|
Showing 1 - 11 of
11 matches in All Departments
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.
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.
This book argues that American and European policies toward Central
Asia and the Caucasus suffer from both conceptual and structural
impediments. It traces the framework of Western policies to the
1975 Helsinki Final Act, which resulted in the stovepiping of
relations into political, economic, and democracy categories - and
in often uncoordinated or contradictory policies. While the authors
embrace the goal of promoting human rights and democracy, they
argue that the antagonistic methods adopted to advance this goal
have proven counter-productive. They propose that Western
governments work with the regional states rather than on or against
them; and that instead of focusing directly on political systems,
policies should focus on developing the quality of governance and
help build institutions that will be building blocks of rule of law
and democracy in the long term. The authors also argue that Western
leaders have largely failed to grasp the significance of this
region, relegated it to a subordinate status and thus damaging
western interests. The development of sovereign, economically
strong, and effectively self-governing states in the Caucasus and
Central Asia is an important goal in its own right; the book
stresses the importance of a region where the development and
preservation of secular statehood could become a model for the
entire Muslim world.
This book argues that American and European policies toward Central
Asia and the Caucasus suffer from both conceptual and structural
impediments. It traces the framework of Western policies to the
1975 Helsinki Final Act, which resulted in the stovepiping of
relations into political, economic, and democracy categories - and
in often uncoordinated or contradictory policies. While the authors
embrace the goal of promoting human rights and democracy, they
argue that the antagonistic methods adopted to advance this goal
have proven counter-productive. They propose that Western
governments work with the regional states rather than on or against
them; and that instead of focusing directly on political systems,
policies should focus on developing the quality of governance and
help build institutions that will be building blocks of rule of law
and democracy in the long term. The authors also argue that Western
leaders have largely failed to grasp the significance of this
region, relegated it to a subordinate status and thus damaging
western interests. The development of sovereign, economically
strong, and effectively self-governing states in the Caucasus and
Central Asia is an important goal in its own right; the book
stresses the importance of a region where the development and
preservation of secular statehood could become a model for the
entire Muslim world.
In the summer of 2008, a conflict that appeared to have begun in
the breakaway Georgian territory of South Ossetia rapidly escalated
to become the most significant crisis in European security in a
decade. The implications of the Russian-Georgian war will be
understood differently depending on one's narrative of what
transpired and perspective on the broader context. This book is
designed to present the facts about the events of August 2008 along
with comprehensive coverage of the background to those events. It
brings together a wealth of expertise on the South Caucasus and
Russian foreign policy, with contributions by Russian, Georgian,
European, and American experts on the region.
In the summer of 2008, a conflict that appeared to have begun in
the breakaway Georgian territory of South Ossetia rapidly escalated
to become the most significant crisis in European security in a
decade. The implications of the Russian-Georgian war will be
understood differently depending on one's narrative of what
transpired and perspective on the broader context. This book is
designed to present the facts about the events of August 2008 along
with comprehensive coverage of the background to those events. It
brings together a wealth of expertise on the South Caucasus and
Russian foreign policy, with contributions by Russian, Georgian,
European, and American experts on the region.
Azerbaijan, a small post-Soviet republic located on the western
shore of the Caspian Sea, has outsized importance becaus of its
strategic location at the corssroads of Europe and Asia, its oil
resources, and
This book frames the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh in the context of European and international
security. It is the first book to focus on the politics of the
conflict rather than the dispute itself. Since their emergence
twenty years ago, this and other "frozen conflicts" of Eurasia have
been affected by transformations in European security, and many
ways absorbed into an ever fiercer geopolitical struggle for
influence. The wars in Georgia and Ukraine brought greater
attention to some unresolved conflicts, but not to the conflict
between Armenia and Azerbaijan. As the contributors to this volume
argue, the conflict merits much greater European attention, for
several reasons: it is on a path of escalation, existing mediation
regimes are dysfunctional, and as both Georgia and Ukraine have
showed, any outbreak of serious fighting will force the EU to
respond. This book thus explains the interlocking interests of
Russia, Turkey, Iran, the EU and United States in the conflict, and
analyzes the negotiation process and the conflict's international
legal aspects.
The attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001,
enhanced the importance of both the Transcaucasus and Central Asia
to American security. Overflight rights through the Caucasus to
Central Asia and Afghanistan are vital components of the ongoing
military effort there by both U.S. and NATO forces. But this region
has multiple conflicts and fault-lines. As multiple recent crises
show, Russo-Georgian tensions connected with South Ossetia and
Abkhazia could erupt into open violence at any time. The author
outlines the possibilities for conflict in this region and the
qualities that make it strategically important, not only for
Washington and Moscow, but also increasingly for Europe.
The attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001,
enhanced the importance of both the South Caucasus and Central Asia
to American security. Overflight rights through the Caucasus to
Central Asia and Afghanistan are vital components of the ongoing
military effort there by both U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) forces. Therefore the security dynamics in each
of these areas are of heightened importance to U.S. policy. But the
Transcaucasus is a region of multiple conflicts and fault-lines.
Three of the four so-called "frozen conflicts" in the former Soviet
Union are to be found there and are not as frozen as they may look.
Indeed, as multiple recent crises show, Russo-Georgian tensions
connected with South Ossetia and Abkhazia-two of the frozen
conflicts-could erupt into open violence at any time.
|
You may like...
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
|