Sally N. Cummings is Lecturer in Politics at the University of Edinburgh, UK. Her publications include Power and Change in Central Asia (2001), Kosovo: Perceptions of War and Its Aftermath (2002) and The Dynamics of Centre-Periphery Relations in Kazakhstan (2000).

'if one wishes to understand what has happened and is happening in this remote but important region then this should be the book for you.' - The Journal of Energy Literature

• Introduction Part I: Country Surveys 1. Independent Turkmenistan: From Post-Communism to Sultanism 2. Kazakhstan: Managing HeterogeneitY 3. Kyrgyzstan: Liberalisation and economic reform 4. Uzbekistan: Ten Years of Gradualism or Stagnation 5. Tajikistan: Independent Tajikistan: Ten Lost Years Part II: Politics and Society 6. Constitutional Change in Central Asia 7. In Search of Civil Society in Central Asia 8. Continuity and Change in the Societies of Central Asia and the Caucasus: A Theoretical ApproacH 9. Turkmenistan: The Political Elite in an Ethnic Society 10. Nation-building and Language Standardisation in Kazakhstan 11. Agricultural Restructuring in Kyrgyzstan: The Next Phase Part III: The Caspian, Oil, Pipelines and the Environment 12. Caspian Oil and Gas: how far have we come and where are we going? 13. Perspectives on the political risk system for western multinational oil company investment in Central Asia 14. The Caspian States of the Former Soviet Union: Economic Performance since 1998 15. The Caspian Sea: The Management and Politicisation of the Maritime Ecosystem in a period of Transition 16. Central Asian Water Problems: The Role of International Law Part IV: Security and Geopolitics 17. Central Asian Military Reform: National, Regional and International Influences 18. Russian National Interests and Its Policies in the Caspian Geopolitical Region 19. Some Geopolitical Peculiarities of Central Asia, Past and Present 20. Eurasian Manoeuvres