Bücher der Reihe Contemporary Central Asia: Societies, Politics, and Cultures

This collection is a multidisciplinary examination of modern-day Kazakhstan. It analyzes the country's fast-changing national identity, the current regime's ongoing quest for popular support, relations between the Kazakh majority and the Russian-speaking minorities, and various other issues.

This edited volume explores, analyzes, and sheds light to the field, practice, research, and critical inquiry of media, journalism, and mass communications in four countries in Central Asia-Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

Tajik civil war is defined as a mulit-aspect and multi-level armed conflict, which often takes place after the collapse of empires or during transition from one social order to another. It is also an example of incomplete peace when the end of open violence fails to resolve the conflict-generating factors that brought the country to the civil war.

This collective study of the "Nazarbayev Generation" examines the diversity of Kazakhstan's younger generations. The contributors analyze the transformations of social and cultural norms since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

This collection examines the use of soft power in Central Asia. The contributors examine the use of non-coercive policy objectives by the United States, Russia, China, the European Union, Turkey, and Israel.

This monograph traces the history of Kazakh filmmaking from its conception as a Soviet cultural construction project to its peak as fully-fledged national cinema to its eventual re-imagining as an art-house phenomenon.

This collection provides a broad analysis of Afghanistan and its neighbors in recent decades and investigates the various historical and political contexts into which the region has been placed. It examines the legacy of Soviet intervention, patterns of cooperation and conflict among regional states, and recent US strategic initiatives.

This study examines regional and international security dynamics related to Afghanistan and focuses on the role of foreign troops and the potential effects of a final withdrawal.

This collective study of the "Nazarbayev Generation" examines the diversity of Kazakhstan's younger generations. The contributors analyze the transformations of social and cultural norms since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

This examination of the political, social, and cultural changes of Kyrgyzstan since the collapse of the Soviet Union offers tools to go beyond the country's simplistic dual status of being both an "island of democracy" and a "failing state" to a more nuanced understanding of its own position and its role in the region.

This examination of the political, social, and cultural changes of Kyrgyzstan since the collapse of the Soviet Union offers tools to go beyond the country's simplistic dual status of being both an "island of democracy" and a "failing state" to a more nuanced understanding of its own position and its role in the region.

This collection is a multidisciplinary examination of modern-day Kazakhstan. It analyzes the country's fast-changing national identity, the current regime's ongoing quest for popular support, relations between the Kazakh majority and the Russian-speaking minorities, and various other issues.

In May 1992 political and social tensions in the former Soviet Republic of Tajikistan escalated to a devastating civil war, which killed approximately 40,000-100,000 people and displaced more than one million. The enormous challenge of the Soviet Union's disintegration compounded by inner-elite conflicts, ideological disputes and state failure triggered a downward spiral to one of the worst violent conflicts in the post-Soviet space. This book explains the causes of the Civil War in Tajikistan with a historical narrative recognizing long term structural causes of the conflict originating in the Soviet transformation of Central Asia since the 1920s as well as short-term causes triggered by Perestroika or Glasnost and the rapid dismantling of the Soviet Union. For the first time, a major publication on the Tajik Civil War addresses the many contested events, their sequences and how individuals and groups shaped the dynamics of events or responded to them. The book scrutinizes the role of regionalism, political Islam, masculinities and violent non-state actors in the momentous years between Perestroika and independence drawing on rich autobiographical accounts written by key actors of the unfolding conflict. Paired with complementary sources such as the media coverage and interviews, these autobiographies provide insights how Tajik politicians, field commanders and intellectuals perceived and rationalized the outbreak of the Civil War within the complex context of post-Soviet decolonization, Islamic revival and nationalist renaissance.

This collection provides a broad and multidisciplinary examination of contemporary Tajikistan. The contributors analyze the political regime-its stability, legitimacy mechanisms, and patterns of centralization-as well as various aspects of its social fabric.

This study examines the relationship between the Azerbaijani state and its society in the post-Soviet period. The author analyzes the growing cooperation between secular and religious sectors, the normalization of Islamic discourse, and elite attitudes toward Islam.

This study examines the role of the European Union in Central Asian affairs. The author analyzes the various ways the European Union exerts influence in a region where other global powers have dominant positions and emphasizes the Central Asian states themselves as subjects and actors.

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.

This study examines regional and international security dynamics related to Afghanistan and focuses on the role of foreign troops and the potential effects of a final withdrawal.

This collection provides a broad analysis of Afghanistan and its neighbors in recent decades and investigates the various historical and political contexts into which the region has been placed. It examines the legacy of Soviet intervention, patterns of cooperation and conflict among regional states, and recent US strategic initiatives.

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.