This book explores Central Asia’s relationship with Southeast Asia and ASEAN. It examines the “Southeast Asian vector” in the Central Asian countries’ mostly multi-vector foreign policies and the key dynamics that are transforming interregional relations into one of greater engagement. It argues that Central Asian states are interested in developing stronger ties with Southeast Asian countries, amongst others, as part of their hedging strategy in order to diversify their foreign economic relations and to lessen their overdependence on neighbouring great powers. It also looks at Central Asian views of ASEAN as a successful model of regionalism and as a hedging platform for Central Asian states to collectively manage relations with external powers.

This edited volume presents a trans-disciplinary and multifaceted assessment of the strategic and economic impacts of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on three regions, namely Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Eastern Europe. The contributions to this book demonstrate the requirement of a more realistic view concerning the anticipated economic benefits of the New Silk Road. The contributors critique the strategic effects of China’s opaque long-term grand strategy on the regional and global political order. Specific countries that are covered are Finland, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Poland, and Thailand. Additionally, case studies from South Asia and Africa, notably India and Ethiopia, enable insightful comparisons. Encouraging readers to critically challenge mainstream interpretations of the aims and impacts of the BRI, this book should interest academics and students from various disciplines including Political Science, International Relations, Political Geography, Sociology, Economics, International Development, and Chinese Studies.

Carter and Ehteshami consider the significant geopolitical, economic and security links between the Middle East and the wider Asian world - links which are often overlooked when the Middle East is considered in isolation or in terms of its relations with the West, but which are of growing importance. Topics covered include Asia's overall geostrategic realities and the Middle East's place within them; relations between the Middle East and China, Russia, central Asia, southeast Asia and south Asia; Islam in central Asia and southeast Asia and the connections with the Middle East; and the important links between the Middle East and India and Pakistan's military and security establishments.

This volume aims to shed light on the historical, political, cultural, and socio-economic development of Central Asia. Scholars from within and outside the area discuss a wide range of topics, covering historical processes and events on the one hand, and present developments of regional and global concern on the other. Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek is an assistant professor at the University of Vienna. Julia Katschnig teaches at the University of Applied Sciences for Business and Technics at Wieselburg, Austria.

Despite its geostrategic importance and its easier accessibility since the dissolvent of the Soviet Union, Central Asia has nevertheless remained a white spot on the map of western scholarship and public awareness. Bringing together papers presented at the VII ESCAS-Conference, this volume aims to shed light on the historical, political, cultural and socio-economic development of this region. Scholars from within and outside Central Asia discuss a wide range of topics, covering historical processes and events on the one hand and present developments of regional and global concern on the other.

This edited volume presents the results of a three-year comparative study on Chinese cultural diplomacy (CD) across Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, which contributes to the broader theoretical debate on China`s increasing soft power in international relations. The study, ‘China's Cultural Diplomacy and the Role of Non-State Actors’ was conducted by a research team at the Oriental Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic from 2015 to 2018. This book pays special attention to China’s localized forms of CD, focusing on the regional variations and involvement of non-state actors, especially local actors outside China. Local actors involved in Chinese CD diplomacy are characterized by their intermediary status as working for the aims of two states, while trying to bridge conflicts and enhance mutual understanding. This book will be of interest to scholars, diplomats, and China watchers.

This atlas brings together a wealth of information related to living and nonliving natural resources in the five countries of Central Asia---Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It contains an array of maps based on geographic information systems and remote sensing images, numerous photographs, tabulations of important data, and extensive descriptive text that together illustrate and describe the region's bountiful natural resources, its diversity of peoples, and their progress toward sustainable development. Highlights include geographic and climatic features; environmental, economic, and social profiles; energy, minerals, and water resources; ecoregions and ecosystems; major fauna and flora; agriculture and fisheries; peoples and cultural traditions; and economic and social statistics.

With renewed American involvement in Afghanistan, Pakistan's growing fragility, and China's rise in power in the post-Soviet space, Central Asia-South Asia relations have become central to understanding the future of the Eurasian continent. Mapping Central Asia identifies the trends, attitudes, and ideas that are key to structuring the Central Asia-South Asia axis in the coming decade. Structured in three parts, the book skillfully guides us through the importance of the historical links between the Indian sub-continent and Central Asia, the regional and global context in which the developing of closer relations between India and Central Asia has presented itself since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the precise domains of Indo-Central Asian cooperation, and studies three conflict zones that frame Indo-Central Asian relations: the Kashmir question; the situation in Afghanistan; and fear of destabilization in Xinjiang. The international line-up of established scholars convincingly demonstrate the fundamental necessity to define the Indian approach on these issues and provide cutting-edge insights on the tools needed to understand the solutions for the decade to come.

With the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, its fifteen constituent republics suddenly found themselves sovereign states. Among the new countries are the five republics of Central Asia - Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan - that comprise the region to the south of the great Russian heartland. Each of these countries now faces the task of creating its own foreign policy: with one another, with its former imperial ruler to the north, with the Islamic countries to the south, and with the West. In Central Asia and the World, eight experts on the region address the historic power struggles between east and west and north and south that have shaped the region and the prognosis for success in overcoming a turbulent past and an uncertain, divided present. In addition to its continuing strong ties to Russia, Central-Asia's links with its southern neighbors and the potential role of Islam are also examined. The authors advance the case that these countries are critical to the West insofar as they affect Western interests in Russia and the Middle East. The ongoing civil war in Tajikistan and Central Asia's relationship with China are also addressed. The first book to examine the complex issues facing the region Central Asia and the World provides a comprehensive overview of the developing foreign policies of these five new countries, including a look at the internal political, economic, and military issues confronting each country.

Ch. 1. Uncovering the "new" Central Asia : the dynamics of external agency in a turbulent region / Emilian Kavalski -- ch. 2. NATO's partnership with Central Asia : cooperation à la carte / Simon J. Smith and Emilian Kavalski -- ch. 3. The OSCE in the new Central Asia / Maria Raquel Freire -- ch. 4. The European Union's new Central Asian strategy / Ertan Efegil -- ch. 5. The United Nations and Central Asia / W. Andy Knight and Vandana Bhatia -- ch. 6. China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization : the dynamics of "new regionalism", "vassalization", and geopolitics in Central Asia / Michael Clarke -- ch. 7. Russia and Central Asia / Marlène Laruelle -- ch. 8. The United States and Central Asia / Matteo Fumagalli -- ch. 9. Turkey in Central Asia : Turkish identity as enabler or impediment / Brent E. Sasley -- ch. 10. Iran and Central Asia : the smart politics of prudent pragmatism / Pierre Pahlavi and Afshin Hojati -- ch. 11. India and Central Asia : the no influence of the "look north" policy / Emilian Kavalski -- ch. 12. Japan and Central Asia / David Walton -- ch. 13. The influence of external actors in Central Asia / Stephen Blank