on bride-kidnapping in Kazakhstan demonstrates that increasing numbers of Kazakh men are forcefully abducting women to take as wives. Werner argues that Kazakh men fear their own precarious position in the chaotic post-Soviet economy will harm their chances in gaining voluntary acceptance of marriage. They also realize that the state is showing little interest in the phenomenon, and small bribes to police or judges can prevent any legal repercussions. Patriarchal ideologies and weakened state capacity have combined to erode the status of women in post-Soviet Central Asia. …

The Transformation of Central Asia: States and Societies from Soviet Rule to Independence

Talks about States and societies from Soviet rule to independence. This volume compares State building and State society interactions in the five post Soviet central Asian States. It offers insights about national, religious identities.

Economic reforms in Kyrgyzstan

(1995). Economic reforms in Kyrgyzstan. Communist Economies and Economic Transformation: Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 269-297.

The transformation of Central Asia: Implications for regional and international security

(1992). The transformation of Central Asia: Implications for regional and international security. Survival: Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 68-89.