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The 1916 revolt was a key event in the history of Central Asia, and of the Russian Empire in the First World War. This volume is the first comprehensive reassessment of its causes, course and consequences in English for over sixty years. It draws together a new generation of leading historians from North America, Japan, Europe, Russia and Central Asia, working with Russian archival sources, oral narratives, poetry and song in Kazakh and Kyrgyz. These illuminate in unprecedented detail the origins and causes of the revolt, and the immense human suffering which it entailed. They also situate the revolt in a global perspective as part of a chain of rebellions and disturbances that shook the world’s empires, as they crumbled under the pressures of total war.
11 India in Africa and Central Asia: part of the new “Great Game” India’s links with Africa are centuries old, bolstered by trade across the Indian Ocean and a million-strong diaspora across Africa. Shared colonial legacy and post-independence development experience has framed India’s relationship with Africa. India’s role as a champion of anti-colonialism and anti-racism after its independence in 1947 drew it closer to the African nations. India emerged as one of the most vocal critics of Apartheid in South Africa. New Delhi under its first prime minister
2504Chap6 7/4/03 12:40 pm Page 105 6 The geopolitics of Central Asian energy Jaewoo Choo This chapter assesses the rising geostrategic and geoeconomic importance of Central Asian oil and natural gas for China and the United States – the most transparent source of Sino-American conflict in this region. The initial rationale for Chinese engagement in Central Asia, despite the emergence of China as a net oil-importing nation in 1993, was not driven by the search for an alternative and secure source of oil and natural gas.1 Rather, Chinese policy reflected a
1 Why in Central Asia, why in 1916? The revolt as an interface of the Russian colonial crisis and the World War Tomohiko Uyama While a large number of researchers have studied the revolt of 1916 in Central Asia, they have not provided sufficient answers to two fundamental questions. Why did the uprisings take place almost exclusively in Central Asia, while the edict to mobilise labourers was issued also to indigenous peoples (inorodtsy) of other parts of the Russian Empire, namely Siberia, the Caucasus and Kalmykia? Why did it occur in the year of 1916, although
2504Chap5 7/4/03 12:40 pm Page 86 5 Transboundary water management and security in Central Asia1 Stuart Horsman Central Asia is subject to a number of major environmental concerns, including the desiccation of the Aral Sea, the depletion and degradation of river and irrigation waters, and the consequences of Soviet and Chinese nuclear weapons testing at Semipalatinsk and Lop Nor, respectively. Riverine water, particularly when linked with irrigated land, is perhaps the only one of these environmental issues that demonstrates a ‘probable linkage between
Turkey's involvement in the Gulf War in 1991 paved the way for the country's acceptance into the European Union. This book traces that process, and in the first part looks at Turkey's foreign policy in the 1990s, considering the ability of the country to withstand the repercussions of the fall of communism. It focuses on Turkey's achievement in halting and minimising the effects of the temporary devaluation in its strategic importance that resulted from the waning of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union; the skilful way in which Turkey avoided becoming embroiled in the ethnic upheavals in Central Asia, the Balkans and the Middle East; and the development of a continued policy of closer integration into the European and western worlds. Internal politics are the focus of the second part of the book, addressing the curbing of the Kurdish revolt, the economic gains made and the strengthening of civil society. The book goes on to analyse the prospects for Turkey in the twenty-first century, in the light of the possible integration into Europe, which may leave the country's leadership free to deal effectively with domestic issues.