Series:

Studies of Central Asia and the Caucasus

5 total works

Cover of Scholars' Guide to Washington, D.C. for Central Asian and Caucasus Studies
This handbook is designed to help researchers, journalists, students, and business people to locate the rich array of Washington institutions and organizations that focus on issues pertaining to Central Asia and the Caucasus region, particularly in the post-Soviet period. Washington's status as a major repository of documentation on every aspect of the region is strong and growing daily. Beyond the Library of Congress, which intensively collects newspapers and other published materials from the region, and the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, which does the same for radio, there are hundreds of national and international public, non-profit, and private organizations and institutions in Washington with extensive links to Central Asia and the Caucasus, all of which maintain active archives and collections. The Guide includes more than 270 entries. It describes the structure and scholarly and technical resources of libraries, archives and manuscript repositories, museums and galleries, collections of sound and visual recordings, map and film collections, and the holdings of research centers and information agencies. Academic programs and departments of the metropolitan area's many institutions of higher learning are covered, along with international organizations, U.S. and foreign government agencies, association and advocacy groups, scientific organizations, educational and cultural organizations, corporations, technical assistance organizations, religious organizations, publications and media operations, bookstores and online resources. An index of organizations and institutions enhances the Guide's usefulness.

Cover of Scholars' Guide to Humanities and Social Sciences in the Soviet Union and the Baltic States
In the years since the first edition of the "Guide" was published, the research institutions of the academies of sciences of the USSR and the republics have undergone several, sometimes radical, reorganizations and reaffiliations. This guide to academy institutions supplies names, addresses, and historical, research, and organizational profiles for each institution, with summary information on staffing, current projects, special facilities, and libraries. The end of the Cold War has brought with it many changes of attitude and policy in the political arena; however, nowhere has change been so emotionally charged as in the area of politically-based emigration. Refugee policy is the driving force behind many of today's headlines, influencing both foreign and domestic policy. In Desperate Crossings, authors Norman L. and Naomi Flink Zucker chronicle and analyze the phenomenon of mass escape that began with the Haitians, but exploded into the American consciousness in the spring of 1980 with the Mariel boatlift and the subsequent mass exodus from Central America, and was most recently manifested in the Haitian and Cuban exoduses of 1994. In a compelling and carefully documented narrative, they identify the troika of interests - foreign policy, domestic pressures, and costs - that have controlled and determined the American response to refugees since before the Second World War, continuing until today. Desperate Crossings concludes by proposing a comprehensive and politically palatable approach to future refugee flows, both in our hemisphere and for the world community-at-large - including Europe and Asia. The authors suggest how, by changing the course of its refugee policies and programs, the United States can better respond to both the needs of refugees and the demands of its citizens.

Cover of Xinjiang

Xinjiang

by S. Frederick Starr

Published 31 March 2004
Eastern Turkestan, now known as Xinjiang or the New Territory, makes up a sixth of China's land mass. Absorbed by the Qing in the 1880s and reconquered by Mao in 1949, this Turkic-Muslim region of China's remote northwest borders on formerly Soviet Central Asia, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Mongolia, and Tibet, Will Xinjiang participate in twenty-first century ascendancy, or will nascent Islamic radicalism in Xinjiang expand the orbit of instability in a dangerous part of the world? This comprehensive survey of contemporary Xinjiang is the result of a major collaborative research project begun in 1998. The authors have combined their fieldwork experience, linguistic skills, and disciplinary expertise to assemble the first multifaceted introduction to Xinjiang. The volume surveys the region's geography; its history of military and political subjugation to China; economic, social, and commercial conditions; demography, public health, and ecology; and patterns of adaption, resistance, opposition, and evolving identities.

Cover of Ferghana Valley

Ferghana Valley

by S. Frederick Starr

Published 1 January 2011

The Ferghana Valley can reasonably be said to lie in the heart of Central Asia. As such, the Valley has made an inordinate contribution to the history and culture of the region as a whole, as well as significantly affecting the economic, political and religious spheres. This book looks at the region over time, from its early history to the present. It embraces not just the obvious fields of politics, economics and religion, but also ethnography, sociology and culture, and includes the insights of leading scholars from all three Ferghana countries. The book discusses various questions of identity relating to the region, showing how the identity of the Ferghana Valley relates to the emerging national identities of the three post-colonial states that are still gradually emerging from the demise of the Soviet Union, as well as how an understanding of the Ferghana Valley is key to understanding Central Asia itself.

Cover of The Guns of August 2008
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.