Theorizing Central Asian Politics

Theorizing Central Asian Politics PDF Author: Rico Isaacs
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 331997355X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
This book brings together a series of innovative contributions which provide an eclectic view of how theorizing politics plays out in Central Asia. How are the concepts of governance, legitimacy, ideology, power, order, and the state framed in the region? How can we use the experiences of the Central Asian states to renovate political theorizing? In addressing these questions, the volume relies on the contributions of many young and local researchers, whose chapters are primed to address three key themes: exploring models of governance, revealing ideological justifications, and reframing state and order. Utilizing a range of single and comparative case studies from across the Central Asian space, this illuminating and original volume opens up a new space for political theorists, regional specialists and students of politics to begin reconsidering how we approach the theorization of regions of the world assumed to be on the periphery.

Theorizing Central Asian Politics

Theorizing Central Asian Politics PDF Author: Rico Isaacs
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 331997355X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book brings together a series of innovative contributions which provide an eclectic view of how theorizing politics plays out in Central Asia. How are the concepts of governance, legitimacy, ideology, power, order, and the state framed in the region? How can we use the experiences of the Central Asian states to renovate political theorizing? In addressing these questions, the volume relies on the contributions of many young and local researchers, whose chapters are primed to address three key themes: exploring models of governance, revealing ideological justifications, and reframing state and order. Utilizing a range of single and comparative case studies from across the Central Asian space, this illuminating and original volume opens up a new space for political theorists, regional specialists and students of politics to begin reconsidering how we approach the theorization of regions of the world assumed to be on the periphery.

Clan Politics and Regime Transition in Central Asia

Clan Politics and Regime Transition in Central Asia PDF Author: Kathleen Collins
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 113946177X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 15

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Book Description
This book is a study of the role of clan networks in Central Asia from the early twentieth century through 2004. Exploring the social, economic, and historical roots of clans, and their political role and political transformation in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, it argues that clans are informal political actors that are critical to understanding politics in this region. The book demonstrates that the Soviet system was far less successful in transforming and controlling Central Asian society, and in its policy of eradicating clan identities, than has often been assumed. In order to understand Central Asian politics and their economies, scholars and policy makers must take into account the powerful role of these informal groups, how they adapt and change over time, and how they may constrain or undermine democratization in this strategic region.

Uzbekistan's New Face

Uzbekistan's New Face PDF Author: S. Frederick Starr
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538124769
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Uzbekistan, long considered the center of Central Asia, has the region’s largest population and borders every other regional state including Afghanistan. For the first 25 years of its independence, it adopted a cautious, defensive policy that emphasized sovereignty and treated regional efforts at cooperation with skepticism. But after taking over as President in autumn 2016, Shavkat Mirziyoyev launched a breathtaking series of reform initiatives. His slogan – “it is high time the government serves the people, not vice versa” – led to large-scale reforms in virtually every sector. Time will tell whether the reform effort will succeed, but its first positive fruits are already visible, particularly in a new dynamism within Uzbek society, as well as a fresh approach to foreign relations, where a new spirit of regionalism is taking root. This book is the first systematic effort to analyze Uzbekistan’s reforms.

The New Central Asia

The New Central Asia PDF Author: Emilian Kavalski
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814287563
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
This book focuses on Central Asia's place in world affairs and how international politics of state-building has affected the Asian region, thus filling the gaps in ongoing discussions on the rise of Asia in global governance. It also attempts to generalize and contextualize the "Central Asian experience" and re-evaluate its comparative relevance, by explaining the complex dynamics of Central Asian politics through a detailed analysis of the effects of major international actors -- both international organizations as well as current and rising great powers.--Publisher's description.

Networked Regionalism as Conflict Management

Networked Regionalism as Conflict Management PDF Author: Anna Ohanyan
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804794944
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
Most regions of the world are plagued by conflicts that are made insoluble by a confluence of complex threads from history, geography, politics, and culture. These "frozen conflicts" defy conflict management interventions by both internal and external agents and institutions. Worse, they constantly threaten to extend beyond their local geographies, as in the terrorist bombings in Boston by ethnic Chechens, or to escalate from skirmishes to full-scale war, as in Nagorno-Karabakh. Consequently, such conflicts cry out for alternative approaches to the classic, state-focused, and sovereignty-based conflict management models that are practiced in traditional diplomacy—which most often produce rather short-term, ad hoc, fragmented interventions and outcomes. Drawing upon the cases of the South Caucasus, the Western Balkans, Central America, South East Asia, and Northern Ireland, Networked Regionalism as Conflict Management offers a theoretical and practical solution to this impasse by arguing for regional collective interventions that involve a long-term reengineering of existing conflict management infrastructure on the ground. Such approaches have been attracting the attention of scholars and practitioners alike yet, thus far, these concepts have rarely involved more than simple prescriptions for regional cooperation between grassroots actors and traditional diplomacy. Specifically, says Anna Ohanyan, only the cultivation and establishment of regional peace systems can provide an effective path toward conflict management in these standoffs in such intractably divided regions.

Boundary Issues in Central Asia

Boundary Issues in Central Asia PDF Author: Necati Polat
Publisher: Brill Nijhoff
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
To Polat (international law and politics, Middle East Technical U., Ankara, Turkey), Central Asia extends from the Caspian Sea in the west to China in the east; and from Siberian Russia in the north to Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan in the south. He combines perspectives from international law, international politics, and political geography to examine issues regarding borders between the states created by or after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Among these issues are the legal framework, the degree of contentment with existing frontiers, the legacy of Soviet border disputes with China, and transboundary bodies of water. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Political Economy of Reform in Central Asia

The Political Economy of Reform in Central Asia PDF Author: Martin C. Spechler
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135973156
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
This book examines the economic reforms and material progress made since the Central Asian republics became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. Without some of the neo-liberal reforms recommended by the "Washington Consensus" and with an authoritarian presidency, Uzbekistan, the largest of these countries, has nevertheless achieved modest economic growth, stability, and a relatively impressive degree of income equality. The country has also preserved its economic and political independence from the great powers — Russia, China, and the USA — who are rivals for influence and energy in Central Asia. Human rights have been poorly enforced, though occasional thaws have also taken place. In second half of the book features a comparative analysis of four Central Asian states, all super-presidential authoritarianisms but with very different resource endowments and external commitments. A separate chapter deals with the energy resources of the region and the challenges of bringing oil and gas to the world market, and the question of whether Central Asian states will return to the Russian sphere of influence or seek closer ties with Asia or Europe is examined. The book concludes with prospects for future political and economic progress in the key Central Asian states.

Initiatives of Regional Integration in Asia in Comparative Perspective

Initiatives of Regional Integration in Asia in Comparative Perspective PDF Author: Howard Loewen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9402412115
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
This volume offers to compare and explain variances of regionalism in Asia by disclosing the distinctive features of regional arrangements and how they evolved during the 1990s and 2000s against the background of a changing global environment. Moreover, it takes up a genuinely ‘inter-Asian’ perspective. By analysing and comparing diverse manifestations of regional integration agreements across Asia and its different sub-regions, it sets out to track their common characteristics and sub-regional facets with respect to their establishment, design and consequences. In addition, political processes accompanying their negotiation and implementation are scrutinized. The analysis encompasses nine case studies written by renowned scholars who together as a group combine an extraordinary mixture of different disciplinary backgrounds as well as expertise on shapes and processes of regional integration in different parts of Asia. The case studies seize on some of the most important features and controversial issues characterizing the second regionalism. Such are the emergence and impact of overlapping FTAs, regional financial and sub-regional economic integration and cooperation, power and the politics of regional integration as well as the nexus between conflict resolution, state failure and regional integration.

Asian Regionalism and Japan

Asian Regionalism and Japan PDF Author: Shintaro Hamanaka
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135181187
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Explores the nature of regionalism by conducting a comprehensive analysis of over 30 regionalist proposals made by Japan and other Asian countries throughout the post-war period. The case studies go beyond an understanding of each regionalist project, providing a deeper understanding of the behavior patterns of Japan and other countries.

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism PDF Author: Tanja A. Börzel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199682305
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 705

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Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism - the first of its kind - offers a systematic and wide-ranging survey of the scholarship on regionalism, regionalization, and regional governance. Unpacking the major debates, leading authors of the field synthesize the state of the art, provide a guide to the comparative study of regionalism, and identify future avenues of research. Twenty-seven chapters review the theoretical and empirical scholarship with regard to the emergence of regionalism, the institutional design of regional organizations and issue-specific governance, as well as the effects of regionalism and its relationship with processes of regionalization. The authors explore theories of cooperation, integration, and diffusion explaining the rise and the different forms of regionalism. The handbook also discusses the state of the art on the world regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Eurasia, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Various chapters survey the literature on regional governance in major issue areas such as security and peace, trade and finance, environment, migration, social and gender policies, as well as democracy and human rights. Finally, the handbook engages in cross-regional comparisons with regard to institutional design, dispute settlement, identities and communities, legitimacy and democracy, as well as inter- and transregionalism.