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Vladimir Putin And Central Asia: The Shaping Of Russian Foreign Policy |
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reviewed by Melda Kutan |
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Author: Lena Jonson |
ISBN:
1854036282 |
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Publisher:
I.B Tauris |
Page:
304 |
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Type:
Hardcover |
Price:
$99.95 |
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Review: |
The book, titled Vladimir Putin and Central Asia: The Shaping of Russian Foreign Policy is written by Lena Jonson, a Swedish expert on Russia and Central Asian politics, mounts on a formidable task of analyzing of one of the most puzzling powers of our modern world and its transformation under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, one of the most interesting power figures in global politics. In her book, Jonson tries to provide reader with an insight on modern-day Russia in not only a political but also a cultural and historical complex in the scope of Central East. Jonson’s analysis of Central Asia and Russia extends back to the times of Russian Empire, to Tsar Alexander II’s conquest of Tashkent and traces the history of the region to as recent as Yeltsin and Putin eras. The political analysis in the book focuses on the polity changes shaped by two crucial events, the Chechen revolt of 1999 and 9/11. Jonson’s book, which attempts to understand Russia’s Central Asian policies and regional politics in light of the recent political issues, consists of four parts and eight chapters, also including numerous subchapters.
In the first chapter, Jonson starts with introducing and defining some of the terms and concepts which will prove critical in her later analyses. According to Jonson, what Russia is experiencing today is a policy revision forced by the events of 1999 and 2001, and Jonson argues that this transformation is comparable to the ones pioneered by figures like Gorbachev and Yeltsin. Forging Gorbachev and Yeltsin in a common pot, Jonson speculates that the revisions of Putin-era can be seen as a synthesis of all these elements. Defining the transformation of Russian foreign policy, Jonson incorporates the Central Asian element into the foreign policy paradigm. As Jonson notes, the Central Asian hinterland always had and still has a vital economic, political, and cultural significance for Russia. In the section of her book, she also provides the reader with an early insight on Central Asia and its meaning for the Russian policy.
As said above, Jonson’s book tries to provide a holistic political history of Russo-Central Asian politics and to duly fulfill this task; Jonson seems to have chosen to start from the very beginning, the origins of Russian influence in Central Asia. In Jonson’s view, the worsening economic conditions combined with the increased need to expand the hinterland for war efforts on the West had compelled the Russians to expand into Central Asia. The climax of this expansionist effort was the conquest of Tashkent, a hub of economic and political activity in the region. The conquest of Tashkent had also brought the Russian Empire into contact with the Bukhara Empire, whose diplomatic relations with the Russian Empire is explained in detail by Jonson. After chronicling the conquest of Central Asia, Jonson advances on to the second chapter of this part, jumping to the Yeltsin-era and explaining the loss of Central Asia, also providing an insightful panorama of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
After this contextual background, Jonson proceeds to current-day Russia and starts her analysis of modern Russian politics in Central Asia, which constitutes the third part of her book. Jonson argues that current Russian policies were highly affected by two crucial events, the Chechen invasion of Dagestan in 1999 and the 9/11 incidents. According to Jonson, the mounting Chechen threat had forced Russia to revise her regional policies, promoting cultural integration and strengthening its bonds with neighboring nations, especially the CIS. But, at the same time, it had prompted Russia to tighten her security policies and the combat against Chechen rebels. This security regime was further tightened in wake of the 9/11 incidents, compelling Russia to establish better relations with her neighbors and play a more pro-active role against terrorism in the region, especially with the Islamic CIS states. Together with this “multilateral security cooperation” regime in Central Asia, Russia had also intensified her fight with the Chechen rebels, capitalizing on the “radical Islamist threat” argument.
The third part of the book can be summarized as an “event-centered account of current Russian foreign policy”. The fourth part of the book also provides a structural analysis of Russian foreign policy in Central Asia and the factors shaping it. Jonson categorizes the factors shaping Russian foreign policy as domestic and region-specific, and provides detailed accounts of each of them. According to Jonson, the Chechen threat, the Russian bureaucratic structure, elite attitude and the established official doctrine greatly shape the Russian domestic policy. Together with these domestic factors, the regional dynamics of Central Asia, which Jonson lists as the secular-political, religious-political and ethno-national dimensions combine with Russian domestic dynamics and create the Russian policy.
The final part focuses on the future of Russian foreign policy in Central Asia. Together with the prolonged issues in Russian foreign policy, like the Chechen issue, Jonson also underlines Iraq as a considerable policy challenge for Russia and argues that the Russian policy in Iraq would also be affecting the Russian policy attitudes to a great extent. In conclusion, Jonson proposes that the policy window opened by the 9/11 inddents would be serving as an opportunity to improve Russo-American relations and that combined with Putin’s aspirations to further expand the Russian sphere of influence, would culminate in the birth of an even more active and influential Russia in Central Asia.
In general, Jonson’s book successfully achieves the difficult task of understanding and analyzing one of the most complex powers in the world and does it with a great empathy towards readers. For all these reasons, Jonson’s “Vladimir Putin and Central Asia: The Shaping of Russian Foreign Policy” can be seen as one of the most successful books of its type and provides a priceless insight for those interested in Russia and Russian politics.
Note: This book review was previously published in the Review of International Law and Politics. |
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about book: |
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President Vladimir Putin's consent after September 11th to the deployment of Western forces in Central Asia and to the US military's use of Central Asian airfields during the US-led operations in Afghanistan represented a dramatic turn in Russian Central Asian policy. How and why did Russian policy change? Was this in part due to Russia's decline in influence on the international arena? Lena Jonson examines Putin's policy from 1999 to 2004 towards Afghanistan and the four key states that surround it: Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan and examines how Russia dealt with both the new security challenges of the region and increased foreign engagement. |
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