This dissertation examines 20th-century Turkic Latinization, the process by which Turkic language reformers replaced the Perso-Arabic alphabet with the Latin-based New Turkish Alphabet, from a transnational perspective. Focusing on the Turkish and Soviet Azerbaijani cases, my wo…
This book explores the thirty-year border conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, specifically around the former autonomous republic of Nagorno Karabakh, and shows how Russia is the only winner in this conflict: fighting on both sides, supplying arms to both sides, and acting a…
Since 1988, the states of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been engaged in conflict over the enclave of Nagorno Karabakh. The conflict has developed into one of the most intractable and complicated disputes in the international arena, with the main parties being the two rivalling sov…
In the past twenty years, the countries that used to make up the former Soviet Union have seen plenty of change. There have been revolutions, youth-led protest movements, and other forms of incredible political upheaval. At the center of all of this were young leaders fighting t…
In the past twenty years, the countries that used to make up the former Soviet Union have seen plenty of change. There have been revolutions, youth-led protest movements, and other forms of incredible political upheaval. At the center of all of this were young leaders fighting t…
In the past twenty years, the countries that used to make up the former Soviet Union have seen plenty of change. There have been revolutions, youth-led protest movements, and other forms of incredible political upheaval. At the center of all of this were young leaders fighting t…
This paper investigates secessionist conflicts that occurred in Kazakhstan, Moldova, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Each of these states contains mature separatist movements, several of which have achieved the status of what can be called a semi-sovereign entity. All six separatist mo…
Azerbaijan, a landlocked post-Soviet country since its independence has been trying to utilize its energy resources in its foreign policy. With production-sharing agreements with Western oil companies beginning with the 1994 signing of the "Contract of the Century" and the const…
This dissertation is about the power of sound, how sound influences and is influenced by emotion, how emotion influences national politics, and how those politics spill over into international and intercultural relations. Specifically, it is about a shared double-reed musical in…
This dissertation is a description of Xinaliq, a Northeast (Nakh-Daghestanian) Caucasian language spoken primarily in the village also called Xinaliq, which lies at an elevation of 7,000 feet in the Kuba district of Azerbaijan, near the border with Daghestan. Currently there are…