Transformation of Central Asia

Pauline Jones Luong is Associate Professor of Political Science at Yale University. She is the author of Institutional Change and Political Continuity in Post-Soviet Central Asia: Power, Perceptions, and Pacts.

During the long period of communist control of Central Asia, this region was treated largely as a peripheral part of the Soviet Union. Consequently, despite its rich culture and historical achievements, the region received scant scholarly attention in the West. The downfall of the Soviet Union and the subsequent independence of the former Soviet republics elevated Central Asia from obscurity in the West, and the region has been catapulted... into the forefront of the 'war against terrorism.'... All chapters of this book are well informed and create a united whole.... Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.(Choice) Luong and her colleagues challenge basic assumptions said to have guided earlier studies of Central Asia: that the Soviet system only superficially penetrated traditional cultural norms and organizations, that Islam was a force waiting to be unleashed, and that the Central Asian republics were more colonies than an integral part of the Soviet Union. In a series of detailed essays examining the situation of women, the role of nongovernmental organizations, center-regional relations, and the place of culture and language, the contributors contend that the Soviet legacy looms large, regional divisions rather than clans or tribes define the political arena, leaders exploit rather than subscribe to pre-Soviet traditions, and Islam is tamed and localized.- Robert Levgold (Foreign Affairs)