Politics and History in Central Asia – serie

This volume details the evolution of Japan's foreign policy and its initiatives with respect to Central Asia. This volume provides insights into the security, political, and economic aspects of cooperation between CA states and Japan and the features that characterize these relations.

This cutting edge collection focuses on the nature of civil society and its role in facilitating governance in Central Asia, considering local implications related to the concept of social capital and civil society in the Uzbek context. It discusses the complexity of the notion of social capital in post-Soviet Uzbekistan, detailing the challenges and pressures facing the Uzbek people.Challenging prevailing views on post-Soviet political transitions, the book demonstrates that successful transition to democracy and rule of law cannot be accomplished unless the concerns, fears, frustrations and local understandings of the desired political system are heard, registered and carefully interpreted. Offering a comparative study of civil society and social capital in Asia, this collection is a key read not only for scholars and students in civil governance and post-soviet transitions, but also aid agencies, foreign governments, and international organisations working with civilsociety groups.

This volume offers perspectives from the general public in post-Soviet Central Asia and reconsiders the meaning and the legacy of Soviet administration in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. This study emphasizes that the way in which people in Central Asia reconcile their Soviet past to a great extent refers to the three-fold process of recollecting their everyday experiences, reflecting on their past from the perspective of their post-Soviet present,  and re-imagining. These three elements influence memories and lead to selectivity in memory construction. This process also emphasizes the aspects of the Soviet era people choose to recall in positive and negative lights. Ultimately, this book demonstrates how Soviet life has influenced the identity and understanding of self among the population in post-Soviet Central Asian states.

This book analyses the Uyghur community, presenting a brief historical background of the Uyghurs and debating the challenges of emerging Uyghur nationalism in the early 20th century. It elaborates on key issues within the community, such as the identity and current state of religion and worship. It also offers a thoughtful and comprehensive analysis of the Uyghur diaspora, addressing the issue of identity politics, the position of the Uyghurs in Central Asia, and the relations of the Uyghurs with Beijing, notably analyzing the 2009 Urumqi clashes and their long term impact on Turkish-Chinese relations. Re-examining Urghur identity through the lens of history, religion and politics, this is a key read for all scholars interested in China, Eurasia and questions of ethnicity and religion.

This volume offers perspectives from the general public in post-Soviet Central Asia and reconsiders the meaning and the legacy of Soviet administration in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. This study emphasizes that the way in which people in Central Asia reconcile their Soviet past to a great extent refers to the three-fold process of recollecting their everyday experiences, reflecting on their past from the perspective of their post-Soviet present,  and re-imagining. These three elements influence memories and lead to selectivity in memory construction. This process also emphasizes the aspects of the Soviet era people choose to recall in positive and negative lights. Ultimately, this book demonstrates how Soviet life has influenced the identity and understanding of self among the population in post-Soviet Central Asian states.

This edited book unpacks the nature of Central Asian migration to East Asia. This book uses the case of Uzbekistan, the most populous country of Central Asia, and demonstrates the migration channels and adaptation strategies of migrants to the realities of Japan. What are the foreign policy engagements of Japan in Central Asia? How do they relate to the intensifying educational mobility and labour migration from Central Asia (in particular, Uzbekistan) to Japan? By answering these two questions, this book aims to detail the social factors that play important roles in localizing foreign policy engagements and narrating them in terms easily understood by the public.

This edited book unpacks the nature of Central Asian migration to East Asia. This book uses the case of Uzbekistan, the most populous country of Central Asia, and demonstrates the migration channels and adaptation strategies of migrants to the realities of Japan. What are the foreign policy engagements of Japan in Central Asia? How do they relate to the intensifying educational mobility and labour migration from Central Asia (in particular, Uzbekistan) to Japan? By answering these two questions, this book aims to detail the social factors that play important roles in localizing foreign policy engagements and narrating them in terms easily understood by the public.

This book joins the discussion on foreign aid triggered by the rise of multiplicity of emerging donors in international development and explores the transformation of Kazakhstan from a recipient country to a development aid provider.Drawing on fieldwork in Nur-Sultan and Almaty (Kazakhstan) between 2016 and 2019, this research evaluates the philosophy and core features of Kazakhstan’s chosen development aid model and explains the factors that account for the construction of aid patterns of Kazakh donorship. This book will be of interest to scholars of Central Asia and the emerging politics of Eurasia as well as scholars of politics and aid.

The book is about the economic practices of traders and businesspeople from the Caucasus and China who work in local bazaars in Tbilisi and Beijing. It describes their activities, their motivations, their socio-cultural backgrounds, their work environments, and their interactions with one another. Contributing to a broader debate on the nature and role of informal economic practices in the post-Soviet periphery and processes of “globalization from below”, the book aims at providing a thick description of the embeddedness of bazaar traders’ economic behaviors and strategies in local and global political, economic, and cultural contexts, markets and supply chains.

The book is about the economic practices of traders and businesspeople from the Caucasus and China who work in local bazaars in Tbilisi and Beijing. It describes their activities, their motivations, their socio-cultural backgrounds, their work environments, and their interactions with one another. Contributing to a broader debate on the nature and role of informal economic practices in the post-Soviet periphery and processes of “globalization from below”, the book aims at providing a thick description of the embeddedness of bazaar traders’ economic behaviors and strategies in local and global political, economic, and cultural contexts, markets and supply chains.

This book offers a new framework for understanding feminism and political activiism in Kyrgyzstan, “nomadity of being. ” Here, foreign information and requirements, even forced ones, are transformed into an amalgamation of the new and the old, alien and native—like kurak, a quilted patchwork blanket, made from scraps. Conceptualizing feminist narratives in Kyrgyzstan, while keeping in mind, the complex relationship between ideological borrowing, actualization, appropriation or self-colonization of “feminist” concepts can expand both scholarly and activist understanding of specificities of post-Soviet feminisms from a historiographic point of view. Kurak-feminism is feminism that is half-donor-commissioned, half-learned through interactions (personal, media, academic, professional), unashamed of its borrowed nature and working toward its own purpose that is being developed as the blanket is being quilted. Weaving in elements from completely different and, to a Western eye, incompatible approaches nomadity of being might pave the way toward a Central Asian reframing of non-Western feminisms. This provocative text will interest scholars of European politics, the post-Soviet sphere, and feminists.

This book offers a new framework for understanding feminism and political activiism in Kyrgyzstan, “nomadity of being. ” Here, foreign information and requirements, even forced ones, are transformed into an amalgamation of the new and the old, alien and native—like kurak, a quilted patchwork blanket, made from scraps. Conceptualizing feminist narratives in Kyrgyzstan, while keeping in mind, the complex relationship between ideological borrowing, actualization, appropriation or self-colonization of “feminist” concepts can expand both scholarly and activist understanding of specificities of post-Soviet feminisms from a historiographic point of view. Kurak-feminism is feminism that is half-donor-commissioned, half-learned through interactions (personal, media, academic, professional), unashamed of its borrowed nature and working toward its own purpose that is being developed as the blanket is being quilted. Weaving in elements from completely different and, to a Western eye, incompatible approaches nomadity of being might pave the way toward a Central Asian reframing of non-Western feminisms. This provocative text will interest scholars of European politics, the post-Soviet sphere, and feminists.

This book explores the dilemmas of Georgian foreign policy since independence in 1991. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia—a Caucasian republic with a fiercely independent national identity—has sought its own special path to European modernity, a promised land of prosperity and peace. Foreign policy has sought to reconcile the dream of European identity with the reality of being a small, post-colonial nation that was governed from Russia for nearly two centuries and remains mired in border conflicts with Russia. In an era when Russian concerns about sovereignty are once again dominating geopolitics, this book interests historians, scholars of imperialism, and scholars of the former Soviet Union and its messy politics.

This book explores the dilemmas of Georgian foreign policy since independence in 1991. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia—a Caucasian republic with a fiercely independent national identity—has sought its own special path to European modernity, a promised land of prosperity and peace. Foreign policy has sought to reconcile the dream of European identity with the reality of being a small, post-colonial nation that was governed from Russia for nearly two centuries and remains mired in border conflicts with Russia. In an era when Russian concerns about sovereignty are once again dominating geopolitics, this book interests historians, scholars of imperialism, and scholars of the former Soviet Union and its messy politics.

This book analyses how security concerns dominated international engagement in higher education reforms in post-Soviet Uzbekistan. Internationalisation of higher education – which entails recruitment of international students and staff, development of joint programs and branch campuses, and other research and education partnerships – has become an indispensable part of higher education worldwide. While most post-Soviet states liberalised their higher education systems shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan chose a peculiar way of developing a national tertiary education system. The authoritarian regime’s politics of ideological compliance during the period of 1991–2016 supplanted the genuine functions of higher education institutions as places of education and research. As a result, Uzbekistan’s higher education system remained largely isolated, although there was a strong demand for alternative, international providers of higher education. The book explains why there was such a cautious approach to internationalisation of the university system in Uzbekistan under President Islam Karimov and how it was implemented. This book will appeal to scholars, historians and political scientists and researchers of Central Asian studies, as well as readers interested in the legacy of post-Soviet governance.

This volume explores emerging patterns of migration from Central Asia to underrepresented destinations such as Australia, Japan, South Korea, Nordic countries, and Türkiye. It critically examines diverse dimensions of mobility—labor migration, student migration, return migration, gendered experiences, diaspora activism, digital media, and host country responses—through empirically grounded and theoretically rich chapters. Drawing on in-depth case studies and fieldwork, this volume contributes to global migration studies while offering unique insights into post-Soviet identity transformations and comparative integration experiences.It also responds to pressing contemporary concerns, including Russian migration to Central Asia post-Ukraine invasion, migration governance during COVID-19, and gender advocacy through digital platforms in authoritarian contexts. The chapters bring together voices from early-career and senior scholars, combining interdisciplinary perspectives from sociology, international relations, political science, anthropology, and media studies.

This book explores the transition from Soviet socialism to the present state of Central Asia's five countries. The role of the of state in regulating the market has been nowhere so topical, yet highly controversial, as in the case of five post-communist Central Asian states (namely, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) since they acquired their independence from the Soviet Union in early 90s. The region’s economic landscape has undergone profound structural changes towards liberalization over the past three decades. However, in none of the regional states economic transition from the command economy to the free-market economy has reached its logical end, and the state retains a colossal interference over the market affairs. This study, detailed and insightful, will attract scholars of the region, journalists, and analysts of geopolitics.