Paradox of Power

John Heathershaw (Editor) John Heathershaw is associate professor of international relations at the University of Exeter, UK. He has served on the board of the Central Eurasian Studies Society and the European Society for Central Asian Studies. He is the author of Post-Conflict Tajikistan: The Politics of Peacebuilding and the Emergence of Legitimate Order and coauthor of Dictators without Borders: Power and Money in Central Asia.Edward Schatz (Editor) Edward Schatz is associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto, where he is also director of its Central Asia Program. A former president of the Central Eurasian Studies Society, he is the editor of Political Ethnography: What Immersion Contributes to the Study of Power and the author of Modern Clan Politics: The Power of “Blood” in Kazakhstan and Beyond.

An impressive collection, providing fresh, original analysis. This volume presents a solid mix of common themes and individual, compelling chapters, and fascinating topics. Heathershaw and Schatz wrestle with an important concept—the strong-weak state distinction and offer a conceptual set of alternative roles and dynamics that they observe states playing in the post-Soviet space. It will become a standard source on the topic of the state in Eurasia.