| Description |
1 online resource (400 pages) |
| Contents |
Cover; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Table of Contents; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Peoples on the Great Silk Road; 2. My eastern approaches; 3. Eclectic approaches to diverse reality; 4. The structure of the book; Chapter I Central Asia: Glorious History, Total Eclipse, and the Player of the New Great Games; 1. Empire builders and great intellectuals from Central Asia; 2. Central Asia -- a chessboard of the Anglo-Russian Great Game; 3. Central Asia under the Russian and Soviet Empires; 4. Stalinist national policy and current territorial problems in Central Asia |
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5. Self-determination by default6. Central Asia as Eurasia -- torn between the East and the West; 7. Outsiders on the Central Asian chessboard; a. Muslim neighbours of Central Asia; b. Russia in Central Asia; c. The United States in Central Asia; d. China in Central Asia; e. The Uighur issue in the context of the new Great Games in Central Asia; f. Central Asia as a microcosm of the changing world political structure; Chapter II Central Asia: Struggling with its Historical Legacies; 1. Uses and abuses of history lessons: Genghis Khan and the unity versus disunity debate |
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2. The Soviet legacy in Central Asia3. Reinterpreting Kipling on the shores of Lake Issyk Kul; Chapter III Deserts and Oases, Past and Present: Paradoxes of Closed Societies; 1. Uzbekistan -- past and present; a. Tashkent; b. Bukhara; c. Samarkand; d. Khiva; e. High arts in the middle of nowhere: Karakalpakstan and Savitsky museum; 2. The farce and tragedy of Turkmenistan; Chapter IV The Role of Religion in Central Asian Societies; 1. The pre-Islamic period; 2. Islam in Central Asia; 3. Central Asian empires and religion; 4. Islam of sedentary and nomadic Central Asian peoples |
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5. Islam and secularism in Central Asia6. Religious extremism in Central Asia; 7. Religion and human rights in Central Asia; Chapter V The war against terrorism and Central Asia; 1. 'Flatland' thinking in combating terrorism; 2. Separating terrorism from politics?; 3. Terrorism and faith; 4. Terrorism and human rights; 5. The Andijan tragedy: trying to make sense; Chapter VI Missions civilicatrice in Central Asia: then and now; 1. Mission civilicatrice then; 2. From the 'civilized-non-civilized' to the 'post-modern-pre-modern' divide? |
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3. From mission civilicatrice to bilateral and multilateral human rights diplomacy in Central Asia4. UN human rights diplomacy in Central Asia; Chapter VII Promoting elections while suppressing liberties: the Central Asian way?; 1. Expansion of elections, constriction of liberties?; 2. What are human rights and what are they not?; 3. Individualism, communitarianism, and human rights; 4. Proud democrats and shy liberals; 5. Oil and gas: not only as issues of geopolitics but human rights too; 6. 'Power vertical' versus checks and counterbalances |
| Summary |
This is an important analysis of a key but little-known region, in the wider context of world politics. Central Asia has huge oil and gas resources, divided between five independent states - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - each with their own problems and interests. The region is energy-rich and, being situated between Russia and China and close to Afghanistan and other potential trouble-spots, it has acquired immense geo-strategic importance. History is seen and felt everywhere. Old legacies, whether they go back to Genghis Khan or stem from the recent Sov |
| Notes |
7. Enlightened autocracy versus inept democracy or unstable coalitions? |
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Print version record |
| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9781317792536 |
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131779253X |
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