The Central Asia-Afghanistan Relationship : From Soviet Intervention to the Silk Road Initiatives.

Cover -- The Central Asia- Afghanistan Relationship -- The Central Asia- Afghanistan Relationship -- Contents -- Introduction -- Notes -- Part I -- The Legacy of the Soviet Intervention -- Chapter 1 -- Central Asian Soldiers and the Soviet War in Afghanistan -- War and the Making of Soviet Identity -- The Context of Intervention -- The Performance of Central Asians -- VETERANS as a Group -- The Interviews -- Notes -- Chapter 2 -- An Oral History of the Soviet-Afghan War -- Note -- Part II -- Afghanistan 's Nort hern Neighbors: Perceptions and Chalenges -- Chapter 3 -- Afghanistan's Multicentered Regional Foreign Policy -- Policies toward Pakistan -- Policies toward India -- Policies toward Iran -- Policies toward China -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Chapter 4 -- Russia's Policy on Afghanistan -- Russia's Main Concerns: Regional Security and Narcotics -- Threat of Spillover of Militancy and Extremism and the ISIS Factor -- The Afghan Narcotics Challenge -- Russia's Strategy and Approaches to the Afghan Problem -- Russia's Security and Counter-Narcotics Response -- Russia, the Political Transition, and the Peace Process in Afghanistan -- Russia and Reconstruction and Development in Afghanistan -- Conclusions -- Notes -- Chapter 5 -- Assessing Uzbekistan's and Tajikistan's Afghan Policies -- Uzbek and Tajik Afghan Policies and Their Decision-Making Mechanisms -- Uzbekistan's Centralized Afghan Policy -- Tajikistan's Multifaceted Afghan Policy -- Transactional Policies -- Afghanistan as a Miror of Regimes' Anxieties: The "Islamist Threat" Narative -- The Mistakenly Formulated "Islamist Threat" -- Uzbekistan's Risk of Spillovers -- Tajikistan's Risk of Spillovers -- Relevance and Limits of the "Proxy" Angle -- Knowledge Production and Localy Produced Scenarios -- Tightly Controlled Uzbek Knowledge Production.

Tajik Knowledge Production: Afghanology as Self-Projection -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Chapter 6 -- Insurgent Activities at the Afghan- Turkmen and Afghan-Tajik Borders -- Pakistan's Military Operations in North Waziristan -- Northeast Provinces -- Northwest Afghanistan -- Tajikistan's Reaction and Positioning -- Turkmenistan's Reaction and Positioning -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Part III -- The Silk Road Initiati ve as a US Project for Central Asia and Afghanistan -- Chapter 7 -- Parsing Mobilities in Central Eurasia -- Mobilities, Transborder Linkages, and the Global Economy -- New Silk Road Strategies and the Relativity of Mobility -- The West's New Silk Road Strategies -- The West and Central Eurasia's Border Management -- Perceptions of the West's New Silk Road Initiative -- China's New Silk Road Initiative -- Russia's Perspective on Mobilities in Central Eurasia -- Russia's Soft Power Parsing of Mobilities -- Central Asian States -- Kazakhstan -- Kyrgyz Republic -- Tajikistan -- Turkmenistan -- Uzbekistan -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Chapter 8 -- The US Silk Road -- Non-US Vision of the Silk Road: Competing Imaginations and Interests -- Origins and Framing of the US "New Silk Road" -- The US Silk Road: An Elusive Geopolitical Construct -- Policy Criticisms -- Conflating the NDN and the Silk Road -- Missing Pieces of the Puzzle -- A Flawed Historical Metaphor -- Geopoliticizing US Involvement -- Conclusions -- Notes -- Chapter 9 -- The New Silk Road Initiative's Questionable Economic Rationality -- Between Established Commercial Flows and Rival Projects: PROSPECTS FOR the New Silk Road Initiative in Central Asia Regional Tra -- The Secondary, but Not Insignificant, Roles of Iran and Turkey -- Prospects and Limits of Trade Exchanges between Central Asia and South Asia -- The New Silk Road Initiative: Stakes and Limits of Economic Rationality.

A Route on a Map or a Road Rehabilitation Does Not Create Traffic and Trade Automatically -- Lack of Regional Cooperation and Governance Issues -- Past Experiments as Lessons for the Future? -- "Distance as an Essential Criterion": A Historical-Economic Misinterpretation? -- Conclusion: A Way Forward for Aid for Trade in Central Asia? -- Notes -- List of Acronyms -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Editor and Contributors -- Editor -- Contributors.

This collection provides a broad analysis of Afghanistan and its neighbors in recent decades and investigates the various historical and political contexts into which the region has been placed. It examines the legacy of Soviet intervention, patterns of cooperation and conflict among regional states, and recent US strategic initiatives.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.