XI. The 'Power of Water' in a Divided Central Asia

2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 593-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anatoly Krutov ◽  
Max Spoor
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Water Reservoir ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Hydroelectric Power ◽  
Ferghana Valley ◽  
Interethnic Conflict ◽  
Independent States ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Soviet Central Asia

AbstractIn the not-too-distant future, the former Soviet Central Asia could be confronted with resource-based conflicts or even, as some observers have suggested, with a "water war." Water is the scarce commodity in a region that is rich in oil, gas, and mineral resources. Most of the water comes from two rivers, the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya. These feed the Aral Sea, previously the fourth largest inland fresh (actually brackish) water reservoir in the world. These rivers and their tributaries, together, form the Aral Sea basin. Since the 1960s, the Aral Sea has shrunk rapidly in surface area and in volume of water, representing "one of the world's worst ecological disasters." Increased demand for water for irrigation and hydroelectric power by the competing newly independent states, both upstream and downstream, is a potential source of interstate and even interethnic conflict. The latter could occur in the densely populated Ferghana Valley, where various countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan share common borders.

scholarly journals Anthropogenic Influences on Environmental Changes of Lake Bosten, the Largest Inland Freshwater Lake in China

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 711 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Liu ◽  
Long Ma ◽  
Jilili Abuduwaili
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Lake Sediments ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Large Spatial Scale ◽  
The 1960S

A short lacustrine sediment core (41 cm) from Lake Bosten in arid central Asia was used to investigate the environmental changes that occurred in the past ≈150 years based on the superposition of climate and anthropogenic factors. Geochemical elements, total organic carbon (TOC) and nitrogen (TN), and stable isotope data (δ13Corg and δ15N) were used to identify abnormal environmental changes. The average C/N ratio in the sediments of Lake Bosten suggested that the organic matter in lake sediments was mainly from aquatic plants. The δ13Corg and δ15N in the lake sediments mainly reflect changes in the structure of the lake’s ecosystem. Before the 1960s, the primary productivity of the lake was relatively low with a relatively stable lake water environment. From the 1960s to the mid-1980s, the lake’s ecosystem was closely related to a significant decline in water levels caused by human activities and an increase in salinity. From the late 1980s to ≈2000, the aquatic plant structure of Lake Bosten did not change significantly. After 2000, the upper part of the sedimentary record suggested enhanced productivity due to urban and industrial development in the catchment area. However, sedimentary perspectives of the responses of different environmental proxies in sediments to human activities were anisochronous, and the increasing heavy metal (Pb and Cu) and P accumulations appeared in 1970, reflecting heightened human impacts. Through the comparison between the Aral Sea and Lake Bosten, it was inferred that, under the intervention of human activities, the lake experienced a completely different evolution trend. Humans, as geological agents, should protect our living environment while satisfying social development. The results will provide an important supplement to a large spatial scale study of the influences of human activities on the environment in Central Asia, which also has some significant implications for the protection of the ecological environment and the realization of sustainable development in arid regions.

scholarly journals A Great Game in Greater Central Asia

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 238-243
Author(s):  
M. H. Glantz
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Aral Sea Basin ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Great Game ◽  
Central Asian Republics

The region historically referred to as Soviet Central Asia includes the 5 Central Asian Republics (CARs) of the Former Soviet Union (FSU): Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Their political status changed drastically when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and they became independent republics. Since the early 1990s, Central Asian leaders have referred on occasion to neighboring Afghanistan as the sixth CAR. In fact, it does occupy 14% of the Aral Sea Basin and its mountains supply about 15% of streamflow to the region’s mighty Amu Darya River that used to flow into Central Asia’s Aral Sea.

Environmental Approaches to Soviet Central Asia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Biological Weapons ◽  
Soviet Regime ◽  
Cotton Production ◽  
Environmental Features ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Bodies Of Water

The vast region known as “Soviet Central Asia” encompassed the territory of five Soviet republics, Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Because of the region’s environmental features, particularly its aridity, historically there had been a close linkage between people and the environment in this region. But the Soviet regime set out to radically reshape this relationship, focusing on the fields of agriculture and animal husbandry, large-scale water engineering, nuclear and biological weapons testing, and medicine and public health. By focusing on the environmental impact of these policies, scholars can see how Moscow’s efforts brought many benefits to the region. Cotton production boomed, and Moscow declared the eradication of malaria. But they also left horrific scars. Josef Stalin’s program of agricultural collectivization devastated Kazakhstan, resulting in the death of more than 1.5 million people. The Aral Sea, once one of the world’s largest bodies of water, began to shrink dramatically during the Soviet era, a development due in large part to Moscow’s efforts to divert the waters that fed the sea to cotton production.

Between the state and the artist: Representations of femininity and masculinity in the formation of ideas of the nation in Central Asia

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana T. Kudaibergenova
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Femininity And Masculinity ◽  
Independent States ◽  
Official View ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Newly Independent States ◽  
Ideological Construction

After the Soviet collapse, the newly independent states of Central Asia found themselves in the process of forming their own national “imagined communities.” This was done to legitimize their existing territorial integrity, their rights to their titular ethnicities, and the position of political elites. This process expressed itself through the creation of particular symbols, myths, and rituals which distinguished the nation but were also used to legitimize the nation's right to exist. The symbolic and ideological construction was influenced by the former Soviet era. For example, symbolically the country was still called Rodina (motherland), but most of the symbols of power were represented by male images, for example, Amir Timur in Uzbekistan or Ablay Khan in Kazakhstan. The tradition of representing power through a male connotation had a long history in Soviet Central Asia. Interestingly, however, some contemporary artists took an alternative view and used feminine images as strong, central symbols of their interpretation of national identity, contesting the official view of nation-building. This paper seeks to trace the development of the feminine and masculine dichotomy of representation by comparing official iconography with works of famous female artists such as Umida Akhmedova from Uzbekistan and Saule Suleimenova and Almagul Menlibayeva from Kazakhstan.

scholarly journals Post-Soviet Central Asia in the Focus of Interests of Major Asian States (2019-2020)

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-99
Author(s):  
D. B. Malysheva
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Political Cooperation ◽  
Independent States ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
Economic Landscape ◽  
Soviet Central Asia

The study aims at identifying some areas of international political interaction between post-Soviet Central Asian states and the major economic powers of Asia -China, India and Japan. The task is to determine their interests in the Central Asian region with an emphasis on the political component. The current state of political cooperation between China, India, Japan and the countries of Central Asia is considered. Their joint efforts to solve the problems and threats facing the sustainable development of the region are characterized, while overcoming those problems occurs within the framework of the formation of both bilateral and multilateral relations. The dynamics of political and military interaction between China and its Central Asian partners is revealed. It is shown that the regional security sphere is directly linked by China with the problem of protecting its own economic interests in the countries undergoing its Belt and Road program, aimed at changing the economic landscape not only in Central Asia, but throughout Asia. India and Japan, whose positions have come closer against the background of rising China, has defined their own strategies for Central Asia. Politics of major Asian powers in post-Soviet Central Asia are analyzed through the prism of the emergence of a polycentric world in Asia. Its distinctive features are: the emergence of new regional “centers of power”; their confrontation along the line of Sino-Pakistani, Sino-Indian rivalries; involvement of external players (the U.S.) in regional processes. In this regard, attention is drawn to the activities of such a multilateral international structure as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), as well as to the development of alternative infrastructure projects and concepts - QUAD, Indo-Pacific, Blue Dot Network. The results of the study are formulated in the following conclusion: the countries of Central Asia and the major regional economic powers in Asia base their relations on the foundation of mutually beneficial interests and equal partnership of independent states.

The Veneration and Visitation of the Graves of Saints in Soviet Central Asia

2021 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-536
Author(s):  
Věra Exnerová
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Career Advancement ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Soviet System ◽  
Ferghana Valley ◽  
Recent Debate ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Soviet Central Asia

The article contributes to the development of a deeper understanding of the changes in the practice of venerating and visiting of the graves of saints in Central Asia during the Soviet period. For this purpose, the article explores the archival reports and oral histories from the region of the southern Ferghana Valley in Uzbekistan from the 1920s to the1980s. The article reveals that the broad “categories” often used to study the issues associated with the graves of saints and their visitation, such as the ideological conflict between communist politics and Islam, or the gap between normative and popular Islam, are largely insufficient when describing the practice during this period. The common “schemes” are blurred or interconnected – “believers” used the Soviet system to fulfil their goal of venerating the graves of saints, while the local authorities often helped to retain the practice, or eliminate it, as determined by the needs of their own career advancement. In addition, the process of hagiography continued under the new conditions, irrespective of the levels of education or the individual stances towards the state that existed among the different actors. For the most part, people learned how to combine both Soviet modernity and the veneration of the graves of saints in innovative ways. This analysis contributes to the innovative research process in relation to Islam in Soviet Central Asia. The article also seeks to contribute to the recent debate about the graves of saints and the gap between normative and popular Islam.

scholarly journals Political Processes in the Republics of post-Soviet Central Asia

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-52
Author(s):  
D. B. MALYSHEVA
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
Independent States ◽  
The Government ◽  
Soviet Central Asia

The article analyzes contemporary political processes in the newly  independent states of post-Soviet Central Asia. The peculiarities of  functioning of their centralized political systems, as well as the  interaction of the executive (the president and the government) and  the legislative (parliament) branches of power are considered in the  context of the authoritarian type of government that prevails in most  countries of the region. Attention is drawn to the use by the  ruling elites for the purposes of political mobilization of procedures  for electoral democracy (elections, etc.), which is mostly of a formal  nature. The place in the power structures of both officially  recognized political parties and opposition ones is defined, which are  divided mainly into secular and religious (Islamist). Informal political structures that function in a number of cases in the form of regional  communities, territorial or ethnic clans are considered in the article as a specific characteristic of Central Asian societies. Based on the analysis of the political process in the Central Asian countries, it  was concluded that the whole period of post-Soviet transit has come  to an end and that authoritarian but consolidated regimes of a new  type are emerging in the region; they form a sovereign statehood  and an independent foreign policy strategy.

Republics of Soviet Central Asia

1946 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. 169-172
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Steiger
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Soviet Central Asia
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