scholarly journals A Passage to India: Rhetoric and Diplomacy between Muscovy and Central Asia in the Seventeenth Century

Itinerario ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 502-527
Author(s):  
Ulfat Abdurasulov
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Rhetorical Device ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
The Face ◽  
Fact Finding ◽  
Large Scale Project

AbstractIt is broadly assumed that attempts by the Russian state of Muscovy to establish stable diplomatic and mercantile channels to India via Central Asia were started upon the initiative of the Emperor Peter I (1682–1725). Such attempts are generally interpreted as being part of a large-scale project that reflected the growing imperial and colonial ambitions of Russia and which, in turn, entailed strong antagonism from the ruling elites of Central Asia, thereby setting a tone for relations that would continue for the next century and more of reciprocal relations between the local principalities and Russia. By exploring chancellery documents from seventeenth-century Muscovy, we find that the first diplomatic communications between Russia, Khiva, and Bukhara can in fact be dated to long before the reign of Peter I. The first Romanov tsars sought to initiate exchanges with Khiva and Bukhara as a means of establishing diplomatic and commercial ties with the Mughal emperors; at the same time, meanwhile, the authorities in Khiva and Bukhara had their own reasons for pushing Muscovy to engage with Central Asia as a conduit to India. Over the course of the seventeenth century, Central Asian diplomats went to great lengths—both in diplomatic correspondence and through direct interpersonal contacts—to convince their Russian counterparts of the region's attractiveness as a source of precious Indian commodities and as a logistically convenient passage to India. Despite such rhetoric, however, the authorities in Khiva and Bukhara were in fact highly reluctant to “open” the region to Russian agents: repeated attempts by Muscovy to engage in diplomatic fact-finding as a means of establishing influence in the region invariably foundered in the face of Central Asian resistance. Bukharan and Khivan circles seem, in fact, to have held out the enticing idea of “a passage to India” simply as a rhetorical device to secure recognition in Muscovy for their own diplomatic and mercantile missions.

scholarly journals Crisis phenomena in Central Asian direction development of Russian foreign trade in the Orenburg direction in the 1st quarter of the 19th century

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-135
Author(s):  
Sergey Valentinovich Lyubichankovskiy
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Trade ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Orenburg Region ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Special Rules ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The 19Th Century

The paper contains analysis of development tendencies of the Russian Empire foreign trade with Central Asian khanates in the first quarter of the 19th century. The authors found that the Russian State didnt pay much attention to the Asian customs policy in this direction for a long time. It was due to the fact that the trade with Central Asian khanates was of exchange and caravan character. The author came to the conclusion that the heads of the Orenburg Region - military and civil governors - made great efforts to change that situation and made special rules for the foreign trade development in the Orenburg Region. It promoted commodity turnover increase. The author proved that in the first quarter of the 19th century the most important element of Central Asian trade development crisis in the Orenburg direction was the fact that merchants from Central Asia dominated Russian merchants in the numerical ratio. However, the ministry of finance and E.F. Kankrin refused to forbid Central Asian merchants to trade at internal Russian fairs as it would result in stagnation in trade and would make prices for goods higher. This problem for the first quarter of the 19th century couldnt be solved as it was connected with the geopolitical status quo existing in the region. It only started to get solutions with an active military advance of Russia to Central Asia in the second half of the 19th century.

Charting the Course of Uyghur Unrest

2011 ◽  
Vol 208 ◽  
pp. 893-912 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin V. Hastings
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Difficult Time ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Central Asian Countries ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Difficult Terrain

AbstractWhat explains the course of Uyghur-related violence in Xinjiang and Central Asia since 1990? Using data derived from a variety of sources, I argue that the locations and types of violent incidents were influenced by a combination of Chinese government policies and the political geography of Xinjiang. Specifically, 1990 to 1996 were dominated by logistically complex incidents in a low-level violent campaign in Xinjiang. The Strike Hard campaign in 1996 brought about an increase in logistically simple incidents in Xinjiang and some violence in Central Asia as Uyghur separatists had trouble moving people, information and weapons across the well-guarded, difficult terrain of Xinjiang's borders. China's rapprochement with Central Asian countries in the late 1990s led after 2001 to a dramatic decrease in Uyghur-related violence in general, but also signalled the appearance of logistically creative attacks that required little planning or materials. My findings suggest that Uyghur rebels will have a difficult time mounting a large-scale violent campaign as long as China retains even minimal control of Xinjiang.

History of the Central Asian commercial bank (1881−1911)

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (12-2) ◽  
pp. 215-222
Author(s):  
Bakhtiyor Alimdjanov ◽  
Shokhrukh Choriev ◽  
Timur Ivanov
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Commercial Bank ◽  
Russian Army ◽  
Historical Archive ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Russian State ◽  
General Government ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
First Time

In the article, on the basis of documents of the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA) that have not been previously introduced into scientific circulation, the activities of N. I. Ivanov, a famous merchant of the second half of the 19th century in the Turkestan General Government, which became rich on military supplies to the Russian army during the period of conquests in Central Asia is given. For the first time in Russian historiography, the functioning of the Central Asian Commercial Bank (1881-1911) - the first commercial bank in Russian Turkestan, founded by N. I. Ivanov. The activity of private financial institutions in Central Asia is analyzed.

scholarly journals Building a Higher Education Area in Central Asia: challenges and prospects

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Katherine Isaacs
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Student Mobility ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Potential Region ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Generic Competences

In recent years, for a variety of reasons, higher education has begun to be considered much more frequently than previously in terms of ‘regions’, or ‘macro-regions’. Although for decades countries sharing some characteristics, or perceived as geographically or culturally closely related to each other, have promoted forms of cooperation between their higher education institutions (with varying degrees of success), it is now widely accepted that to ‘count’ on the world stage, it is useful for single countries, and especially for smaller countries, to work together with a view to making their systems better able to interact and hopefully to promote, increase and make visible their merits. Of course, in higher education as in many other fields, the regions or macro-regions are not defined once and for all, but are the result of stronger or weaker ad hoc groupings which take into account different factors in different contexts. Central Asia is one such potential region: it does not have unquestioned boundaries, but like other macro-regions, and more so than most, it can be understood and constructed in different ways. A current shared understanding of ‘Central Asia’ is that it is formed by the 4 ex-Soviet Republics of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), plus Kazakhstan. Over the last decade the possibility of building a Higher Education Area in those five republics has been explored, and a large-scale project which uses Tuning methodology to this end is under way. This project, called TuCAHEA (“Towards a Central Asian Higher Education Area: Tuning Structures and Building Quality Culture”), has already elaborated a Central Asian list of Generic Competences and eight Subject Area Groups have formulated their Reference Points and Guidelines. The five Ministries of the five countries have signed a Communiqué indicating their intention to collaborate more closely; a pilot student mobility scheme is soon to start. This article explores the Central Asian experience as an example of the construction of a Higher Education area in Asia, and looks at what the future appears to promise, in terms both of challenges and of positive developments.

scholarly journals Uprising Nuances: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan´s Social Mobilizations and Order Maintenance

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guilherme Moreira Leite de Mello
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Social Mobilization ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
Central Asian Countries ◽  
To Come ◽  
Political Economic

Social mobilization in Central Asia comes in a rare form, alongside political, economic, social and ethnical overtones, aligned with post-Sovietic difficulties and dependencies. Although standing as independent nations, economic instabilities, political insurgencies and social inequalities are triggering circumstances of uprisings in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgystan. As countries still struggling to sustain and perpetrate democratic values, social mobilization resurface as a tool to establish political change. However, although understanding that the range of protests are regional and do not offer its nations a challenge concerning national security, the casualties and government accommodations were not as peaceful and organized as it was expected. The participation of the international community, specially playing a role in cooperating and co-opting with Central Asian insurgencies, is a crucial for the understanding of these protests as a way of its population to come in aid of their own political standards and voicing their grievances towards its ruling elites. Nevertheless, the necessity of social mobilization in Central Asian countries arrive in a time and place where its political standards can do no longer curb its dependencies and sufficiently generates instabilities that are most certainly, critical.Key-Words: International relations, Central Asia, social mobilization, political instability.

scholarly journals Russian-Central Asian Relations in the Works of Modern French Researchers

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 979-995
Author(s):  
Rafael A. Arslanov ◽  
Elizaveta D. Trifonova
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Great Part ◽  
Russian Foreign Policy ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
The One ◽  
Annales School ◽  
Great Game ◽  
Active Return

The article examines the views of modern French researchers on the relations between Russia and the post-Soviet republics of Central Asia. This allows us to identify various interpretations of Russian foreign policy, and to understand the main approaches of French scholars analyzing the goals and tasks of Russian geostrategy in the region. As the article demonstrates, French historiography, along with the objectivist view on the Central Asian vector in Russian foreign policy, also includes works of ideological nature. Special emphasis is put on French works that focus on Russian political authors who speak of Russias neo-imperialism. These studies explain the Russian policy in Central Asia through the ruling elites ambition to resurrect an empire in the post-Soviet space and to return superpower status to Russia. Of special interest is the position of authors who try to explain the Russian attitude to the Central Asian region as, on the one hand, an expression of nostalgic feelings harbored by a great part of the population about the nations former greatness, assuming that these feelings have an impact on the leaderships policies, and on the other hand, as the Russian leaderships attempt to use Russias active return to the international arena for the consolidation and self-identification of society. It is observed that some French authors speak of a New Great Game. This very popular concept considers the actions of Russia and other powers operating in the region (USA and China) as a continuation of the historical rivalry between the Russian and British empires in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Russian authors have always been interested in French historiography; this is due to the latters scientific prestige and objectivity, and in particular its application of methodologies that further develop the tradition of the Annales School. At the same time, the growing French scholarship on the issue of Russia and post-Soviet Central Asian republics has not yet been subject to close and complex consideration, which defines the novelty of the article.

China’s Belt and Road Projects in Central Asia

2021 ◽  
pp. 231971452110424
Author(s):  
Manish ◽  
Alok Behera
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Regional Markets ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
Trade Promotion

This article aims to understand the evolving nature of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Central Asia. It examines how the BRI gives China an access to the abundant energy resources in Central Asia, alongside the trade connectivity, industry, infrastructure development, and expanding regional markets and facilitating regional cooperation, etc. While doing so, the article examines 261 small-and large-scale Chinese infrastructure projects in five Central Asian republics. As we understand, China’s BRI investments focus on rail and road connectivity projects, energy connectivity projects, trade promotion and industrial development, and people-to-people projects. This gives greater influence to China in the Central Asian region, thereby leading to a competition among the major powers such as Russia, the USA and India.

CENTRAL ASIA AS AN INTEGRATION PROJECT IN THE FACE OF UNCERTAINTY

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-53
Author(s):  
VALERY MIKHAYLENKO ◽  
◽  
RUSTAMI SUHROB
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Theoretical Substantiation ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Islamic Thought ◽  
The Face ◽  
Regional Order ◽  
State Of Research ◽  
Integration Project

Purpose of the study. The article examines the factors influencing the integration processes in Central Asia. The processes of substantiation, formation and institutionalization of Central Asia as a region are analyzed. A brief comparative analysis of the state of research in Russia and abroad of the processes of regional construction in Central Asia is given. To substantiate theoretical and methodological research tools, the authors turn to the theories of «old» and «new» regionalism, especially noting the heuristic potential of «non-Western» theories. The authors seek to justify the choice of integration models in the Central Asian region depending on the civilizational paradigm of regional actors. In this regard, the article analyzes the processes of the formation of the national identity of the Central Asian states. In connection with Kazakhstan's appeal to the Turkic origins of identity, the article draws attention to the foundations of the worldview in Turkish Islamic thought. The strengthening of China's role in infrastructure projects in the Central Asian states raises the question of the specifics of this state's global and regional policies. Russia relies on normative power in the region. The authors come to the conclusion that the main external and internal promoters of integration processes in Central Asia have different views on regionalism and different approaches to how the regional order should be organized. Conclusions. The authors share the point of view of A. Achariya, B. Buzan and J. Lawson that the global transformation of the system influences the formation of «non-Western» approaches to the theoretical substantiation of integration models and the practical design of integration projects. The experience of regional construction in Central Asia provides extensive empirical material for the theoretical understanding of «non-Western» regionalism and for politicians to take into account the specific features of regional construction and the implementation of integration projects.

Late Paleozoic oroclinal bending, arc amalgamation, and large-scale transcurrent tectonics in the western Central Asian Orogenic Belt: termination of accretionary orogenesis and initiation of aridification in Central Asia?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengfei Li
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Orogenic Belt ◽  
Central Asian Orogenic Belt ◽  
Late Paleozoic ◽  
International Partnership ◽  
The North ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Current Coordinate

<p>The western Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) underwent the prolonged accretion from Neoproterozoic to latest Paleozoic, and evolved into an intracontinental orogenic environment in the Mesozoic to Cenozoic, which was accompanied by significant changes of climatic environments. To constrain earlier accretion mechanisms and processes of the CAOB is fundamentally important given its control on the orogenic architecture and paleogeography, which inevitably affects the subsequent intracontinental orogeny. Here, I focus on the late Paleozoic tectonic reconstruction of the western CAOB with an aim to understand the role of oroclinal bending, arc amalgamation, and large-scale transcurrent tectonics in shaping the orogenic architecture of the western CAOB. My results show that the development of the U-shaped Kazakhstan Orocline in the western CAOB may have been controlled by the along-strike variation of the trench retreat, which was accompanied by the consumption of the Junggar Ocean in the core area of the orocline. The subsequent amalgamation of multiple arcs in the western CAOB may further amplify the oroclinal structure, and I emphasize that the orogen-parallel extension plays a significant role in arc amalgamation of the western CAOB. In the Permian, the large scale of strike-slip faults characterized the western CAOB with sinistral shearing in the north (Chinese Altai) and dextral kinematics in the south (Tianshan), which together indicates the eastward migration of orogenic materials (current coordinate). Following the termination of accretionary orogeny, the western CAOB was in an intracontinental environment with relatively arid climate in the early to middle Triassic as indicated by the widespread occurrence of red beds, which may mark the initiation of aridification in Central Asia.</p><p>Acknowledgements: this study was financially supported by the Hong Kong Research Grant Council (HKU17302317), the international partnership program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (132744KYSB20200001), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0601205), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41872222) and a project from Guangdong Province (2019QN01H101).</p>

scholarly journals Terrorist Threat in the Former Soviet Union in the Face of ISIL’s Defeat in Iraq and Syria

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 687-705
Author(s):  
Nuradin U. Khanaliyev
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Terrorist Organizations ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Adequate Coverage ◽  
Terrorist Acts

The article attempts to identify how methods, strategies and primary activities of Islamist extremist and terrorist organizations have recently evolved. According to the author, this subject has not received adequate coverage in Russian political science. The author uses ISIL as an example of such groups and seeks to prove his thesis, according to which, after being defeated in Iraq and Syria, the organization was forced to search for areas of refuge in order to survive and carry on its terrorist activities. As was expected, ISIL chose Afghanistan as their hideout territory with the purpose of launching terrorist acts against Russia and the countries of Central Asia. For this purpose, the so-called “Caliphate”, or “Vilayet Khorasan”, was created: a branch of ISIL, which operates on the territories of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, as well as in Central Asia. The article also highlights the similarities between the Central Asian states and the Russian Federation as potential targets of terrorist attacks. After analyzing the main ideological and political guidelines and practical actions of ISIL, as well as several other terrorist groups, the author comes to the conclusion that the organizations in question have been experiencing crisis, but, at the same time, are characterized by vitality, especially with regard to ideology and religious values.

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