Civil society in Central Asia

"Central Asia, home of Tamerlane and the Silk Road, is a crossroads of great cultures and civilizations. In 1991 five nations at the heart of the region - Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan - suddenly became independent from the USSR. Today they sit strategically between Russia, China, and Iran, holding some of the world's largest deposits of oil and natural gas. Long-suppressed ethnic identities are finding new expression in language, religion, the arts, international alignments - and occasional civil conflicts."--BOOK JACKET. "In the decades ahead, what kind of societies will the more than 50 million people living in Central Asia create? Single-party secular states, Islamic republics market democracies, something else?"--Jacket.

"Civil Society in Central Asia is a collection of essays by scholars and activists that illuminates the social and institutional forces shaping this important region's future. Are the foundations of a democratic order emerging? As the essays suggest, trends are contradictory and vary in each country."--Jacket.

Includes papers from a conference organized by the Center for Civil Society International and the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.

Civil society in Central Asia / S. Frederick Starr -- The legal regulation of NGOs: Central Asia at a crossroads / Scott Horton and Alla Kazakina -- Freedom of association and the question of its realization in Kazakhstan / Evgeny A. Zhovtis -- Government and nonprofit sector relations in the Kyrgyz Republic / Erkinbek Kasybekov -- Environmental NGOs and the development of civil society in Central Asia / Kate Watters -- Kolkhoz and civil society in the independent states of Central Asia / Olivier Roy -- Prospects for development of an independent media in Kazakhstan / Oleg Katsiev -- Can Uzbekistan build democracy and civil society? / Abdumannob Polat -- Civil society and identity in Uzbekistan: the emergent role of Islam / Reuel Hanks -- Islam and Tajikistan's human and ecological crisis / Aziz Niyazi -- Women's NGOs in Central Asia's evolving societies / Ula Ikramova and Kathryn McConnell -- The real work: sustaining NGO growth in Central Asia / Jay Cooper -- Organizations: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan -- Online resources: e-mail lists, web sites, Internet access centers in Central Asia.