An expert analysis of current U.S.-Russian relations as they play out in central Asia in the aftermath of the attacks of 9/11.
The attacks of 9/11 brought the United States the sympathy of nations around the world. But America’s aggressive response to those attacks has alienated many allies and has increased tensions with other countries, some where our relationships were already problematic. Nowhere more so is in Russia and Central Asia, where pre-and post-Cold War rivalries and large Muslim populations contribute to suspicions about the United States.
Rivalry in Eurasia: Russia, the United States, and the War on Terror looks at the increasingly stressful state of U.S.-Russian relations resulting from the prosecution of the war on terrorism, as well as positive and negative effects of the U.S.-Russian rivalry on the leadership in each of the five Central Asian republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
Rivalry in Eurasia begins by focusing on the key areas of contention between the United States and Russia in Central Asia, including American efforts to enlist help fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, U.S. support for democratization, and attempts by each side to exert control over the region’s vast energy reserves. The book then turns to the republics themselves to show how the Russian-U.S. rivalry is playing out in each one, including Russian diplomatic tactics aimed at protecting its “backyard” against slow but steady U.S. efforts to exert more influence in the region.
Features
• Six maps, one of the ex-Soviet Central Asian region and one map for each of the five countries where the Russian-American rivalry is occurring
• Bibliography of all works consulted by the author in writing the book
• Index of all names, places, situations, events, and developments covered in the book
• Five charts of statistical data on population, economy, population, religion, ethnicity for each of the five country-based chapters
Highlights
• Offers the first and only extensive analysis and appraisal of the impact of 9/11 on Russian-American relations in the Putin-Bush era
• Provides an in-depth examination of the political, ideological, economic, and strategic dimensions of U.S. policy toward each of the five ex-Soviet Central Asian republics over a critical eight-year period of U.S.-Russian relations
• Debunks the argument made by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice in 2008 that, “there is no rivalry between the United States and Russia” in the ex-Soviet republics of Central Asia
• Incorporates coverage of recent events such as the Russian War in Georgia and the closing of the American military base in Kyrgyzstan
Minton F. Goldman, Ph.D. is professor of political science at Northeastern University, Boston, MA. His published works include Praeger's Slovakia Since Independence: A Struggle for Democracy and Revolution and Change in Central and Eastern Europe: Political, Economic, and Social Challenges. Goldman was a U.S. Information Agency lecturer at the Serbian and Albanian parallel universities in Pristina, Kosovo in the former Republic of Serbia.
Reviews
"...contributes greatly to understanding the complex issues that impinge daily upon the region. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections."—Choice
"Goldman (political science, Northeastern U.) treats the U.S.-post- Soviet Russia relationship in the context of the Russian Federation’s former central Asia republics. His timely analysis explains how the 9/11 attacks heightened the tensions between the countries as Russia sought to maintain its sphere of influence in this region while cooperating in the mutual war on Islamist terrorism, and how China and Iran factor into the complex equation. Maps situate the countries discussed: Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Takikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan."—Reference & Research Book News
