Johan Engvall is a research fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI) and a nonresident research fellow of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program, a joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center affiliated with Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Washington, D.C. and the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP).

A superb study that fundamentally challenges our perception of the post-Soviet Central Asian state. Engvall's thesis is the most novel and convincing account of post-Soviet Kyrgyz state formation of the past decade.