Eurasia's Shifting Geopolitical Tectonic Plates

Eurasia's Shifting Geopolitical Tectonic Plates PDF Author: Alexandros Petersen
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498525512
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
This collection features articles, short studies, and interviews by Alexandros Petersen (1984–2014) and constitutes a broad and prescient examination of Eurasian geopolitics. The author analyzes Western relations with the Caucasus and Central Asia, the expansion of Chinese influence, and Russia strategic interests.

Eurasia's Shifting Geopolitical Tectonic Plates

Eurasia's Shifting Geopolitical Tectonic Plates PDF Author: Alexandros Petersen
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498525512
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
This collection features articles, short studies, and interviews by Alexandros Petersen (1984–2014) and constitutes a broad and prescient examination of Eurasian geopolitics. The author analyzes Western relations with the Caucasus and Central Asia, the expansion of Chinese influence, and Russia strategic interests.

China’s Western Frontier and Eurasia

China’s Western Frontier and Eurasia PDF Author: Zenel Garcia
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000436632
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
China has emerged as a dominant power in Eurasian affairs that not only exercises significant political and economic power, but increasingly, ideational power too. Since the founding of the People’s Republic, Chinese Communist Party leaders have sought to increase state capacity and exercise more effective control over their western frontier through a series of state-building initiatives. Although these initiatives have always incorporated an international component, the collapse of the USSR, increasing globalization, and the party’s professed concerns about terrorism, separatism, and extremism have led to a region-building project in Eurasia. Garcia traces how domestic elite-led narratives about security and development generate state-building initiatives, and then region-building projects. He also assesses how region-building projects are promoted through narratives of the historicity of China’s engagement in Eurasia, the promotion of norms of non-interference, and appeals to mutual development. Finally, he traces the construction of regions through formal and informal institutions as well as integrative infrastructure. By presenting three phases of Chinese domestic state-building and region-building from 1988-present, Garcia shows how region-building projects have enabled China to increase state capacity, control, and development in its western frontier. Recommended for scholars of China’s international relations and development policy.

The Making of Eurasia

The Making of Eurasia PDF Author: Moritz Pieper
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 183860135X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
The Making of Eurasia investigates the multi-layered spectrum of China and Russia's Eurasian policies towards each other, ranging from competition to cooperation, as well as the role of regional actors in between. The book examines the impact of and responses to the dynamic Sino-Russian interaction in the wake of China's Belt and Road initiative, focusing on the selected case studies of Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Uzbekistan, but also on inter-regional implications across the Eurasian space. With China's imprint on inter-regional politics and ambition to make a distinctive Chinese contribution to 'globalization' and Russia's vision of a 'Greater Eurasia' in which Moscow stakes out a place for itself as an indispensable power, other regional actors adopt policies that respond to and co-shape the resulting centrifugal forces. Meanwhile, power shifts are underway on a global plane, as the normative divide between Russia and the West has widened, and as the Sino-American rivalry is intensifying. The book therefore also sheds light on the effects of Eurasian power shifts on global governance in a context where global 'leadership' is contested, and in which the US and Europe are re-defining their relationship not only towards a self-confident China but also towards each other. As such, this study will provide valuable insight for students and scholars of Eurasian Asia Studies, Foreign Policy Analysis, and International Relations at large.

The European Union's Influence in Central Asia

The European Union's Influence in Central Asia PDF Author: Olga Alinda Spaiser
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498542247
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
Unknown yet highly strategic, Central Asia attracts the interest of major global powers due to its vast energy resources and crucial geographic position. Russia, China, and the European Union view this region as an indispensable springboard to enhance their political and economic influence on the Eurasian landmass. Thus, facing strong competition and working on low budget, the EU is attempting to establish itself as a relevant and influential actor in an environment in which its leadership role is far from certain. Unlike in other post-communist regions, the EU is not able to rely on the attractiveness of its political models, and risks being marginalized by other global powers. The crucial question then is: How does the EU exert influence in such a challenging geopolitical context? Which strategies does the EU apply to be an actor who counts? Through an analysis of the EU’s discourse, instruments, and the reception of its policies in Central Asia, this study argues that the EU consciously takes the position of a second-tier actor who acts as a “consultant” and projects a picture of itself as an honest broker with no geopolitical agenda. The EU’s influence is confined to niche domains in the security sphere that are nevertheless important for the regional security. The EU is not a great power in the region nor is it willing to become one. It does, however, have comparative advantages in being perceived as inoffensive and for occupying areas that are neglected by the other actors, such as governance and water security.

The New Geopolitics of the South Caucasus

The New Geopolitics of the South Caucasus PDF Author: Shireen T. Hunter, Research professor at the School of Foreign Service and affiliated with the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498564976
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
This collection examines the social, economic, and political evolution of the South Caucasian states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The contributors analyze the creation of new national identities and value systems, institution-building, and the influence of regional and international actors.

The Dialectics of Post-Soviet Modernity and the Changing Contours of Islamic Discourse in Azerbaijan

The Dialectics of Post-Soviet Modernity and the Changing Contours of Islamic Discourse in Azerbaijan PDF Author: Murad Ismayilov
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498568378
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
Azerbaijan’s independence came after seven decades of militant atheism of Soviet modernization project and emerged into staunch secularism of Western modernity, two factors that, on a par with the country’s precarious neighborhood, promised a sustained indigenous effort towards the desacralization of the country’s political space and the associated exclusion of religion from politics, a modern blueprint that the Azerbaijani state and its society have stood united to diligently follow over the cause of the country’s independent existence. Yet the specific dynamics facing the country in the third decade of independence and the changing contours of its international engagements have gradually been working to set the country free from the stifling grips of Western-style modernity and lay the groundwork for quintessentially and esoterically Azerbaijani pathway of statehood to follow, one combining the nation’s historical embeddedness in an Islamic milieu with its century-old practical experience of modern policy making. This book offers a detailed account of the dynamics behind the religious-secular divide in Azerbaijan over the past two decades of independence and the conditions underlying the ongoing process of normalization of Islamic discourse and the rising cooperation across the country’s secular-religious political landscape and looks into some future dynamics this transformation is set to unleash. It begins with an outline of hybrid intentionality behind the elite’s manifold attitudes to Islam, with particular focus on the strategy of separation between religion and politics in which those attitudes have found expression. It then proceeds to show the complicity of civil society and the broader populace, as well as the international community and the country’s Islamic stratum itself, in the reproduction of the narrative of Islamic danger and the resultant religious-secular divide in post-Soviet Azerbaijan. The study then continues with an account of a number of dialectical tensions inherent in policy outcomes to which the hybrid nature of elite intentionality has given rise. It then follows on to discuss key factors contributing to the ongoing normalization of Islam across the public realm and the gradual bridging of the religious-secular divide amidst the ongoing state repression. The volume concludes with a comparative insight into some common features and conditioning factors behind the dynamics underlying the religious-secular nexus in Azerbaijan and across the broader region of the Middle East. It also offers an insight into some future potentialities that the current dynamics have laid bare.

Turkey's Pivot to Eurasia

Turkey's Pivot to Eurasia PDF Author: Emre Erşen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429665768
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
This book discusses and analyses the dimensions of Turkey’s strategic rapprochement with the Eurasian states and institutions since the deterioration of Ankara’s relations with its traditional NATO allies. Do these developments signify a major strategic reorientation in Turkish foreign policy? Is Eurasia becoming an alternative geopolitical concept to Europe or the West? Or is this ‘pivot to Eurasia’ an instrument of the current Turkish government to obtain greater diplomatic leverage? Engaging with these key questions, the contributors explore the geographical, political, economic, military and social dynamics that influence this process, while addressing the questions that arise from the difficulties in reconciling Ankara’s strategic priorities with those of other Eurasian countries like Russia, China, Iran and India. Chapters focus on the different aspects of Turkey’s improving bilateral relations with the Eurasian states and institutions and consider the possibility of developing a convincing Eurasian alternative for Turkish foreign policy. The book will be useful for researchers in the fields of politics and IR more broadly, and particularly relevant for scholars and students researching Turkish foreign policy and the geopolitics of Eurasia.

State-Building in Kazakhstan

State-Building in Kazakhstan PDF Author: Dina Sharipova
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498540570
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
This study examines informal institutions of reciprocity and their connections to state-building in Kazakhstan. The author analyzes both how these institutions changed over time and how they bridged the transition from the Soviet to post-Soviet periods.

Central Asia in the Era of Sovereignty

Central Asia in the Era of Sovereignty PDF Author: Daniel L. Burghart
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498572677
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 545

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Book Description
After twenty-five years of independence, there is little doubt that the five Central Asian states will persist as sovereign, independent states. They increasingly differ from each other, and are making their way in global politics. No longer connected only to Russia, they are now connected in important ways to Afghanistan, South Asia, China, Iran, and each other. This volume covers a wide range of issues and presents the work of emerging scholars authors well-known for their expertise in the region. The first part addresses social issues. Covering a wide range from HIV/AIDs to social media, the rebirth of Islam, outmigration, and problematic borders, this section follows two main currents: political development in the region and states’ responses to transboundary challenges. The second part, addressing economics and security, provides analyses of new infrastructure, informal economies (from bazaars to criminal networks), energy development, the role of enclaves in the Ferghana Valley, and the development of the states’ military structures. This section illuminates the interactions between economic developments and security, and the forces that could undermine both. The final part, comprised of five case studies, offers a “deeper dive” into a specific factor that matters in the development of each Central Asian state. These cases include Kazakhstan’s foreign policy identity, Kyrgyzstan’s domestic politics, Tajikistan’s pursuit of hydropower, foreign direct investment in Turkmenistan, and the perception of everyday corruption in Uzbekistan.

The End of Eurasia

The End of Eurasia PDF Author: Dmitriĭ Trenin
Publisher: Carnegie Endowment
ISBN: 0870031902
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
Machine generated contents note: Introduction --Part One: A FAREWELL TO THE EMPIRE -- 1. The Spacial Dimension of Russian History -- 2. The Break-Up of the USSR: A Break in Continuity --Part Two: RUSSIA'S THREE FACADES -- 3. The Western Facade -- 4. The Southern Tier -- 5. The Far Eastern Backyard --Part Three: INTEGRATION -- 6. Domestic Boundaries and the Russian Question -- 7. Fitting Russia In --Conclusion: AFTER EURASIA.