Khorasan, "Lands of the East", refers to the northeastern region of Iran. In the early Islamic period, the term "Khorasan" came to be used for a much larger area, reaching into Central Asia well beyond the Oxus river, encompassing large parts of northern Afghanistan, and even ex…
The collapse of the Soviet Union left countries of Central Asia to experience political confrontations over territory and water rights. Additionally, independence of Central Asian countries resulted in the change of control systems, including transboundary rivers of the region. …
The study opens with a discussion of texts by “outsiders” who positioned Turkmenia as a space worthy of exploration between 1921 and 1927. Chapter One examines two essay collections by the Eurasianists— Iskhod k vostoku. Predchuvstviia i sversheniia. Utverzhdenie evraziitsev( Ex…
This dissertation is concerned with the hydrological responses of the upper Amu Darya basin in Central Asia to climatic warming, and the management implications of those responses. The Amu Darya is an important river in three respects: environmentally, as one of the main water s…
The problem. The purpose of this study was to examine characteristics of and intercultural relationships among major cultural groups in formerly Soviet Central Asia, culturally integrating and differentiating processes in the context of the Soviet Union's breakup and possible co…
The central focus of this dissertation is an examination of the new regional character of the five post-Soviet Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In the first three post-Soviet years, 1992-1994, the five states gradually …
The opening of the oil-rich Caspian Sea region after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, presents major opportunities for the future development of world energy supplies. Development of mineral resources in the Caspian will also strengthen the economies of the three new…
The development of Turkmen piano music is unique and has not been widely studied outside of Turkmenistan. This paper will concentrate on some formal and modal materials of traditional Turkmen instrumental music and its impact on Turkmen piano music. The specific focus of the pap…
This thesis concerns the development of the Bactrian-Margiana Archaeological Complex (the BMAC), a late Bronze Age culture (ca. 2000 BC) in the desert oases of Central Asia. The results of collaborative Soviet-American excavations at one of the oasis sites, Gonur depe in Turkmen…
The scope of this study is limited to the following former Soviet republics: Azerbaijan, Kazakstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. These were the least developed and most peripheral of the Soviet Socialist Republics in the USSR. The current interes…
With the end of the Cold War the United States became the sole superpower. When confronted with such a situation a hegemon has historically chosen to transform the system. U.S. administrations have chosen this option by pursuing a policy of “enlargement.” By supporting the devel…
In recent years, historians have argued that the Soviet Union was a “maker of nations.” The Soviet state fostered incipient nation-statehood among its non-Russian minorities through the establishment of national territories, the promotion of native elites and languages, and the …
This dissertation makes three related theoretical points. First, transitology—the theory that all former Soviet states are now constructing new institutions based upon Western models of market economies and democracies—is theoretically and empirically flawed. Instead, a post-col…
This dissertation investigates the relationship between the Sariq Turkmens, a semi-nomadic tribe occupying the Merv oasis in southern Turkmenistan in tile first half of the nineteenth century, and the Khanate of Khiva, a sedentary Uzbek state centered in Khorezm. The research is…
This dissertation examines how the nature of state break-up affects the simultaneous processes of regional cooperation and state formation in transitional settings. By situating state formation within the context of the international system, I develop a model to integrate domest…
The five Central Asian states, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, have already experienced one regime change as they moved from Soviet to post-Soviet systems, and it is unlikely that this will be the only change to occur. Because democracy has trium…
This dissertation addresses two interrelated topics: interpretation of data obtained by a broadband phased three-component seismic array and development of new techniques to process and visualize these data. First, I present two techniques I developed for interactive, three-dime…