China and India growing interests in Central Asia disrupt the traditional Russian-U.S. "Great Game" at the heart of the old continent. Though for the moment India is unable to equally compete against the Chinese presence in post-Soviet Central Asia, New Delhi is well established in Afghanistan and has begun to cast its eyes more markedly toward the north to the shores of the Caspian Sea. In the years to come, both Asian powers are looking to redeploy their rivalry on the Central Asian and Afghan theaters on a geopolitical, but also political and economic level.

This book looks at how China and India's growing interests in Central Asia disrupt the traditional Russia-U.S. 'Great Game' at the heart of the old continent. In the years to come, both Asian powers are looking to redeploy their rivalry on the Central Asian and Afghan theatres on a geopolitical, but also political and economic level.

This book deconstructs the equation of nationalism with the extreme right in Russia. Nationalism now extends throughout all ofthe countryand can not be seen as a phenomenon confined to the margins of society. This study rejects the interpretation that understands Kremlin-backed patriotism as simply part of a fascist trend in Russia and as a rapprochement between the political authorities and the extreme right. A simplistic analysis of such a paradoxical phenomenon addresses neither the basic issue of social consensus nor that of the inherent relationship between national identity and citizenship.