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 …
Covering Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and, Tajikistan, these 12 essays (drawn from a 1998 conference sponsored by the Center for Civil Society International) explore the prospects of and dangers facing the growth of Western-style democracy in Central Asia. Reflecting a …
Nomads of the Eurasian steppes in the early Iron Age
Before Thesiger, T.E. Lawrence and Richard Burton, there was an even greater traveller in the heroic British tradition of the recklessly adventurous, amateur scholar Alexander Burnes. This slightly built, wiry young Scotsman, had a rapier-like mind, sharp, quick and decisive. Se…