Uzbekistan and the United States

Shahram Akbarzadeh is a senior lecturer in global politics at the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, Australia. He has researched and published on Central Asia affairs for a decade. Akbarzadeh co-authored the Historical Dictionary of Tajikistan (2002) and co-edited Muslim Communities in Australia (2001) and Islam and Political Legitimacy (2003).

• Foreword by Yaacov Ro'i1. From Soviet to post-Soviet authoritarianism2. Islamic challenge3. Tashkent's foreign policy decisions4. Uzbekistan and the United States: A difficult relationship5. September 11 and the 'war on terror'6. Human rights and democracy7. Prospects for authoritarian withdrawalAppendixes

'The more or less great games of Central Asia on occasion produce strange alliances. One of the stranger marriages of convenience is the match between Uzbekistan and the US. Shahram Akbarzadeh reviews its evolution, motives, strengths and pitfalls succinctly in this neat, well-researched and timely monograph. The book usefully contains documents which are difficult to obtain elsewhere.'Europe-Asia Studies'Akbarzadeh's articulative book is a timely contribution to the study of Central Asia in that it provides a definitive account of the sociopolitical developments.'Mehmet Kalyoncu, Center for Eurasian, Russia, and East European Studies, Georgetown University'Akbarzadeh is careful in his use of ... sources, and few scholars or policy makers will quarrel with his overall conclusions about the nature of Karimov's regime and the overall shape of US and Uzbek foreign policy ... [a] concise and well written account.'The International History Review