scholarly journals “Islamic State of Khorasan Province” – A Threat to the Central Asian Region

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 169-175
Author(s):  
Vladimir N. Plastun
Keyword(s):  
Public Institutions ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Islamic Movement ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Alternative State ◽  
Northern Regions ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Central Asian Countries ◽  
Eastern Turkestan ◽  
Intentions To Return

Over the past several years, there has been an influx of immigrants from Central Asian states into the ranks of “Islamic State” (IS) militants in Syria and Iraq. Those who survived after the defeat of the main detachments of terrorists on their return cannot escape the territory of Afghanistan, the northern regions of which are inhabited by related ethnic groups. It is easy to find supporters of radical Islam in Central Asian countries. The weakness of state and public institutions contributes to the politicization of Islam, especially in the periphery. Islamist preachers, skillfully using the mistakes of local authorities, call for the creation of alternative state structures. Most of the former IS fighters do not hide their intentions to return home. They can gain support in the border provinces of Afghanistan, among their comrades-in-arms in the war, and also join some of the Taliban groups. The planned withdrawal of American troops and their allies from Afghanistan does not yet imply the coming of peace in the region. Therefore, among the main threats to the security of the region are the activities of transnational terrorist groups such as “The Islamic State of Khorasan Province”, “The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan” and “The Islamic Movement of Eastern Turkestan”.

ISAF WITHDRAWAL AND AN UPSURGE OF RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM IN AFGHANISTAN

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 112-124
Author(s):  
Dinara Aytzhanova ◽  
Daniyar Aytzhanov
Keyword(s):  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
White House ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Religious Extremism ◽  
Central Asian Countries ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
International Security Assistance Force

An upsurge of religious extremism and terrorism in Afghanistan that followed the 2014 withdrawal of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed the pessimistic forecasts for the country’s future: a far greater number of terrorist attacks and their victims among non-combatants across the country was the most obvious repercussion. The civil war continued unabated, while the negative additional factors—the Taliban that had grown much stronger, as well as the activation of ISIS militants, who had come from Iraq and Syria to continue fighting—contributed to its further exacerbation. All sorts of extremist religious groups in Afghanistan consolidated their positions and even created an unwelcome possibility of their transit to the Central Asian countries. The authors have clearly demonstrated that there is a direct interdependence between the presence of ISAF under U.S. command and the degree of violence of the Taliban, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant—Khorasan Chapter, and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan operating in Afghanistan. They have also analyzed the impact of the statement made by the U.S. regarding the signed agreement with the Taliban that envisaged the removal of U.S. troops from the country in the next fourteen months and the release of Taliban prisoners. Since the Government of Afghanistan had been left in the cold, many doubted that the agreement would be fully realized any time soon. An analysis of the events that followed demonstrated that the Taliban would not stick to its part of the agreement, while the White House treated the document as an election promise (formally) fulfilled. There are enough extremist organizations (i.e., ISIS) that operate in the provinces and, free from obligations and in pursuit of their own aims, might interfere in the attempts to fulfill the agreement in its optimistic version. An assessment of certain processes suggests that the threats coming from ISIS are somewhat overestimated. The studies are based on the following methods: comparative analysis of relevant literature, statistical analysis of the dynamics of time series to identify the developing trends of terrorist activities of religious extremists in Afghanistan.

Central Asian Women as Agents of Political Violence in the Islamic State

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatyana Dronzina ◽  
Ilya Roubanis
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Controversial Subject ◽  
Humanitarian Operations ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Central Asian Countries

The investigation, charge, prosecution, and rehabilitation of female terrorists is a controversial subject because patriarchal values widely drive the context of jihadi violence. Thousands of women made their way from over 80 countries worldwide to the Islamic State realms in Syria and Iraq, with Central Asia accounting for 20 per cent of this migration. As the forces of ISIS were retreating – and even before – Central Asian countries were keen to repatriate women and children from Syria and Iraq. In contrast to Western Europe, public opinion was supportive of these humanitarian operations. This study is informed by the debriefing of approximately fifty of these women, in a context in which they have already faced the legal repercussions for “joining” the ranks of ISIS. The women interviewed hail from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan; it is clear women left an overwhelmingly patriarchal context to find a dehumanisingly misogynistic jihadi society. Their agency as second-class ISIS “citizens” needs to be systematically explored to inform effective counterterrorism strategy, be it profiling, legislation, preemptive intervention and rehabilitation policies.

scholarly journals The Problem of Self-identification of Russians in the 21st Century: Geopolitical and Regional Aspects

2021 ◽  
pp. 13-18
Author(s):  
N.A. Vasilyeva ◽  
S.N. Pogodin
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
The Self ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Northern Regions ◽  
Cultural Spaces ◽  
Central Asian Countries ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Sociological Studies ◽  
Economic Foundations ◽  
European Regional

The territorial changes that accompanied the process of the collapse of the USSR raised the question of the self-identification of Russians, since it was necessary to determine, both in the geopolitical coordinates of the new sovereign identity of the internationally recognized status of the Russian Federation, and in the regional coordinates of national and historical and cultural spaces. According to sociological studies, a trend has emerged in the self-identification of Russians as a civil nation, where ethnic and confessional identities are gradually fading into the background, giving way to the concept of statehood as a symbol of the unity of a multinational people. In this regard, it is logical to consider the processes of the formation of modern self-identification of Russians in the context of global regionalization, where Russia chooses the vector of development: West-East, North-South. The political and economic foundations for the European regional identification of Russians are clearly being lost, which is associated with the increased tension and obvious hostility in relations with the countries of Europe and with the West in general; well-founded fears of territorial and economic expansion of Asian neighbors (China, Japan) and multi-vector foreign policy of the Central Asian countries weaken the Eurasian regional identification tendencies. In this regard, there is a promising tendency for the northern / arctic self-identification of Russians, which, firstly, is historically associated with the emergence of Russian statehood in the northern regions, and secondly, reflects the important economic and political direction of the development of Russia in the 21st century.

Tajik Migrant Religious Poetry

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 169-177
Author(s):  
Tokhir S. Kalandarov
Keyword(s):  
Labor Migration ◽  
Personal Communication ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Religious Poetry ◽  
Labor Migrants ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Semantic Translation ◽  
Central Asian Countries ◽  
Political Songs

Today there are hundreds of papers published on the problem of labor migration from Central Asian countries, its political, social and economic aspects, as well as on the problem of integration and adaptation of migrants in the Russian society. However, the topic of migrant poetry is still poorly studied in Russia. At least there is no such research on Tajik labor migrants. The genres of Tajik migrant poetry vary significantly and include such forms as love poems, political songs, songs about migration hardships, religious poems. This paper is based on the results of monitoring social networks «Odnoklassniki», «Facebook», as well as on the results of personal communication and interviews with poets. In the paper we use the poems of three authors written in Tajik, Russian and Shugnani languages. The semantic translation from Tajik and Shugnani was done by the author of this paper

Problems of military-political interaction between the countries of the West and Central Asia at the turn of the XX–XXI centuries

2020 ◽  
pp. 27-33
Author(s):  
Boris G. Koybaev
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Bases ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The West ◽  
Regional Environment ◽  
Western Influence ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Political Interaction ◽  
The Military

Central Asia in recent history is a vast region with five Muslim States-new actors in modern international relations. The countries of Central Asia, having become sovereign States, at the turn of the XX–XXI centuries are trying to peaceful interaction not only with their underdeveloped neighbors, but also with the far-off prosperous West. At the same time, the United States and Western European countries, in their centrosilic ambitions, seek to increase their military and political presence in Central Asia and use the military bases of the region’s States as a springboard for supplying their troops during anti-terrorist and other operations. With the active support of the West, the Central Asian States were accepted as members of the United Nations. For monitoring and exerting diplomatic influence on the regional environment, the administration of the President of the Russian Federation H. W. Bush established U.S. embassies in all Central Asian States. Turkey, a NATO member and secular Islamic state, was used as a lever of indirect Western influence over Central Asian governments, and its model of successful development was presented as an example to follow.

New European Union strategy for Central Asia

2020 ◽  
pp. 72-79
Author(s):  
S. Gavrilova
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Economic Cooperation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Energy Potential ◽  
High Importance ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
New Strategy ◽  
Central Asian Countries

For several decades, the European Union has been steadily increasing its presence in Central Asian countries. The EU's interests in the region are due to a number of reasons, including the desire to expand its influence in the Central Asian countries, the high importance of the region as a transit corridor between Europe and China, the prospects for economic cooperation, and the importance of the region's energy potential. In May 2019 The European Union has presented a new Strategy for Central Asia, designed to intensify cooperation in a number of areas of interaction. The new strategy is aimed at both implementing these interests and expanding cooperation in a number of other areas.

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