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The difficulty of building long-lasting peace and comprehensive security in societies emerging from conflict and external rule seems to be particularly pronounced in the peripheries of the former Soviet Union and its sphere of influence. Conceptualising Central Asia's post-imperial condition As stated above, the key idea behind conceptualising Central Asia as a post-imperial space is to build up on and extend previous debates on the nature of the Soviet regime in this region, and also on post-colonial debates in critical security studies and social science more generally. As a final contribution that further systematises and situates this argument, Thorsten Bonacker and Philipp Lottholz unpack the politics of security and depoliticisation in the context of violent conflicts across the four states of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. [Extracted from the article]

The Kazakhs, Turkmens, Tajiks, Qaraqalpaqs, Uyghurs and Uzbeks in Central Asia share some distinct sacred lineages - Sayyids and Xojas - some of which appear in two or more of these ethnic groups. In the article, I will analyse some data on the history and identity of Islamic sacred lineages of Samarqand, compiled during ethnographic research of the population and archival materials. I will analyse the stories of the representatives of sacred families about their past, as well as published narratives. The analysis of the sources shows that despite the preservation of the historical family library, a secularised society and the Sovietera education influenced the views and the identity of sacred families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article lists the different persons who contributed to the December 2014 issue of the periodical including Marianne Kamp the book review editor, Raphael Jacquet, the editorial manager, and Sergei Abashin, a member of the international advisory board.

This article provides an introduction to one of the lesser-known examples of European settler colonialism, the settlement of European (mainly Russian and Ukrainian) peasants in Southern Central Asia (Turkestan) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It establishes the legal background and demographic impact of peasant settlement, and the role played by the state in organising and encouraging it. It explores official attitudes towards the settlers (which were often very negative), and their relations with the local Kazakh and Kyrgyz population. The article adopts a comparative framework, looking at Turkestan alongside Algeria and Southern Africa, and seeking to establish whether paradigms developed in the study of other settler societies (such as the ‘poor white’) are of any relevance in understanding Slavic peasant settlement in Turkestan. It concludes that there are many close parallels with European settlement in other regions with large indigenous populations, but that racial ideology played a much less important role in the Russian case compared to religious divisions and fears of cultural backsliding. This did not prevent relations between settlers and the ‘native’ population deteriorating markedly in the years before the First World War, resulting in large-scale rebellion in 1916. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A list of the editors and editorial board members of "Central Asian Survey" is presented which includes editor Deniz Kandiyoti, editorial manager Raphael Jacquet, and book review editor Nick Megoran.

Turkish foreign policy has experienced massive alterations after the end of Cold War. This has been most evident in Turkey's relations with Turkic nations in Central Asia and the Caucasus, all of which gained independence from the USSR. This article aims to provide a thorough analysis on this issue. First, the article explores the ethnicity concept and applies it to the relations between Turkey and Turkic nations. Then, it examines Turkey's relations with other regional and international powers, namely Russia, the USA, and Iran, through the lenses of Central Asia and the Caucasia. Finally, the article questions the often monolithic view of Turkic nations in the eyes of the Turkish public and delves into the rich yet diverse bilateral relations between Turkey and each Turkic state. To this end, it analyzes Turkey's political, economic, and cultural ties with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Carefully going over all of these subjects, the article intends to illustrate the multifaceted nature of Turkey's relations with Turkic nations and the prospects and obstacles ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article introduces reports published within the issue including one by Eliza Isabaeva on migration in southern Kyrgyzstan, another by Judith Beyer on socio-spatial transformation in northern Kyrgyzstan, and one by Ian Campbell on the Shcherbina Expedition of 1896-1903.

Western geopolitical discourse misrepresents and constructs Central Asia as an inherently and essentially dangerous place. This pervasive 'discourse of danger' obscures knowledge of the region, deforms scholarship and, because it has policy implications, actually endangers Central Asia. This article identifies how the region is made knowable to a US-UK audience through three mutually reinforcing dimensions of endangerment: Central Asia as obscure, oriental, and fractious. This is evidenced in the writings of conflict resolution and security analysts, the practices of governments, the activities of international aid agencies and numerous lurid films, documentaries and novels. The article first establishes the tradition of inscribing danger to Central Asia, in both academic and policy discourse, from the colonial experience of the nineteenth century through to the post-Soviet transition and subsequent considerations of the region in terms of the war on terror. It considers several examples of this discourse of danger including the popular US TV drama about presidential politics, The West Wing, the policy texts of 'Washingtonian security analysis' and accounts of danger, insecurity and urban violence in the Ferghana Valley. It is argued that popular policy and academic texts are relatively consistent across the three dimensions of endangerment. This argument is demonstrated through a discussion of how policy-making and practice is informed by this discourse of danger and of how the discourse of danger is contested within the region. The example of urban violence in Osh, Kyrgyzstan and Jalalabad, Afghanistan in 2010 demonstrates how opportunities to mitigate conflict may have been lost due to the distortions of this discourse of danger. It concludes by raising the challenge to policy-makers, journalists and academics to contest this western geopolitical discourse and provide better accounts of how danger is experienced by Central Asians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Thou hast done well: This is God Who hath brought thee here!' Isan Tīmur Hwaja (born 1948) to the author, summer village of Sang-i Milla-yi Bala, district of Sahr-i Naw, Tajikistan, 10 August 2009 On the basis of a reconstruction of the careers of a variety of religious personnel of Islam in the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, from de-Stalinization to independence, this article aims to shed light on some neglected features of Islam in Soviet Central Asia. Questioning the present-day hagiographic process, and confronting the data of oral history with those of pre-modern Muslim hagiography and biographies of religious scholars, this article assesses the specific Islamic revival that has been taking place in Central Asia in the aftermath of the reopening of the Gulag in 1955-56. It also deals with the lasting Kulturkampf, engineered by the Soviet authorities, between the Fergana-born Uzbek-speaking accredited staff of the Muslim Spiritual Board on the one hand, and the Persian-speaking leaders of prominent Sufi lineages with Bukhara and Samarqand pedigrees on the other. The role of mass population transfers in this phenomenon is evoked through their impact on the disruption of the Sufi masters' sacred 'territories' (Persian: qalamraw), and the increasing role of the latter as community builders. Acting as alternative figures to pre-modern khans, the Soviet saints of Islam, who have become the objects of a rich hagiographic process, are also introduced as the bearers and transmitters of pre-modern court culture that vanished from Central Asia in the early 1920s. Special consideration is given to the mutual relationship and competition between the scholars ('ulama) of the Spiritual Board and the gnostics ('urafa) of the Sufi paths, as well as to the former's contribution to a revival of Turkic Islamic culture - notably through the comment of Chaghatay didactical literature within active, though underground, literary circles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes political symbolism in Central Asia. It focuses on the aftermath of Soviet communism, and the transition to nationalistic and authoritarian political discourse. The theoretical aspects of signification are discussed in terms of semiotics, and the views of authors such as Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida are cited. The localization of power in elites, and the symbolic representations of this social dynamic in countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are also discussed.

This article examines the place of interethnic intimacy in post-Stalinist discourse and policy on nationality and modernity in Central Asia. Soviet theorists deemed marriages between Central Asian Muslims and Europeans to be an important force for 'modernizing' Central Asia and bringing this historically 'backward' region into the Soviet mainstream. Because mixed marriage was thought to promote gender equality, the discourse of intermarriage was closely linked to Soviet policies of female emancipation. Rising rates of mixed marriage were also considered evidence of progress in the consolidation of a unified 'Soviet people', whose imminent appearance became an article of faith in the Khrushchev and Brezhnev years. However, the twin goals of intermarriage—modernization and ethnic assimilation—were undermined by the increasing institutionalization and primordialization of ethnic identities in the post-war Soviet Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates early Soviet policies regarding the institution of waqf (charitable endowment) in Turkestan, questioning the issue of the post-colonial character of the early Soviet administration. After taking into consideration practices related to waqf management in modern Muslim states and European colonial empires, the paper briefly describes the tsarist administrative approach to the issue. We then address the ambiguity inherent in Soviet policies on waqf requisition and restitution during Civil War years. In the section that follows we deal with different groups of Muslim intellectuals that attempted to use the Soviet state in their mutual struggle over authority in Central Asian society and describe the creation and functioning of the bureaucracies responsible for managing waqf. Finally, we outline some provisional conclusions on the legacy of tsarist colonialism for Soviet power in Central Asia and the role played by progressive Muslim intellectuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Providing a critique of alarmist discussions of the danger of ethnic conflict in Kyrgyzstan, and the positivist epistemological assumptions and research practices that underpin them, this article develops an approach to researching ‘ethnicity’ and ‘ethnic conflict’ through the use of focus groups. Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in southern Kyrgyzstan expressed similar views about the closures of international boundaries, framed in terms of ethnicity. However, this was not an essentialist notion, but rather a concept of authentic ‘Uzbekness’ or ‘Kyrgyzness’ predicated primarily on the performance of endogenous kinship practices and Muslim/Soviet notions of class morality, nuanced by geography. These overlaps and discrepancies provide resources for those wishing to articulate visions of future social formations wider than the range of options currently propagated by ethnic entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Post-Soviet Nationalism, Ethnos Theory, and Constructivist Critique. Modern political scholars and leaders of Central Asia brought in the Soviet tradition employ the logic and terminology of the Ethnos Theory to formulate national ideology and modern nation states. Alisher Ilkhamov discussed this in his article "Archaeology of Uzbek Identity."

In the former Soviet states of Central Asia, Afghanistan and its neighboring countries, and the in the Great Lakes region of Africa, conflicts have been organized around cultural identities. These identities, however, are not sub-national but transnational. They have linked groups within a state to trans-border networks that have participated in both contemporary global markets and warfare, as elements of regional conflict formations. The latter involve both non-state actors and states engaged in asymmetrical or covert warfare. Since identities constitute transnational networks, as well as sub-state collectivities, the set of policies to reduce conflict among identity groups and promote peaceful cultural diversity has to include regional and global as well as national policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author focuses on the significance of Islam and Turanian in the context of nation building in Central Asia, particularly Uzbekistan. He theorizes that Islam and Turanian are used for constructing and imagining both national and transnational concepts of identity. The author discusses translocality, defining it as a milieu in which forms of social life and political articulation related to the construction of the nation state are created. He discusses a number of topics including Uzbek-Turkish translocality, trade in Central Asia, language and culture, and Islam in the region.

Presents discussions concerning political activities in Central Asia. Methods of maintaining state control of regimes; International economic policies; Details on anti-terrorism strategies.