The New Central Asia the Creation of Nations
- List Price: $70.00
- Binding: Hardcover
- Publisher: New York Univ Pr
- Publish date: 12/01/2000
How were these new nations built, among peoples without any traditional nationalist heritage and no history of independent governance? Olivier Roy argues that Soviet practice had always been to build on local institutions and promote local elites, and that Soviet administration -- as opposed to Soviet rhetoric -- was always surprisingly decentralized in the far-flung corners of the empire. Thus, with home-grown political leaders and administrative institutions, national identities in central Asia emerged almost by stealth.
Roy's analysis of the new states in central Asia -- Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tadjikstan, Kirghizstan and Azerbaijan -- provides a glimpse of the future of an increasingly fragmented and dangerous region.
