Title: Central Eurasia : prize or quicksand? : contending views of instability in Karabakh, Ferghana and Afghanistan /
Authors: Weisbrode, Kenneth.; International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Publisher: Oxford University Press for the International Institute for Strategic Studies,
Year: 2001
Subjects: Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, 1988-1994.; Civil war Afghanistan.; Ethnic conflict Uzbekistan Farghona.; Political stability Asia, Central.; Social conflict Asia, Central.; Social conflict Caucasus.; Political stability Caucasus.; Conflict management Asia, Central.; Conflict management Caucasus.; Intervention (International law); Petroleum industry and trade Asia, Central.; Petroleum industry and trade Caucasus.; Ethnic conflict Fergana Valley.; Farghona (Uzbekistan) Politics and government.; Afghanistan Politics and government; Afghanistan Politics and government; Asia, Central Strategic aspects.; Caucasus Strategic aspects.; Geopolitics Caucasus.; Geopolitics Asia, Central.; Fergana Valley Politics and government; Afghanistan Politics and government
Abstract: "A decade after the demise of the Soviet Union, the newly independent states to Russia's south remain poor and remote from the developed world. Living standards have fallen throughout the region, while the energy wealth envisioned in the mid-1990s never materialised. Most governments have grown more corrupt and less stable. Responsibility for this state of affairs rests partly on an exaggerated and misplaced view, particularly popular among influential Western analysts, that the region is a natural, or even desirable, setting for imperial conflict. This view has skewed the policies of local actors away from much needed cooperation with one another and with more powerful neighbours. The major powers with interests in Central Eurasia - particularly the US - need to re-examine their fundamental assumptions about the region and what they want from it. Until they do, neither peace nor development will be possible and conditions will only deteriorate."--Jacket.