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The Russia–Ukraine War and its Implications for Central Asia: Resilience, Connectivity, and Decolonization embarks on a comprehensive exploration of the profound impacts of the Ukraine conflict on Central Asia, viewed through the prism of the region's scholars. This book assesses the geopolitical transformation, economic shifts, and the evolving narratives of national and regional identities, underpinned by thirty years of nation-building and current socio-economic realities. This collection critically navigates between the dual forces of emerging expectations for change, decolonization, and the strong undercurrents of path dependence and local socio-economic constraints. Furthermore, it p...
This handbook-style edited volume discusses historical, but predominantly current political, economic, and societal trends in Central Asia comprising Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The five countries exhibit many cultural and historical commonalities and face similar internal and external challenges. Despite different transformation paths and frequent intra-regional tensions, a common regional identity has emerged in the countries since gaining their independence in 1991. Besides covering their political systems, a variety of topics such as human rights, media, terrorism, and civil society are addressed. As well, bilateral relations with seven external actors are examined. Lastly, the authors explore the opportunities and limitations of institutionalized regional cooperation in various fields of action.
Thirty years after Bulgaria’s democratic breakthrough, this book provides a “balance sheet” of the country’s democratic institutions through a number of interdisciplinary contributions. The volume is organized around three themes—democratic institutions, civil society, and European Union (EU) processes—and examines such topics such as voting, political parties, populism, media, civil society organizations, identity, and the rule of law. While the contributors argue that Bulgaria’s democracy is successful in terms of the procedural norms of democracy, civic participation, and compliance with EU rules, they also identify serious problem areas. Bulgaria’s democratic institutions struggle with obstacles such as populist Euroscepticism, political elitism, corruption, and a lack of political accountability, though this volume fully acknowledges the historical development of Bulgarian democracy, including its achievements and continuing setbacks.
The Caucasus region and Central Asia covers a large part of the Eurasian. Both regions, where Russia and China have a serious influence and visibility, also have a location that reflects the hegemonic expectations of both these actors. In this context, domestic political developments and even internal conflicts in the region can be linked to the policies of Russia and China to a certain extent and have the potential to affect the motives of these two powers. Although Central Asia is rich in natural resources, it is landlocked and has lagged other nations in terms of agricultural production and industrial development. Although the Caucasus is divided into the North, the territory of Russia, and the South, where three independent states are located, it is insufficient in terms of production and development. The Caucasus stands out especially with energy projects and its feature of being a commercial corridor.
Putin's Propaganda Machine examines Russia’s “information war,” one of the most striking features of its intervention in Ukraine. Marcel H. Van Herpen argues that the Kremlin’s propaganda offensive is a carefully prepared strategy, implemented and tested over the last decade. Initially intended as a tool to enhance Russia’s soft power, it quickly developed into one of the main instruments of Russia’s new imperialism, reminiscent of the height of the Cold War. The author describes a multifaceted strategy that makes use of diverse instruments, including mimicking Western public diplomacy initiatives, hiring Western public-relations firms, setting up front organizations, buying West...
This collection provides a broad analysis of social, political, economic, and security issues in contemporary Central Asia. In particular, the contributors highlight the differences and similarities among the region's states in how they have consolidated statehood since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Neoliberal economic theories are powerful because their domestic translators make them go local, hybridizing global scripts with local ideas. This does not mean that all local translations shape policy, however. External constraints and translators' access to cohesive policy institutions filter what kind of neoliberal hybrids become policy reality. By comparing the moderate neoliberalism that prevails in Spain with the more radical one that shapes policy thinking in Romania, Ruling Ideas explains why neoliberal hybrids take the forms that they do and how they survive crises. Cornel Ban contributes to the literature by showing that these different varieties of neoliberalism depend on what com...
The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Central Asia offers the first comprehensive, cross-disciplinary overview of key issues in Central Asian studies. The 30 chapters by leading and emerging scholars summarise major findings in the field and highlight long-term trends, recent observations and future developments in the region. The handbook features case studies of all five Central Asian republics and is organised thematically in seven sections: History Politics Geography International Relations Political Economy Society and Culture Religion An essential cross-disciplinary reference work, the handbook offers an accessible and easyto- understand guide to the core issues permeating the region ...
Since the 1990s, the 'true knowledge' on Central Asia has been embedded in the 'five stans' (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) spatial discourse. This book argues that, in international relations, this 'five stans' spatial discourse determines the conceptual boundaries of Central Asia. The book asserts that the 'five stans' spatial discourse is territorially trapped; hence it is limited to explain the political and economic processes taking place 'on the ground' in the region. Through a re-reading of the 'five stans' discourse, the book introduces an alternative methodology, drawing upon Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory. (Series: International Politics / Internationale Politik - Vol. 21) [Subject: Asian Studies, International Relations, Politics]
Trends in institutional partnership in higher education have shown tremendous growth in the past three decades. These trends are manifested through the growing initiatives of joint programs that promote collaborative research, academic mobility, joint curriculum development and course delivery, joint bidding for development projects and benchmarking. Partnerships in higher education have been used not only as an instrument for institutional development through a wide range of strategic alliances but also as an essential way of introducing new voices to the operations of the universities by initiating new paradigms that bring new perspectives and bear competitive advantage on the partners. As...